Any news about Xenforo 3.0, can we expect modern forum?

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qnkov

qnkov

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Hello. For half a year, I have been looking for a modern forum system to start an anime/manga site with various features. For example, a video system for watching movies/episodes, a way to add manga/anime as pages with information about them, topics with posters, etc. I saw that all of this is possible with Invision Community.

I waited to see version 5, but it turned out that the self-hosted platform is extremely expensive and has functionality limits. They also changed the way we acquire add-ons, significantly restricting options, and almost no themes exist for their latest version.

On the other hand, XenForo seems like a better alternative in terms of user base and price, but the forum and themes, in general, look like they’re from the early 2000s. I understand that some may find this nostalgic, but it looks incredibly outdated and is not visually appealing.

That’s why I’m wondering what exactly to expect with version 3.0. Can we anticipate a modern interface similar to Invision Community? I really don't want to go to invision as they may drop self-hosted in next version, as they aim for big comapanies, not common users now.
 
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Wing said:
People exposing users like Smallwheels and others who have attempted for over 3 years now to discredit any sort of concern or negative feedback expressed here about the current state of affairs, is not launching a PA.
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What would you call it then? What you do is lying and defamation. You still did not get that "feedback" is a world different from what you do, despite dozens of users tried to explain it to you. In opposite to what you say I have been criticizing the state of things at XF often enough in the past, even in this very thread. I.e.:
smallwheels said:
In all fairness: If you (not literally you) are in sorrow about delays or the release date of 2.4 or the communication (which is all understandable): Create a thread for that instead of destroying others, completely ignoring the thread topic.
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Seems you are simply a deplorable, but toxic person on a destructive mission, unable to respect other opinions (as you have shown often enough), unable to learn, caught in a phantasy world where everyone that does not fully agree with you is an enemy (as you've also proven countless times).
 
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Hopefully, this feature gets added to the XF core down the road so we can just ignore threads like this...

Forsaken

Thread 'Ignore / Filter System'

This is from one of my older posts, but it was several different ideas, and I rather this one be added rather then any of the others.

Ignore/Filter System
One thing I've noticed that is currently lacking (In the form of user ignore) currently, and that most forums do not extend more then the basic concept, is the ignore function.

  • Users: Rather then just ignore their posts, PM's and such, I'd like to see them completely ignored. More then once, I've been on a forum where there was a person that I could barely stand would aggravate me.
  • Forums/Categories: The...
  • Like
  • Love
 
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This thread talks legions about the communication issues XF has and to a degree that this forum has. Note, that it is located in the "pre-sales-question-forum", so basically the area for prospective new customers. Yet no one of the XF team bothered to answer. The thread started a year ago with a simple question:

qnkov said:
I’m wondering what exactly to expect with version 3.0. Can we anticipate a modern interface similar to Invision Community? I really don't want to go to invision
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On page 2 we got basically to the same conclusion...
FTL said:
I don't think any forum software is gonna give you what you want out of the box. Also, this general look and functionality is what forums are about and make them much more functional than the basic editing and structure that social media provide. It's been around since the early 2000s, but that doesn't mean it's obsolete, far from it.

Perhaps a solution is to contact a professional theme developer to create you a custom theme to your liking, for a fee. XF is enormously customisable and can look totally different to the default theme that you see here.
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... that we again reached on page 23:
Tamer said:
expecting one affordable self-hosted forum product to magically become everyone’s ideal community platform is not realistic.

Serious projects build on top of that with styling, add-ons, custom development, and planning. At some point, people need to decide whether they want forum software they can build on, or bespoke software built exactly for their imagination. Those are not the same product, and they’re definitely not the same price.
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In between these two postings things left the topic very quickly. There were dog fights, rage bites, derailing, personal attacks, moning about XF and people praising their own add ons - whatever one could imagine. But barely any information for let alone an answer to the question the prospective buyer asked. B/c XF do not bother communicating. Left is a smoking battlefield over currently 22 pages. In the "Presales-section" for prospective buyers that rather should be an attractive storefront window, providing relevant answers quickly and showing the quality of the software and the community. Did not go too well.
 
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PhineasD said:
Hopefully, this feature gets added to the XF core down the road so we can just ignore threads like this...
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One shall never give up hope but given that the suggestion dates back to 2010, has 250 Votes and eight pages of discussion and has still not been implemented one should probably not be too ecstatic.
 
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smallwheels said:
What would you call it then? What you do is lying and defamation. You still did not get that "feedback" is a world different from what you do, despite dozens of users tried to explain it to you. In opposite to what you say I have been criticizing the state of things at XF often enough in the past, even in this very thread. I.e.:

Seems you are simply a deplorable, but toxic person on a destructive mission, unable to respect other opinions (as you have shown often enough), unable to learn, caught in a phantasy world where everyone that does not fully agree with you is an enemy (as you've also proven countless times).
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What exactly have I lied about? 🤦🏼‍♂️ Maybe you’re forgetting but over the last 3 years, exact specifics and all sorts of constructive feedback has been posted. I don’t need to rehash the hundreds of posts from the past for you dude. The reality is nothing has actually changed. This isn’t being toxic, it’s being real.
 
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1) XF needs to enhance presence for official converters from other forums. I am not sure why AI can't be leveraged at this point.
2) Seems like XF owners/developers - this is part time job vs full time company. So they develop when they get time. So development activity happens randomly.
3) I have never seen much posting from Kier and other folks besides Chris D in last 5 years. Seems like they started XF but now their inactivity is holding things back. Get more staff who is willing to help and get the ball rolling.

Folks are posting this because they like your product. However, your silence, delayed features/releases, missing official support for conversion, etc. makes it worry some for new customers.
 
