A market competitive xenForo

[jonsidneyb]

Let me preface this by saying what ever the answer is I plan on buying this product if not at first for my existing forum then for one I obtained that I would like to revive.

I see posts on vB.com and a couple of other places saying it will be more than a year before xenForo is competitive. Others seem to think it will not be near that long.

Even with people pointing out changes i really like what I see here. Things just seem so easy to use and I am amazed at how fast I see things changing out here.

Floris has me convinced by his posts that the company and the modding community will have things coming along fairly quickly.

Kier says that this will be easy for the modders to do their stuff and I think he said we will be surprised at what we see when this is ready.

I myself am not a coder and in reality a super novice.

How should I interpret all the different opinions? I guess what I am asking is it reasonable to think that the modding community I think will grow very fast here that I could have my forum live on this software by October?

 

[Brandon_R]

I would have to say even sooner. Shouldn't take too long to create mods for the product. All they need to do is to make a good mod system ie submissions are streamlined, updates can be carried out and notices posted etc.

 

[Floris]

Convinced at least one person then

 

[Sador]

I think October might be pushing it, actually. They said they'll likely release something by the end of the summer, which to me sounds like August / September. When a version is released, people will have to look through the code, learn how to make mods for XF and start coding. This will likely start out with rather simple things, with more advanced stuff coming out along the way. It really depends on what you want your forum to do, but personally I would assume a bit later than October.

 

[jonsidneyb]

I have mentioned the mods I wanted before but will bring them up here again to better present my question. I want to be sure I am not expecting way to much from the modder community.

1. An article system. A close substitute to get by for awhile will do. I don't need a very sophisticated system. While I have not used Wordpress or anything like that I am guessing it is doable to get that working with xenForo. I think that this one might come quickly from the modders.

2. An advanced subscription system. This subscription would work off of secondary user groups. It would allow people to have up to 6 kinds of subscriptions. I would like 4 of the subscriptions payment method to be seen by all registered members. I would like 2 of the subscription payment method to be seen only by those I have manually allowed to see.

I would not object to it being two independent subscription systems. 1 for the 4 all registered members find and a seperate one for the ones that I want to keep invisible except to those I make it available to.

3. I would like secondary user group icons to show up with the avatar up to a possible total of 6 of them. This might already be in there. vB and SMF allows secondary user group icons. Oddly IPB does not have that built in.

This is all I would require to go live besides the basic forum functions.

How big of a thing am I asking for? I would expect these to be mods I pay for.

I have no idea how long it should take an advanced subscription system I am describing to be made. There is someone making similar to what I am describing for vB now.

 

[Grover]

Convinced at least one person then

I am also in the process now of contacting as many people in my network who might be interested in vBulletin after Internet Brands fiasco called 'vB4'. A pity many people (hundreds) have already switched to Invision in the meantime. But let me tell you, I used xenForo now for 1 day... and then just looking at the UI/UX of both vBulletin and Invision now... I keep being amazed by the HUGE difference. This xenForo UI/UX will attract so much more visitors to my site, I am sure of that. I never liked the UI/UX of Invision at all (I have a fairly good eye/insight in userinterface, if I may say so myself), so I felt stuck between vBulletin and vBulletin. So, really stuck that is! This xenForo is such a big breath of fresh air, it is liberating!

 

[Sador]

I'll put it this way, some of the best modders of the vBulletin community are gathered here and I'm sure they'll amaze us with their mods. But like anything, it takes time and because there a lot of people wanting a lot of things, it could take some time to get everything you want (unless you pay them for a custom job, of course)

Just saying, try to give yourself some extra time, so you won't be disappointed if things slow down a bit.

 

[CBI Web]

^ ^
+10

 

[jonsidneyb]

I'll put it this way, some of the best modders of the vBulletin community are gathered here and I'm sure they'll amaze us with their mods. But like anything, it takes time and because there a lot of people wanting a lot of things, it could take some time to get everything you want (unless you pay them for a custom job, of course)

Just saying, try to give yourself some extra time, so you won't be disappointed if things slow down a bit.

I do expect to pay people for their work. It might sound funny to some but I somehow feel it is wrong to use those mods out there that are free.

 

[Biker]

While what I see here looks promising, it's not enough to make me seriously think about making another software change. There would have to be a LOT more features and abilities before I'd even consider it.

I understand the software is "alpha", and there will be more changes before it goes final. However, what I'm seeing so far is underwhelming. It has potential, but up to this point I'm not sold.

 

[Sador]

While what I see here looks promising, it's not enough to make me seriously think about making another software change. There would have to be a LOT more features and abilities before I'd even consider it.

I understand the software is "alpha", and there will be more changes before it goes final. However, what I'm seeing so far is underwhelming. It has potential, but up to this point I'm not sold.

I think it's way better than the first vBulletin alpha version. Hell, I think it's probably better than the first vBulletin 4 beta version.

But I agree, a lot more stuff has to be added and that will take some time. Then again, seeing as just how little time it took them to build this... I do have faith in them.

 

[jonsidneyb]

The reason I asked this the way I did is I have to make a decision very soon. If it will take a long while I will still buy it but I will also get IBP. It very well could work out that my best move is to move twice. The opportunity cost of not doing something is more than the cost of software right now.

 

[el canadiano]

I am also in the process now of contacting as many people in my network who might be interested in vBulletin after Internet Brands fiasco called 'vB4'. A pity many people (hundreds) have already switched to Invision in the meantime. But let me tell you, I used xenForo now for 1 day... and then just looking at the UI/UX of both vBulletin and Invision now... I keep being amazed by the HUGE difference. This xenForo UI/UX will attract so much more visitors to my site, I am sure of that. I never liked the UI/UX of Invision at all (I have a fairly good eye/insight in userinterface, if I may say so myself), so I felt stuck between vBulletin and vBulletin. So, really stuck that is! This xenForo is such a big breath of fresh air, it is liberating!

