Edward DeGagne wrote:
Going to have to completely disagree with you Senor.
I've been using DNN for almost 10 years now, and I can tell you from experience that there are plenty of "good" modules out there for DNN, even a few "great" ones too.
But as in the case of almost everything else, there is also a lot of crap as well.
If you haven't used a "good" module yet, then you're not looking hard enough or don't have any site requirements that are beyond the scope of the "core" or sponsored modules.
So, what are the great modules? Other than the usual suspects?
In my opinion, the problem with most DNN modules sold at Snow Covered is that they are overly complex to use and administer for the end users and administrators. They also often lack flexible templating options or are plain outdated considering the current state of the web (tables with inline styles etc.). Many modules are simply broken or buggy. I mean look at a module like CatALook. How could anyone work with this?
This is especially glaring when one compares DNN to other content management systems such as Drupal, typo3, expression engine, sitecore, umbraco, orchard and so on. Many modules would be rendered useless if DNN had a flexible content type API and media system similar to Drupal or SharePoint. You don't need a slider / news / gallery / etc. module if you can set up flexible content types that can be related to each other.
My opinion does not just come from experience with DNN (of which I have plenty), but also from working with other content management systems, contributing to them, and web application frameworks in general (from django to symphony to rails). Compared to other open source projects, the knowledge gap is astounding. Yeah, other projects also have "crap modules", but I'd say it's a fair assessment to say that overall, the quality of extensions is higher. It's only natural, they have a larger, more active and more open community capable of attracting great minds. I mean, this is a problem with .NET in general, WebForms in a more narrow sense and DNN in particular.