[izprtxqkft]

It would be nice if Kodi were able to do an anonymous popcon like debian for addons where it can track and show installed addons.

Utilizing anonymous data from the webserver it can count downloads of a specific addon within the Kodi addon repo.
Developers could opt in to share their own anonymous data from their repos.
Users could opt to review addons on a web page as a "community driven" project to improve the Kodi ecosystem.

The goal here would be to give users an idea of an addon's usefulness, functionality and broken state prior to spending a whole lot of time trying to make it work.

Examples of broken addons would include
Tubed addon which is and has been broken for some time.
Amazon Prime Video addon which has been also been broken for some time.
Netflix addon has recently stopped working and development has halted until a solution can be found.
YouTube is hit or miss.

First and foremost would be the Anonymous nature of it, if users do share their experience with an addon with a review allow them to do so anonymously.

Just an idea I had seeing the myriad of posts where users are trying to use skins and addons which ceased development (for a considerable period of time) and no longer work.

This could also bring light to projects that have fallen by the wayside that perhaps other people would like to resume work on.

[otinley]

Great idea!
Feel free to get started.

When you are at the test phase, I will be here.

[izprtxqkft]

Feel free to get started.

just piggybacks on existing system

example

https://kodi.tv/addons/omega/skin.ftv/


with reviews

[izprtxqkft]

allocating space for user-developed addons not in the kodi repo would be the "addition" to a review system

[PatK]

popcon like debian for addons

Ya lost me on that.

give users an idea of an addon's usefulness

One of the prime functionalities of the forum, but privacy concerns trumps all. I suggested at one point that ON introduction of a new Iteration of Kodi, that the forum should be wiped clean and to concentrate effort for support it's current stable version; of course that was shot down as if I was Pontus Pilot working for satan. As far as functionality of an add-on is concerned, what is important to one user isn't gong to be the same as another, but once certain add-ons become 'must haves' and developers see the need, the function is considered for inclusion of the base code or reflected in the skins as long as the author is agreeable. Frequent forum users know what works for them and what doesn't, suggest all users should be circumspect when it comes to code modification and overlays that go beyond the Kodi framework and utilize web/internet functionality. 

Keep in mind there has literally been thousands of add-ons over the span of the program, and at one point I tried to keep a list of what worked and what didn't, but only for my set-up. It became an exhausting task and more often the add-on in question did work for some with various degrees of success, or the functionality was so desirable that upgrades was secondary. Not a lot of developers will pay attention to legacy issues, the forum is their recourse as most develop for their personal interest when they have time.

When it comes to add-ons, we encourage outside overlays and support authors with their own threads (should conditions be met) As 3rd party developers support is at the level of sharing code that they deem useful at the time, with various degrees of sophistication with likely only one or two platforms at their disposal; they could produce code bombs. The Kodi repository should contain add-ons that have been vetted at the time of introduction, but the maintenance is up the author and over time we have lost many due to depreciation. We leave the decision to forum users to be the canary in the coal mine so-to-speak and post their issues in the target threads. I run as few add-on as I can; the haphazard support and delay can interrupt my enjoyment of function.

RE: your examples

Note: that when an add-on attempts to circumvent current restrictions (either monetary or data mining) using a base flaw in the target, the hole will get plugged and the add-on becomes deprecated. In worst cases, it includes copyright infringement and issues for anyone harbouring said code, and could lead to directly here. In the case of various commercial streams, it's quite obvious the targets want the click through and appreciation of their contractual advertisers and their proprietary interface.            

I'll agree with your stated goals, but anonymity is really not possible when it comes to the internet and then of course we would have to have volunteers to produce the code and protect everyone's privacy which in this day and age is wishful thinking. Developers do know downloads and do share logistics to the degree that makes sense, looking back into history of this community project and you will see many posts regarding this issue.

