Addons categories

As part of the update process of the site - I'm currently working with MrTheme in regards to removing some the tangle the module categories are in.

Currently the list is as follows:

Modules
-System utilities
--Database management
--Files management
--Logging and security
--Multi-language
--Search tools
--Statistics
-Messaging
--Chat
---Newsletters
--IMgateways
--Mail gateways
-Miscellaneous
--Contact forms
--Blocks
--Fun and games
-Archive Modules
--Unsortedmodules
--Misc Smart Modules
--Older versions
-Communities
--Forums
--Gaming
--Guestbooks
--Polls
--Social networking
-Content management
--Articles
--Downloads
--Image galleries
--Medialibraries
--Wiki
--Weblinks
-Development tools
-E-commerce
--Advertisements
-Groupware
--Address books
--Calendars
--Projects management
--Support tools
-Syndication
--RSS
--Specific sites
Quickstart Packs
Documentation
Editors
Libraries
Themes
-Animals Themes
-Anime Themes
-Corporate Themes
-Entertaiment Themes
-Gaming Themes
-Nature Themes
-Occasions Themes
-Sports Themes
-Misc Themes
Templates
Languages
-Languages(Core)
--Brazilian Portuguese
--German
--Persian
--French
--Spanish
--Croatian
--Dutch
--Italian
-Languages(Module)
--Polski(Polish)
--Nederlands(Dutch)
--Bulgarian
--Euskara
--Greek
--Japanese
--Kroatian(Hrvatski)
--Române_te(Romanian)
--Russian
--Solvene
--Arabic
--Dansk(Danish)
--Deutsch(German)
--Español(Spanish)
--Persian
--Français(French)
--Italiano(Italian)
--Português(Portugese)
--ZhMngwén(Chinese)
--Swedish
Miscellaneous
-Desktop Wallpapers
-Toolbars
-Screensavers

What I've suggested is to drop all the third level sections - so the list will be as follows:

Modules
-System utilities
-Messaging
-Miscellaneous
-Archive Modules
-Communities
-Content management
-Development tools
-E-commerce
-Groupware
-Syndication
Quickstart Packs
Documentation
Editors
Libraries
Themes
-Animals Themes
-Anime Themes
-Corporate Themes
-Entertaiment Themes
-Gaming Themes
-Nature Themes
-Occasions Themes
-Sports Themes
-Misc Themes
Templates
Languages
-Languages(Core)
--Brazilian Portuguese
--German
--Persian
--French
--Spanish
--Croatian
--Dutch
--Italian
-Languages(Module)
--Polski(Polish)
--Nederlands(Dutch)
--Bulgarian
--Euskara
--Greek
--Japanese
--Kroatian(Hrvatski)
--Române_te(Romanian)
--Russian
--Solvene
--Arabic
--Dansk(Danish)
--Deutsch(German)
--Español(Spanish)
--Persian
--Français(French)
--Italiano(Italian)
--Português(Portugese)
--ZhMngwén(Chinese)
--Swedish
Miscellaneous
-Desktop Wallpapers
-Toolbars
-Screensavers

It should make the navigation easier for users and for people submitting content to the site.

(The odd encoding is also being fixed of course! )

Modules
-Community
-Content management
-Syndication
-Utilities
-Quickstart Packs
-Archive (weight this at the bottom)

Extensions
-Editors
-Libraries

Interace
-Themes
-Templates

Languages
-Core
-Modules

Other Addons
-Desktop Wallpapers
-Toolbars
-Screensavers
-Documentation

Let us not forget that we have the alphabetical filtering users will be able to filter results in categories down without havig 300 subcats.

The less categories the better. We can always split categories later if needed.

By the way, has the addons search been fixed lately ? Last time I check it was not working very well..

I am hoping 1.2 (and having less categories) fixes that.

Agree: less categories.
When I submitted a lot of modules to the addons site, the idea was: easy finding modules because sometimes was very difficult search a module and Xoops never had a decent module repository.
We need look forward now: pay special attentions for less modules but more deeply (for example: linking in addons site bug fix or improvements published in our forums)
And 1.2 compatible as main tag.

Suggestions for more precise grouping and serach. Suggestions in (())

MrTheme wrote:
Modules
-Community ((forums & social))
-Content management ((combined group: pictures, text & blog))
-Utilities (([large group, many small] split into 2 #building and # admin utils.))


Is it really "pictural" grouping of themes the best? I would suggest...

# soft and sweet
# happy colors
# creative artistic
# modest pro style
# sharp and technical

/justa...

Would it be possible to add an addon to several categories? For example, a module could be providing a new editor, and at the same time have functionality for content management?

Also, most systems keep themes and modules/plugins separated. People search for those two things with different expectations :modules need to describe functionality (text), themes need to show layouts (images).

It might be an idea to start thinking of taking the themes out of the addons site.

@justa

Consider an end user for a moment.

Every subcategory that we create is another area in which they will need to traverse.

So Let us discuss themes

Categorization of themes is a shot in the dark at best - currently they are categorized in such categories as "Animals" which really has more to do with the designers choice in a header image than anything.

Anywho - every time we create a subcategory that is whole new paginated group of unrelated themes that a user must try and traverse to see them all - as well as the 7 other categories with pagination and the themes that didn't manage to find themselves in a category with pagination.

I stand to argue that a user would much rather come to a site - see the category "Interface" - go into the single subcategory "Themes" and see right off the bat that there are 7 pages of themes... that is all they are committed to seeing - 7 pages. Not 7 pages with an additional 6 pages while waiting for the subcategory pages to load.

Which is why I am suggesting that the themes are not put into subcategories at all.

There will be the search function - which will be working if I have to sit at my computer and recieve them all and go find them for the users - as well as the alphabetical filter, date filter, and all tthat for users who know what they are looking for.

Considering themes, I think the way they solved that with Wordpress is quite nice. You can make selections of several requirements for your theme (number of columns, color scheme, with or without javascript, etc...) and then you get the results.

Something like that might come in handy once we have much more themes available. But let's think about that after 1.8