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

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 I understand that some may find this nostalgic, but it looks incredibly outdated and is not visually appealing.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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Maybe GTA VI is waiting for XF3 to drop so you can be active in an online community within an online game? 🤯

mjda said:
My luck will be they're released on the same day so I'll develop a complex trying to figure out which one to do first. 🤦‍♂️
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It's fine, you'll have over a decade to complete both before any more updates arrive ;)
 
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If I'm scrolling X or a forum the difference is with X is it's less, not more visually so the biggest change xenforo 3.0 can make is a radical theme redesign that looks more like an app than the conventional forum look we've had for decades, maybe it handles threads and sections differently, navigation, user profiles, whatever but for the most part it has to be a major cosmetic change to what we are used to, to blow me away.
 
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D.O.A. said:
radical theme redesign that looks more like an app than the conventional forum
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Lipstick on a pig will make no difference if content discovery/surfacing is still centre'd around an archaical notion that content types are segregated and seperate. It's not a community when first-party thread posts and third-party content aren't treated equally and combined when regular visitors seek new content engagement.
 
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You use WordPress to publish your non-forum content like Tutorials, Lessons, Blog, Store, etc. Nice site BTW!
tamingthesaxophone.com

Loads of saxophone resources, lessons, downloads, books

How to learn sax - lots of free downloads plus Jazz and Composing. Music, Videos, Tutorials, Resources, Information and studies.
tamingthesaxophone.com tamingthesaxophone.com
In xenforo you use threads only, which avoids many content discovery issues.

The issues with content discovery come into play when you use xenforo addons for major content types. Especially when you use a lot of them.
The XF content discovery issues I'd love to see addressed are:
  1. A unified search, new/unread posts.
  2. Live refresh or loading of new content.
  3. Filtering of search results / faceted search.. (watched, your content, etc)
  4. Custom field filters.
  5. An option to display content from child forums/categories.
  6. Better menu functionality. The current menu is cluttered: users get lost in endless horizontal scroll of too many tabs and long single row drop downs. Its too confusing.
  7. Related content from addons.
  8. The content discovery widgets available in XF are very few are not visually appealing and lack options. Nor do they invite to post new content or offer functionality for such.
  9. A 'Read more content' link in widgets and a 'load more' button.
  10. make it possible to post any content type from anywhere. Currently users first need to find & go to the application / addons and then post from there.
  11. By design XF is segregated by application/addon. While users need to get unified pages that offer all content about the topic of their interest. XF does not offer an easy way to create topic centered pages, where users can read all content from all content types about a specific topic.
xenforo.com

better content discovery

xenforo.com xenforo.com
 
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What
Alpha1 said:
You use WordPress to publish your non-forum content like Tutorials, Lessons, Blog, Store, etc. Nice site BTW!
tamingthesaxophone.com

Loads of saxophone resources, lessons, downloads, books

How to learn sax - lots of free downloads plus Jazz and Composing. Music, Videos, Tutorials, Resources, Information and studies.
tamingthesaxophone.com tamingthesaxophone.com
In xenforo you use threads only, which avoids many content discovery issues.

The issues with content discovery come into play when you use xenforo addons for major content types. Especially when you use a lot of them.
Click to expand...

Yes, the splitting into two distinct but related forums was done in order to create two more focussed sites as opposed to one less focussed site. I believe there have been pros and cons of this approach and I have been tempted to merge - but the larger articles/products site would not work well on xenForo very easily.

We don't only have "threads"on the XenForo there are also articles and classifieds. I am genuinely confused by this demand for improved content discovery, it's not something I've ever considered problematic. If someone could explain what they actually mean in everyday terms it might be useful.

I'll just comment on a couple of bullet points

Alpha1 said:
A unified search, new/unread posts.
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Isn't the what the default New posts is? I do think the navigation for that is poor on desktops but easy to fix (I just put it in the main navigation)


Screenshot 2025-05-04 at 14.30.44.webp

but the filter options are great.

Alpha1 said:
XF does not offer an easy way to create topic centered pages, where users can read all content from all content types about a specific topic
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Search forums, thread prefixes. This type of feature has allowed me to break out of the standard forum list and show related threads from across multiple forum, e.g. beginners.

Screenshot 2025-05-04 at 15.11.26.webp
 
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Mr Lucky said:
We don't only have "threads"on the XenForo there are also articles and classifieds. I am genuinely confused by this demand for improved content discovery, it's not something I've ever considered problematic. If someone could explain what they actually mean in everyday terms it might be useful.
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If I see it correctly, then you use THREAD TYPES, which are different than CONTENT TYPES. That is a world of difference. Your New Posts page shows almost all new content: Discussions, Calendar, Classifieds, Articles. That works really nicely.

But those of us that use content types in addons like XFRM, XFMG, AMS, RMS, UBS, CAS, Showcase, Calendar, etc. find that the content of those addons do not show up in the unread posts feed and in Search & Whats New these are only visible in the umpteenth tab, which no one clicks. Most of the issues I mention in my list come up if for those who use addons that introduce new CONTENT TYPES.

For example, I have the following content types that do not display in New posts:
  1. Articles
  2. Article comments
  3. Article Reviews
  4. Blogs
  5. Blog Entries
  6. Blog comments
  7. Events
  8. Event comments
  9. Group posts
  10. Media
  11. Media comments
  12. Products (Store)
  13. Product reviews
  14. Product comments
  15. Product questions
  16. Resources
  17. Resource reviews
  18. Wiki
  19. Wiki comments
  20. Wiki reviews
These CONTENT TYPES all show up in separate tabs in What's new and in the main navigation. Its almost unusable for users and I often hear that people go to competing sites because they get lost and can't find content.
I'd even love to add more CONTENT TYPES for Tutorials, Competitions, Experiences, Data, etc, but that would only further confuse users, because they cant find anything now. If I add even more CONTENT TYPES then that will exacerbate the problem even more. I have been consider the possibility of using WordPress like you do to resolve some of the issues.

You don't have most of these issues, because you have everything either in forums or in WordPress.
Mr Lucky said:
Isn't the what the default New posts is?
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New Posts only displays Forum Threads (including THREAD TYPES like Articles) and does not display other CONTENT TYPES.
Mr Lucky said:
Search forums, thread prefixes. This type of feature has allowed me to break out of the standard forum list and show related threads from across multiple forum, e.g. beginners.
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Forums can only display forum content. Not other content types.

So props to you for avoiding new content types. The benefits of new content types though are that content types can offer much more advanced functionality to the user and also the correct structured data schema for SEO. (You use Yoast on WordPress to do this for your Tutorials for example)
 
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This is one of the greatest pieces of software ever made and still maintained fairly and priced fairly by the devs. But it requires a time commitment and manpower and budgeting that we don't have access to. If it takes more time, it takes more time.
 
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Digital Doctor said:
That’s a lot of what’s new tabs !
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Yes, and a lot of navigation menu tabs and drop downs.

What's probably worse is that once the user is in the content type of choice, then they don't see related content from other content types. For example if the user is looking at a Blog or Resource, then they don't see forum Question Threads or Articles about the same topic.
So people land on the site from Google search result, read the page and leave again without ever seeing the related content.
 
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