I don't see why we can't make XF content look more presentable like it's a easy to read blog article with a nice homepage.
It's probably a matter of someone really skilled with CSS putting things in the right places.
I think XF is light years faster than WP and certainly has amazing addons. The problem I have is 1) I prefer NOT to use WP if I don't have to, and 2) my audience is used to a certain "blog" style typical of the content I deliver. I've tried for a while to manipulate this to look closer to a blog, but it's just lacking and not as shareable/user friendly.
If I can make my site
look that good while using XF as the backend, that would be the best end result. I believe it can be done.
As for comments, users would reply to the thread like they usually do.
Think about it, besides the obvious differences in comments/replies (basically the same thing with forum replies being more powerful, but serving the same purpose which is conversation) - What's really the difference between a blog post and a forum post besides a few visual elements or layout differences? Visually, I see the OP's avatar on the left, next to the post, rather than below or above the article. I'm sure that's easy fix, although it doesn't even have to be moved. The breadcrumb is cleaner, but that's an CSS fix as well. The OP info doesn't really need to be there, it can be on their profile page while a simple text link and smaller avatar appear for "author" info.
@Russ - you up for a challenge?
@Stuart Wright - who did your homepage? I really like yours as it's closest to what I'm looking for. But, what powers your homepage? Is it WP, XF, mix of things?
Off topic - kinda - I think XF2 should be more similar to WP in the sense that it permits ALL media to be displayed in the posts, because I would LOVE to have my videos uploaded to threads without having a second addon for it. I like XFMG, but it's not user friendly for people to go to one section of the site, upload, then go back to another section to post it. XF forum threads are really only missing video attachments. From using WP for years and now XF for at least a year, that's the main thing that XF needs. All other features of XF are superior to WP...except for that part where Google LOVES WordPress...but I'm sure with more content rich XF sites that Google will show more love in the future.