Introduction

Happy New Year 2025!

In this article, I thought I'd take a look back at 2024 in terms of Composr and also bring you some near-future plans for Composr in 2025.

Vital Statistics for 2024

• Forum posts submitted in 2024: 641
• New members joined in 2024: About 360
  • Note that many of these are inactive accounts / potential spammers
• Tracker issues submitted in 2024: 467
• Tracker issues resolved in 2024: 166
  • This excludes issues which were closed (98) rather than marked resolved
• Version 10 releases in 2024: 6
• Version 11 releases in 2024: 10
• Version 10 GitLab commits in 2024 (master branch): 97
• Version 11 GitLab commits in 2024 (v11 branch): 1,160

2024 year in review

These are sorted in chronological order.

Simplified Report Issue Wizard (4 March 2024)

In March, I developed a simplified way to report issues to the tracker as for some, the Mantis interface was quite intimidating. While not perfect, this has proven useful for a few people. I plan to improve on it a bit in version 11 on composr.app . Speaking of...

Composr.app site launched (14 March 2024)

Also in March, the composr.app site was launched. This will be the new home for the Composr community once version 11 becomes more stable. While a definitive ETA for migration is not established yet, I am targeting March of 2025 to migrate the community over to composr.app . While version 11 will not be stable yet, it will be good enough for our use case. And having the community on the new site will give some critical production-use v11 testing.

The first v11 alpha release (28 March 2024)

Also in March, Composr version 11 alpha officially entered the release cycle and was available for download as a build (rather than having to exclusively use a git clone).

The first v11 beta release (22 July 2024)

In July, Composr version 11 entered beta status. All planned features were implemented (although some continue to be added over time), and it was possible to start upgrading some version 10 sites to version 11 (although not without some minor issues).

Version 10 enters long-term maintenance status (17 August 2024)

In August, version 10 entered long-term maintenance status so the Composr core developer team could focus their resources on the development of version 11. At this point, version 10 is not receiving any more patch updates except for major bugs or security issues with no known workarounds.

What is in store for 2025

Here are some near-future plans for Composr for the upcoming 2025 year:

Migration to composr.app

I am hoping that version 11 reaches a stable-enough state that we can begin the migration of compo.sr over to composr.app. While I cannot give an official date, I am aiming for this to take place in March 2025 (I will make a big announcement about it at least a couple weeks in advance).

Version 11 will likely still be in beta status when this happens. However, as a few of the most active members in the community have shared with me, this will provide an excellent opportunity to start testing version 11 in a production environment. Furthermore, the composr.app site will be better equipped to support our new Bazaar model (Composr will be supported by you, the community, rather than sponsorships / financial backing by companies). It boasts several incentives for members who contribute towards Composr, including but not limited to the following:

• Voting-based governance
  With the new point-weighted polls feature, we can facilitate a voting system where the most active members get a bigger say in the decisions for Composr. The community will also be governed under a rather democratic Constitution to which all members will see and be required to agree once the migration happens.
• Achievements
  The brand-new achievements system in v11 (available as a non-bundled addon, but installed on composr.app) will incentivise members to engage and contribute in the community. Different badges can be earned for your profile depending on what you do (and there are a lot of options). Many achievements also earn you points for getting them.
• Karma
  This is another new non-bundled addon for version 11, also installed on composr.app. This is a public "meter" to show members the reputation of each other. Karma is earned when you get likes / positive ratings on content you post, when you receive points / gifts from other members, and when content you posted gets featured. Karma is lost (/ bad karma earned) when you violate the Constitution and get issued a warning, or when you receive dislikes / bad ratings on content. Staff have the ability to review the system for abuse and reverse unjustified karma applications. And veteran members will have more of an influence on others' karma than, say, new members.
  • This is an experiment and subject to being disabled if we find it is not suiting the needs or benefit of the community
• Points Escrow and Sponsorships
  Members can escrow points between each other for goods or services, such as to sponsor a tracker issue to incentivise someone to implement it. The Mantis bug tracker in version 11 has been updated to integrate with the points system.
• Points for reporting or resolving tracker issues
  Everyone who reports an issue to the tracker which later gets implemented or resolved will automatically receive points for it. Those who resolve tracker issues will also receive a base amount of points plus any points other members have put on the issue as sponsorship.
• All of the other incentives from compo.sr
  All of the other incentives which were used on compo.sr are also going to exist on composr.app: Credit to those who reported / resolved tracker issues in the change log of releases, the "stars" page to showcase top members by points they earned by role, site showcase page, partners page, and points leader-boards.

RC and stable status for version 11

My goal is to get version 11 to Release Candidate status in the first half of 2025 and to stable status in the second half of 2025. This is, of course, subject to change as schedules change, life events happen, and the number of developers working on Composr changes.

Conclusion

While progress on Composr CMS version 11 has been slow, it is coming along. And the future is looking bright for the software.

Thank you to the entire Composr community for making Composr what it is today. We wouldn't be here without your continued support. I especially want to thank those who have been reporting bugs and suggesting changes on the issue tracker. I want to thank those who have been engaging in the forums. And I want to thank the moderation team for helping keep the Composr site free from spam (even if we have a lot of spam accounts, they've barely had any opportunity to touch the site with spam).

Cheers to 2025!