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Itworx4me said:
If we are judging this performance under the strict, glittering eye of a high-stakes dance competition, we have to look past the stick-horse and focus entirely on the artistry, athleticism, and execution
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Sadly the height of the left knee lacked the consistency that might have made the score a 9 or even 9.5
 
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hellreturn said:
Seems like they started XF but now their inactivity is holding things back. Get more staff who is willing to help and get the ball rolling.
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Or, you know, maybe they are actually coding and testing stuff rather than posting? I mean, when has how often people post in forums been a measure of how much programming work they are doing? To be honest, if I was running a company like Xenforo, I would have a couple designated point people to look after replying on the forums and tell everyone else to focus on the work of developing and testing the software. Having everyone posting just takes them away from other work.
 
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Mendalla said:
if I was running a company like Xenforo, I would have a couple designated point people to look after replying on the forums
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In fact XF has (or had?) those in form of the support guys / forum moderators. They have rarely been seen and even less so answering questions (like the one of the OP of this thread) but instead in the last occurrences ended up insulting paying customers publicly on these forums. Probably not ideal either.
 
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2.4 will improve on the editor and not necessarily break everything I have up until this point but I expect xenforo 3.0 to be nothing short of spectacular and move the software into the modern era from bulletin board days.
 
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D.O.A. said:
I expect xenforo 3.0 to be nothing short of spectacular and move the software into the modern era from bulletin board days.
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Probably expectations rise the more the longer it takes until 3.0 gets released. ;) Will be interesting to see how XF will bridge the gap between serving those, that want a radically different approach vs. today and those who simply want to continue the forums they build up in and have been running for years mostly in the way and UI they run it now w/o irritating their users through a completely different UI.
 
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2.4 was announced in september '24 and was supposed to be "coming soon". That's the whole reason this thread (and others like it) exists.

The XF team keeps moving the goalposts and the reason(s) are not really known because of the lack of communication. That frustrates some customers (like me) and you can't blame them.
It looks like XF is slowly dying and that would really suck. But if so, just be honest about it.

And if not, great! Just let everyone know development is really slow because of <insert real reason>. That way you should be able to "satisfy" all customers.
 
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duderuud said:
2.4 was announced in september '24 and was supposed to be "coming soon".
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Get over it - this is long gone and overruled - and has been discussed for months last year.

duderuud said:
2.4 was announced in september '24 and was supposed to be "coming soon". That's the whole reason this thread (and others like it) exists.
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No. This thread exists because someone who thought about buying a XenForo license back in March 2025 had a simple question:

qnkov said:
I’m wondering what exactly to expect with version 3.0. Can we anticipate a modern interface similar to Invision Community? I really don't want to go to invision
Click to expand...

This is the reason why the thread topic reads:

Any news about Xenforo 3.0, can we expect modern forum?​

and why this thread is in the "pre-sales-questions" forum. How come that you claim something different? Seems you do not bother too much checking what you claim in beforehand...

Seems you are even too lazy to look at the topic of the thread that you are posting to before doing so and this doesn't stop you to claim completely made up things about the thread topic.
duderuud said:
It looks like XF is slowly dying and that would really suck. But if so, just be honest about it.
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The only ones that claim that are people like you that absolutely avoid to regognize anything that does not enforce the opinion you already have, independent from any realities. Moaning, whining, spreading FUD and acting as a drama queen seems all you are interested in.
 
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Mendalla said:
Or, you know, maybe they are actually coding and testing stuff rather than posting? I mean, when has how often people post in forums been a measure of how much programming work they are doing? To be honest, if I was running a company like Xenforo, I would have a couple designated point people to look after replying on the forums and tell everyone else to focus on the work of developing and testing the software. Having everyone posting just takes them away from other work.
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That argument would carry more weight if we were actually seeing tangible results instead of continually shifting timelines and missed expectations.

Forum activity alone has never been a direct measure of development progress — I completely agree with that. Developers should absolutely spend more time building and testing software than posting online. However, when communication drops to nearly zero and promised deliverables remain delayed for years, people are naturally going to question what’s happening behind the scenes.

For example, Kier may only post once a year, yet we can still visibly see substantial progress on personal projects like KDX(https://kdx.kierdarby.com/). The issue isn’t what developers choose to do in their spare time — it’s the growing disconnect between expectations, communication, and visible progress on the core product itself.

At some point, repeatedly saying “they’re probably coding and testing” stops being a convincing explanation when major features remain behind schedule two years later with little transparency. That’s not cynicism — it’s simply acknowledging reality.

Many of us who have been here for 10+ years have seen the difference firsthand. Development has clearly slowed, the team appears significantly smaller, and the community itself has contracted as well. Those observations aren’t based on emotion; they’re based on long-term experience watching the platform evolve over more than a decade.

smallwheels said:
Get over it - this is long gone and overruled - and has been discussed for months last year.


No. This thread exists because someone who thought about buying a XenForo license back in March 2025 had a simple question:



This is the reason why the thread topic reads:

Any news about Xenforo 3.0, can we expect modern forum?​

and why this thread is in the "pre-sales-questions" forum. How come that you claim something different? Seems you do not bother too much checking what you claim in beforehand...

Seems you are even too lazy to look at the topic of the thread that you are posting to before doing so and this doesn't stop you to claim completely made up things about the thread topic.

The only ones that claim that are people like you that absolutely avoid to regognize anything that does not enforce the opinion you already have, independent from any realities. Moaning, whining, spreading FUD and acting as a drama queen seems all you are interested in.
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Just a reminder that some of us have been part of this community for 10–15 years. When we say development and communication have slowed to a crawl, that perspective is based on over a decade of observing the company’s patterns and release cycles — not just the last 3–4 years.

This isn’t reactionary criticism. It comes from long-term experience watching how development, communication, and community engagement used to operate compared to where things stand today.
 
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