Banned programs

[garyamort]

I noticed a thread about FQ considering banning Joomla last year due to security/performance reasons.

First off, kudos to FQ, I really appreciate that they are proactive about keeping problematic programs to a minimum.

Secondly, boos to FQ, I really don't appreciate that the way you find out about it is by searching for a product name in the forums.

It would be nice if FQ could maintain a list for site owners of programs that have historically caused problems, which ones have gotten so bad as to require removal from the community servers, and how often(I understand that just because a program is removed for one person with an insanely popular site, it won't happen with everyone, so that's why an idea of how often it has happened would be helpful)

[Arthur]

This idea has been tossed around, but creating and especially maintaining such a list is difficult and time consuming. Some applications are good for one site, but not for another. Application X with plugin Y may be fine, but with plugin Z it may be a disaster. Newer versions may come out that address problems with an application, which would mean having to install and evaluate it.

I can tell you the applications that present problems most frequently are blogs and CMS applications, followed by some (free) forums. However, none of these are banned outright or have had to be removed en masse.

Basically, all dynamically created content can cause problems, the likelihood can be measured by looking at what it takes to create one page. Rewriting (mod_rewrite), database calls, dynamic image generation, all add to the total amount of work involved in creating a page.
Applications that use as much static content as possible (images, scripts) and do as little work on-the-fly as possible (use cached content for example), are the least likely to cause problems.

-Arthur