D.C Style - Story 2.1.0

Introduction​

Transforms your XenForo forum into a modern social platform by adding ephemeral, visual stories that your members already know and love. Users can share images, videos, and stylized text stories that appear in a familiar stories bar — creating a fast, casual way to engage beyond traditional threads and posts.

Features​

Story Types​

• Image Stories — Upload photos with optional captions. Supports all common image formats with configurable file size limits.
• Video Stories — Share short video clips directly in the story viewer. Permission-controlled so you can limit video uploads to specific user groups.
• Text Stories — Create text-only stories with customizable background colors and font styles (Default, Serif, Mono, Handwriting, Bold). Perfect for quick thoughts, announcements, or quotes. Admins can configure preset background colors.

Immersive Story Viewer​

• Fullscreen modal experience that feels native and polished
• Keyboard navigation (arrow keys to move between stories)
• Auto-advance timer with configurable duration per slide
• Touch and swipe gesture support for mobile devices
• Smooth transitions between stories and story groups

Privacy Controls​

Four levels of privacy give your members full control over who sees their stories:

• Public — Visible to everyone, including guests (up to the guest preview limit)
• Members Only — Visible to all registered members
• Following — Visible only to users they follow
• Only Me — Private, visible only to the story author

A default privacy level can be configured globally by the admin, and individual users with the appropriate permission can override it per story.

Reactions and Comments​

• Inline Reactions — Members can react to stories using XenForo's built-in reaction system
• AJAX Comments — Real-time commenting directly within the story viewer, no page reload required
• Comment Reactions — React to individual comments as well
• Toggleable — Both reactions and comments can be enabled or disabled globally via admin options

Highlights​

Stories are ephemeral by default, but Highlights let members preserve their best stories permanently:

• Create named highlight collections (similar to Instagram Highlights)
• Add stories to highlights before or after they expire
• Custom cover images for each highlight
• Highlights are displayed on the user's profile, giving their page a richer, more personal feel

Streaks and Gamification​

Encourage daily participation with a built-in streak system:

• Tracks consecutive days a user posts stories
• Displays current streak and personal best streak
• Configurable badge thresholds (default: 7, 30, 100, and 365 days)
• Top Streaks leaderboard widget to fuel friendly competition
• Streak badges appear on story avatars, giving active members visible recognition

Pinning and Story of the Day​

• Pinned Stories — Moderators and authorized users can pin important stories to the top of the stories bar
• Story of the Day — An automated cron job selects a standout story daily, giving members a chance at the spotlight. Selected users receive an alert notification.

View Tracking and Analytics​

• See exactly who viewed each story (permission-controlled)
• View counts displayed on stories
• Story authors get insight into their audience
• Admins can enable or disable view tracking globally

Widgets​

Four ready-to-use widgets that can be placed anywhere in your XenForo layout:

Badges​

Contextual badges appear on story avatars to help members identify who they are hearing from:

• Admin and Moderator — Staff role indicators
• Veteran — Long-standing community members
• Newcomer — Recently joined members
• Streak Milestones — 7-day, 30-day, 100-day, and 365-day streak badges
• Top Contributor — Recognizes prolific story creators
• Story of the Day — Marks stories selected as the daily feature

Granular Permissions​

16 permissions allow fine-grained control per user group:

• View stories
• Create stories (image, video, and text controlled separately)
• Comment on stories
• React to stories
• Delete own stories
• Delete any story (moderator)
• Edit any story (moderator)
• View hidden/deleted stories (moderator)
• View story viewers list
• Pin stories
• Create and manage highlights
• Set story privacy
• Daily story limit (configurable per group)

Admin Options​

17 configurable settings to tailor the experience to your community:

• Stories per page
• Story expiration time (hours)
• Expired story retention period (days)
• Maximum file upload size
• Maximum attachments per story
• Auto-play slide duration
• Enable/disable comments, reactions, view tracking, highlights, streaks, pinning, and text stories
• Guest preview count (how many stories guests can view before being prompted to register)
• Background color presets for text stories
• Streak badge thresholds
• Default privacy level

Alerts and Notifications​

Members stay informed through XenForo's native alert system:

• New comment on your story
• Reaction on your story
• Reaction on your comment
• Story pinned by a moderator
• Your story selected as Story of the Day

Mobile-First Design​

• Fully responsive layout that adapts to any screen size
• Touch-friendly swipe gestures in the story viewer
• Mobile-optimized comment and reaction panels
• Stories bar scrolls horizontally on smaller screens

Guest Engagement​

Convert visitors into members with a configurable guest preview:

• Guests can view a set number of stories before being prompted to register
• The preview count is configurable in admin options (set to 0 to require login immediately)
• Registration prompt appears naturally within the story viewer

Full Localization​

• 215+ translatable phrases covering every label, button, message, and notification
• All phrases follow XenForo naming conventions for easy translation
• Ready for any language your community speaks

Installation​

1. Upload files — Extract the add-on package and upload the contents of the upload directory to your XenForo installation root, merging with existing directories.
2. Install the add-on — In your XenForo Admin CP, navigate to Add-ons > Install/upgrade from archive or go to the add-on list and click Install next to "D.C Style - Story".
3. Configure options — After installation, go to Setup > Options > D.C Style - Story to configure story expiration, file size limits, enabled features, and other settings.
4. Set permissions — Navigate to Users > User group permissions and configure story permissions for each user group. By default, most permissions are set to "Not Set (No)" — you will need to explicitly grant them.
5. Place widgets — Go to Appearance > Widgets and position the Stories Bar, Recent Stories, or other story widgets wherever you want them in your layout.