A few questions about XenForo from a MyBB user

[Miraimaher]

Hello nice people!

I would like to ask a few questions, you see a few years ago I had a MyBB forum, it was great really, loved it and I was able to customize it the way I wanted it as much as the limitations allowed me to anyways, however I had to closed it, lack of time and shortage of people, it was still good cause was the first forum I ever made so it was like a project, but now im back and I wanna try doing it more serious. But now I see, a lot of MyBB plugins, themes are outdated and it seems to me like theres a lot less people working on plugins there than it used to be a few years ago so I thought its time for a change, right? and well.. looking for something thats steps ahead I think XenForo could be a good choice for me? I'm also considering IPS4 which I feel would be a good to build a community, but money is an issue there.

So I would like to ask these next few questions if anyone could help answer please

1. I'm looking for something very customizable, how is XenForo on that area? Is it more customizable than IPS4?

2. I'm not exactly an expert on html/css, im currently learning so I was wondering if theres a lot of resources to help me with my editing/customizations like tutorials, theme support, addon support and all that?

3. I see here the shop plugin/addon is paid, is there a free alternative?

4. About license, you can only use one license per forum, right? say I make a forum but it turns out to be a failure and I decide to close the forum, would I be able to use my license to make a new forum or would I need to buy a new license?

5. I see a lot of people talking about XenForo 2, do I get to choose which XenForo version I want or will I be getting the latest (XF2) ?

I think that covers all the doubts I had, thanks a lot!

 

[Matt C.]

1. XenForo is extremely customizable. I find it way easier to customize than IPS4.

2. There are specific forums for helping people with any questions they have and there is also documentation.

3. There is not a free alternative that I know of.

4. One license per online accessible forum and one test forum. The test forum has to be password protected and only accessible to you and your forum staff. You can start a new forum with the license provided that the old forum is shut down and all files removed from your online host.

5. You will have access to every XF version from the latest all the way back to 1.0.0. When your license expires (12 months from the purchase date), you will only be able to access the last version you had access to before it expired. You will be able to renew the license for the renewal cost.

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

4. use license only per one domain/forum but also u can use it for testing purpose, so one license for live forum and test forum, locked only for u and testing team, so i use test forum for playing around with html/css.

5.when buy license u can download any version.

 

[Mr Lucky]

5. You will have access to every XF version from the latest all the way back to 1.0.0. When your license expires (12 months from the purchase date), you will only be able to access the last version you had access to before it expired. You will be able to renew the license for the renewal cost.

5.when buy license u can download any version.

I would seriously bear in mind that version 1 is close to end of life support.

 

[Miraimaher]

Thanks guys for the replies, XenForo sounds really nice, I've also been playing with the free demo a little bit to know more about the features, but there are 2 things that I was wondering about

1. About the avatars, is there a way to control its size? I would like to be able to control the users avatar's size, like different sizes for different user groups. Can I do that on XenForo be it with styling or addon?

2. Back on MyBB I used to make joinable user groups and use them as "Clubs", the user had the option to join the user group from their user control panel, but here I tested on the free demo, created a few new user groups but I dont know how to join them, is there any way to make them joinable? even if its with an addon for XF2? I did find an addon but it was for XF1, unfortunately

Thank you again!

 

[Paul B]

It would require customisation or an add-on to change avatar sizes.

There is no join user group functionality built in, but it can be achieved with custom user fields: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/using-custom-user-fields-with-user-group-promotions.4008/

 

[dknife]

If you truly want Clubs there's a great Rosters add-on by Xen-Factory I'm going to be using for guilds and game Rosters.

 

[Miraimaher]

Thank you @Brogan, that tutorial really helped me, is there a way to make the joinable user group require an approval from the group's moderators, before being accepted? also, do you have any link to any tutorial or addon i could check for the avatar sizes?

Thanks @dknife I'll see if I can find that addon you mentioned

 

[Paul B]

To require user group join approval would require an add-on.

I believe there are various threads related to resizing avatars.
Once you purchase a license, you can post in the styling form for specific help.