A good suggestion to avoid some core hacks is have a tab position ABOVE the profile tab render. This will allow us to put custom code directly into profiles that can rendered first.
For example I have 2 hacks placed above the profile render code within comprofiler.html.php
Above the line:
[code:1]
echo "\n\t<div class=\"cbProfile\"><div id=\"cbProfileInner\">";
[/code:1]
1 hack allows me to have users redesign the entire layout via CSS. What it does is overwrite the default style, because it's being called AFTER the default style is called. Thus it will overwrite it if anything is filled in. If the fields are blank then it's ignored.
My other hack is what I call a "Lock Me!". I do not allow profile deletions, BUT I do allow users to set their accounts on Block status. This way if they no longer want their account for any reason. They navigate to settings. Click the account Tab. Find the field "Lock Me" and type Yes. It'll then block their account and log them out. What this hack does is reads the field if it's Yes and begins the lock process. It also reverts the field to NULL. This way if the user is unblocked by an admin. Their account will not block again upon logout unless they type yes again.
I've got other core hacks to the plugins menu.php and core.php.
I've documented all of them in an rtf file. So it's a matter of copy and paste upon upgrade. Not really a hassle for me.
What I changed in menu.php is I didn't like the way the menu on profiles was setup. So I customized it to be how I wanted. Move "Send Private Message", "Add Friend(was connection)", "Report User" to a new menu called "User". I then cleaned up the moderator menu to have "Edit User", "Ban User", and "User Reports".
Then with core.php I edited the username display. This way I can show my Mood field and Quote field exactly where I wanted. Mood will show "(username) is sad." if a mood is selected, etc.. Then quote shows to the very far right above the status table automatically italic and in quotations.
This can all be done with a plugin, but the location I wanted it could not. It's not really a big deal, but to the less experienced it could be frustration. That's why I explained social networks are a lot of work.
Out of the box CB is INCREDIBLE, but if ya want your own custom features. Ya just gotta do the work for um. I honestly don't mind reapplying my hacks. I do it to 5 other components every upgrade, lol. I've just documented them well and always make a backup. Then getting my hacks back in takes a whole 30 minutes of my day.
I'm not sure what the test team does, but I'd help in anyway I can. I try to fix folks bugs as I see them here. Don't really have a ton of time to dedicate though. Working 12 hours a day trying to get my site live (going to try to launch next week *crosses fingers*). Running out of ideas so it's time to go live, lol. I've spent most of the past 3 days debugging and cleaning. Got an entire profile with every tab showing to only need 99 queries. Not bad for having a massive feature set.
Hopefully google adsense will pay off and I can donate to the CB team like yas deserve. If not I'll donate when I can, lol. Gotta eat first and got 2 little ones to think of.