Elgg: Do we have to worry about its future?

 
Elgg is not in a healthy position right now. Elgg usage has been declining since 2014, and there is no sign that it will rise up. What can be done? Do we need to worry about elgg? In this article I share with you some thoughts about what can be done to improve elgg and hopefully increase usage.

Roadmap For Elgg  

The people in charge of developing elgg should go back to the drawing board. Sometimes you need to take a break. What is the strategy for elgg? Which features you want to add? Which features need to be removed? What needs to be rewritten? Each one of you would have to sit together and draw a road map, for the sake of the script. Elgg is a robust engine, but it takes more than being robust to be popular.

There has to be a sort of "Elgg Core Council" that will review and decide changes for the engine and also discuss release dates. From the outside, it seems like only core developers call the shots. There has to be some sort of consensus on what it has to be done before a new release.

Roadmap for the Elgg Community 

Let's be real, there has to be a clear strategy for the elgg community. You can also take the Post-2013 Kubuntu approach. We can form a sort of "Elgg Community Council" that could be in charge of reviewing developers that want to sell plugins here.

Yes, I said sell. It is 2016, and we need a commercial plugins section. I know how some are strongly opposed for a commercial section, but there has been several voices wanting to have a place inside the elgg community where you can sell themes and plugins. This could increase interest in developers, which is in heavy decline as of now.

Besides that, an "Elgg Community Council" could decide and develop the design and layout of the elgg community site. I know it looks better now, but it doesn't look modern nor appealing. So yeah, someone has to work on that, but the "Core Developers" cannot do everything. They need help.

Roadmap for a Commercial Section

If (a big "If") a commercial section is created, someone has to decide how to implement it and what you want to accomplish in few months. There has to be a clear strategy built around this, so that we could all benefit from it. It is not just having a plain page for "paid plugins". This is something that both the Core Council and the Elgg Community Council can decide and develop.

These are just some thought. Could elgg improve with these recommendations? May be, but it will take a lot of work and effort to make this happen.