But face it, IPB is significantly better than vBulletin 4 though, and its support and Admin CP blows it away. As for XenForo, I'm really glad it's here, because quite frankly, vBulletin doesn't deserve a spot up here anymore the way IB has treated their customers.

 

[Sador]

Why not wait until the release and make an informed decision then? I can see why switching to a more evolved board for now would be safer, but I also think that switching now and wanting to switch again in a few months just can't work well.

 

[jonsidneyb]

My revenue is dropping at a fairly fast pace but I will have a big chunk of revenue coming in in a few months. I have gone from 6000 active users to 2300 since february and it is slowly trickling down. I had a talk with a large number of the people that were around and I am getting very similar feedback from all of them.

I know people at vB and IPB like to talk about how bad SMF is. Well with SMF I not once had a month where my activity members decreased. Things like the rate that people joined did fluctuate some but it had a steady upward bias to it as well even tough there were a couple of months a little worse than the previous month.

What I have more an more is a younger crowd that does not bring in the revenue. Right now the biggest complaint is the search engine. I need to get them a better one soon. The other thing that tons of the old members told me after I started contacting them was they missed the simplicity of use that the old forum had. We didn't have any social networking stuff, there was no SEO to help us show up better in the rankings. What we had was a no frills uglier than sin basic forum that seem to draw people and 33% of them stuck for the long term.

I did have problems with the old forum but the members did not see those, that was all from my side of things and it took up quite a bit of time. Messages take up even more time but it was still time consuming and I did way too much stuff off of spread sheet and manual intervention.

I am still watching members that have logged in daily since 07 slowly drop off. A bunch left after a couple of months and it slowed down but the old timers are still leaving. I want to get to get them a better search engine and I want to get the tools to lower my workload. IPB might be able to get me that search engine I need and the tools that will save time. What it will not get is that simplicity that the older members also want. This xenForo feels very very intuitive and easy to use from the user standpoint.

If I can get a search engine for them and tools for me I will do it. If I can get them a very easy to use UI I want to get them that too. I would like to do this before all the members from 06 and 07 have gone. I don't know if the move will turn things around but at this point it cannot hurt. I started to move back within two months of my move but a bunch of people told me that what I said was happening was not because of the move. Well after talking to the old members they told me why they were leaving.

I do have a younger crowd not but they as a group do not support things and are changing some of the personality of the board. The older group added quite a bit to it and brought in more people like them. I want to try and maintain a balance of young and old but that is slipping away. I also cannot replace members that have been there from the first and second years with new members.

I don't know if it is the best move but I thought it would be worth a try. Get them search engine they can be happy with then get them the simplicity of use the older group wants while I have things to help me with my things.

 

[Peggy]

I have to add that I think October is pushing it a bit. I don't believe that a release will be forthcoming until mid-to-end of September, if that early. Kier stated the end of summer, so I'm looking for the end of September. OR they could decide to do beta testing (I'm hoping) first, pushing release off for another month or so. Either way, I wouldn't look for a stable modding community to pop up here til after the release, which means we're probably looking at early-to-mid fall?

At any rate, I don't want the guys to feel rushed. Myself, I would purchase it now, as-is. But they're hinting at some fantastic stuff before release, so I'd rather be patient, and be WOW'd (like I'm not already? right).

 

[jonsidneyb]

The funny thing was and is still true today. I don't have the slightest idea how you are supposed to manage members. I just got lucky. There was a forum owner that would always tell me and other people I was doing things wrong. Well he had 900 members and in the same time I got to 17000. I know that is not many but I did that on luck. I had no idea what I was doing but what ever it was it worked.

On these forums I kind of ignore the social networking stuff and want to hear people tell me how stable it is and what tools can make things easier for me. I also want to see what is very easy for a forum member to use. It seems like as forums get more advanced there becomes too many choices and it takes more clicks to do things.

This software seems to go the other direction. It is very advanced but it is also very simple.

Part of me is thinking make a move now and have the a copy of this software to make a second move maybe at the end of the year. IPB could become very simple but I think it is going to become more and more advanced but at the same time I think it will become more complicated. I don't know this but that is my guess.

I am sure this software will become a little more complicated as well but hopefully it will not become as complicated as the others.

 

[jonsidneyb]

I have to add that I think October is pushing it a bit. I don't believe that a release will be forthcoming until mid-to-end of September, if that early. Kier stated the end of summer, so I'm looking for the end of September. OR they could decide to do beta testing (I'm hoping) first, pushing release off for another month or so. Either way, I wouldn't look for a stable modding community to pop up here til after the release, which means we're probably looking at early-to-mid fall?

At any rate, I don't want the guys to feel rushed. Myself, I would purchase it now, as-is. But they're hinting at some fantastic stuff before release, so I'd rather be patient, and be WOW'd (like I'm not already? right).

I don't want them to feel rushed either. I was really not expecting this for awhile but some of the posts started making me think that things were going to be moving much faster than I thought possible.

Was just looking for some opinions on how fast or slow this might really be. I have heard people think a very short time while others think more than a year.

 

[Peggy]

More than a year?? No way. Not for a release.

It may take that long (tho I doubt it) to add the features that they are wanting to add, plus some that have been suggested here. But for a good, solid script release?
Naw....

 

[jonsidneyb]

I think they were meaning all the features. But I don't want all the features...just a few that I already mentioned.