IMO yes, in practicality. But we should seek to reduce it.
If yes, for how long?
I'm not sure "for how long", but I'd say we should have a tally of any special conditions and methodically reduce it.
If not, is it ok for DEV to lose features while we generalize the app?
Yes, especially with presentation logic. Hopefully we can have a safe landing place for the data situation, but if we need to simplify the presentation of something so that it can be general, I think that's fine.
Does DEV need to run on Forem master, or could it potentially run off a fork that tracks master, but re-adds certain legacy features?
I'd prefer to run DEV on the main Forem branch and deal with conditionals as we go, but definitely open to discussion here.
IMO we should be open to dropping features and reducing complexity where we can, especially if we're introducing more configuration-based complexity.
Certain DEV-centric features have merit in that the more technical communities may be more interested in stretching the boundaries than your average community, so the subset of programmer-oriented communities may want to share in features that allow for extensibility or whatnot. And there may also be some features which could be specialized for more employment-centric communities, and that's also a subset perhaps worth paying attention to as a group that might need some special consideration.
I think we should try and reduce complexity wherever we can, but some features will be worth keeping for DEV and every other programmer community or DEV and every other professional community, and we should think about those situations.
IMO we should be open to dropping features and reducing complexity where we can, especially if we're introducing more configuration-based complexity.
Certain DEV-centric features have merit in that the more technical communities may be more interested in stretching the boundaries than your average community, so the subset of programmer-oriented communities may want to share in features that allow for extensibility or whatnot. And there may also be some features which could be specialized for more employment-centric communities, and that's also a subset perhaps worth paying attention to as a group that might need some special consideration.
I think we should try and reduce complexity wherever we can, but some features will be worth keeping for DEV and every other programmer community or DEV and every other professional community, and we should think about those situations.
I'm totally seeing a vision for a repository of site templates here!
This sounds intriguing, could you explain a bit more what you envision here?