[izprtxqkft]

Keep in mind there has literally been thousands of add-ons over the span of the program, and at one point I tried to keep a list of what worked and what didn't, but only for my set-up. It became an exhausting task and more often the add-on in question did work for some with various degrees of success, or the functionality was so desirable that upgrades was secondary.

this is precisely why i am suggesting a review system, like when buying a product on Amazon you can browse reviews of an addon you are interacting with (or considering) to see what other users' experiences were with that same addon
since it's user-driven no 1 user has to track all addons and issues

an addon you can't get to work you would be able to see X amount of reviews
average user states it is a good working addon then you would consider you've done something wrong or it is your system
average user states it is broken then you can uninstall and move on
if all the reviews are from 4 years ago then you may expect it's deprecated

all before spending hours or coming to a support forum only to find that it is actually a broken addon

[DarrenHill]

allocating space for user-developed addons not in the kodi repo would be the "addition" to a review system

And where it will fall down, in relation to banned addons (wiki)...

[izprtxqkft]

And where it will fall down, in relation to banned addons (wiki)...

no more so than the addons allowed to host their support on the forum under the addons section https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=27

[DarrenHill]

Here we can monitor and deal with it, but doing so on another such site would require a suitable set-up, and also add yet more work to be done.
And unfortunately we're as short-staffed for forum mods/admins as we are everywhere else in the foundation at the moment.

[izprtxqkft]

Here we can monitor and deal with it, but doing so on another such site would require a suitable set-up, and also add yet more work to be done.
And unfortunately we're as short-staffed for forum mods/admins as we are everywhere else in the foundation at the moment.

understood

perhaps something more dramatic like was done with skins versioning would force out deprecated addons that produce threads like this one https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=379281
Tubed is broken no doubt but somehow migrated it's way to Omega and then there's still scrapers that put it's plugin url into the database

but all that has nothing to do with this thread, this thread was intended to find a way for users to self-discover broken addons when they have issues with them

thanks for everyone's time here to entertain my ideas

[izprtxqkft]

One of the prime functionalities of the forum, but privacy concerns trumps all. I suggested at one point that ON introduction of a new Iteration of Kodi, that the forum should be wiped clean and to concentrate effort for support it's current stable version; of course that was shot down as if I was Pontus Pilot working for satan.

in the time since reading this statement i have been weighing it and it's not such a bad idea
maybe the presentation could be altered to make it more agreeable?

it's very strange seeing replies to posts from 10+ years ago so maybe those could be locked, they regard versions of kodi that don't even exist any more and in most cases issues that don't exist either

there's also dead posts such as https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=363800 which never even gained traction and are now 3+ years old
(as an aside RD8 error is generated by real debrid so probably needs to disappear any way)

so, maybe, a complete wipe wasn't an option but a partial clean could be

[PatK]

There has been considerable efforts in the past to clean-up the forum, but in this regard there is limited manpower used to re-read, make determinations for pruning etc.. Archiving seems more acceptable and as time passes, old forum messages will end up encapsulated unless there is requests. Maintaining the forum is a daunting task, handled by a few dedicated volunteers and it's always nice to postulate on what can be done, but I guarantee you that forum staff are doing their best, given circumstances.     

Given the open nature of the software, (at least this is the argument) at anytime someone might pick-up some add-on and bring it back to life, or add functionality. Having posts regarding the target can be useful, enveloping most users concerns and given feed back and is the prime reason for keeping old threads up of depreciated software.

[izprtxqkft]

i might be running the risk of overstepping a bit as this topic continues and fully accept and expect any moment for someone to tell me to mind my own business

that being said though
 

Archiving seems more acceptable and as time passes, old forum messages will end up encapsulated unless there is requests.

depending on it's content of course, nobody would even consider deleting a tutorial or some such post that contains valid information
and not even if the information is outdated as a lot can be expanded on
 

Maintaining the forum is a daunting task, handled by a few dedicated volunteers and it's always nice to postulate on what can be done, but I guarantee you that forum staff are doing their best, given circumstances.     

i would never suggest otherwise and it is greatly appreciated
perhaps when i hit year 5 i will have shown enough trustworthiness to be allowed to help
 

Given the open nature of the software, (at least this is the argument) at anytime someone might pick-up some add-on and bring it back to life, or add functionality. Having posts regarding the target can be useful, enveloping most users concerns and given feed back and is the prime reason for keeping old threads up of depreciated software.

those sort of posts weren't on my radar, more so thinking of the posts in the general support section which report an error but never got a response
in addition to the example already given, this post from 12 years ago with no response would be the sort i was referring to https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=146000
from what i can see it has no content value, referring to an issue on an android build that doesn't exist using a kodi version that you wouldn't even expect to work any longer if you could find it