Areas where XenForo fails

[John L.]

My Biggest Gripes:

1. Global RSS: I have to admit I was a bit shocked to see this feature not stock. I noticed a few addons for it, but this really should be included within the core system. It's a bit silly that it's not already.
2. Sitemap: While there are a few plugins that already do this for us, it's important that the core of XenForo support this. This way addons can benefit by tying into that system and included themselves into the sitemap that is generated.
3. Sub-Forum Organization: As Shelley stated the current layout for sub-forums is awful. It's not very clear to users that they even exist unless you go into that particular forum. I think the way vB has it laid out works fine, but I would like a more column/grid oriented layout for XenForo and not a dropdown. Poor design choice.
4. Thread Search: It drives me crazy that I cannot search within a thread. Especially within large threads that aren't actively moderated. So there is a lot of filler and not much of what I want. So doing a search within that thread makes it very easy to find what I want. This should be a stock feature hopefully for 1.2.

 

[mauzao9]

Also the twitter/facebook integration, because the majority of users updates their statutes more often in fb and twitter than of a forum.... See suggestion 1 and 2 here.

I want to see Xenforo more Social Too.

It would be awesome it posts to twitter/facebook if you create topics, or when you update your status in forum! It brings new users and make it more social.

Like that Youtube conection to Twitter, it tweets about when you upload, like, etc...

 

[mauzao9]

Biggest Fails for me are:

Conversations are hard to track ( http://xenforo.com/community/threads/conversations.15900/ ) and the conversations overview is horrible.(no way to delete selected conversations, no way to see all participants,...)

Nodes:
It's a smart system, but it's not thought out properly. (e.g. http://xenforo.com/community/threads/search-form.14759/ and several other suggestion, don't want to search and link all biggest fail=> ALL nodes are returned on places, where only forums (or an other type should be shown..)
The node permission system is IMO also really horrible to manage, once you've installed several add-ons, because you'll get ALL permission groups for the current node (i wish there would be a filter to show only the necessary permission groups.. suggestion was made already....)

"What's new" isn't global. It's returning only new posts and not all content types...4

Sidebar is nice, BUT it would be much better, if we could have the sidebar on EVERY page.
Also a sidebar block manager with ex/import feature would be great.
ATM we have the [bd] widget framework and sidebar block manager included in my add-on helper framework, but it would be much better to have 1 easy to extend interface to manage them...

Template Hooks:
They are nice, BUT it's horrible to wait for them as developer...
why not have a automatic system? Todays standard is a automatic template changer....

Last but not least because it's causing me the biggest headache:
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/event-listeners-to-manipulate-criteria-in-controllers.18072/

I agree with the conversations, it should be more simple, they way ugly and a big complicated.
With the permissions I agree too, it's complicated when we wanna do something very specific.

What's New I agree it should be an option, like an Menu Recent Posts / Recent Topics / Recent Status, etc... May be more categorized an fun to see new things.

And about sidebar i'm just lost when we need do updates that positions of MODs just complicate our lifes!

But the major thing that should be done is improve What's New for global content, with and simple menu to see the type of content you want.

 

[mauzao9]

Slow loading pop-ups for the editor, and perhaps the background fade isn't really necessary for editor functionality either.

Yup like I said, that pop ups on editor take sometimes long to appear, there must be something more fast and easy.

Alerts if mode delete/move your content

It would be really nice to be notified about post edits through Alerts and email to the post author. When thread title changed or thread moved, the thread author should be notified as well.

As an author I wanna know what is happening to my stuff behind my back and who is doing it. Bad moderators is not an unheard of thing.

I agree for a user be alerted when Moderation do something, like close, move, etc... I think that infraction system of 1.1 can be used for that?
No Notices of it anyway...

 

[mauzao9]

My Biggest Gripes:

1. Global RSS: I have to admit I was a bit shocked to see this feature not stock. I noticed a few addons for it, but this really should be included within the core system. It's a bit silly that it's not already.
2. Sitemap: While there are a few plugins that already do this for us, it's important that the core of XenForo support this. This way addons can benefit by tying into that system and included themselves into the sitemap that is generated.
3. Sub-Forum Organization: As Shelley stated the current layout for sub-forums is awful. It's not very clear to users that they even exist unless you go into that particular forum. I think the way vB has it laid out works fine, but I would like a more column/grid oriented layout for XenForo and not a dropdown. Poor design choice.
4. Thread Search: It drives me crazy that I cannot search within a thread. Especially within large threads that aren't actively moderated. So there is a lot of filler and not much of what I want. So doing a search within that thread makes it very easy to find what I want. This should be a stock feature hopefully for 1.2.

1. Like I said 100% Agree.
2. It would be awesome to improve Xenforo SEO.
3. Yes it should be easy to see the sub-foruns from the forum list.
4. I did not understand

 

[John L.]

1. Like I said 100% Agree.
2. It would be awesome to improve Xenforo SEO.
3. Yes it should be easy to see the sub-foruns from the forum list.
4. I did not understand

For number 4, what I meant is this. When you're looking at a thread within a vB powered forum you will notice in the upper-right hand corner of the page a drop down for "Search Thread". This lets you quickly search within the particular thread you are in. So if you're looking for a phrase or keyword within a huge thread then this makes it easier to find what you need.

 

[mauzao9]

For number 4, what I meant is this. When you're looking at a thread within a vB powered forum you will notice in the upper-right hand corner of the page a drop down for "Search Thread". This lets you quickly search within the particular thread you are in. So if you're looking for a phrase or keyword within a huge thread then this makes it easier to find what you need.

But when we are in the thread, search the thread don't looks to me an needed function.
If it was something for search global threads in a more easy and fast way I would like, alot of people talk about "Tags", but I just mean something easy and simple, that isn't the actual search system. :X

 

[Forsaken]

But when we are in the thread, search the thread don't looks to me an needed function.
If it was something for search global threads in a more easy and fast way I would like, alot of people talk about "Tags", but I just mean something easy and simple, that isn't the actual search system. :X

If you're looking for a specific quote in a 100+ page thread, search is definitely required.

 

[Deepmartini]

Wow this is a decent list. I hope the developers prioritize these issues first. A roadmap would be helpful. Xenforo is already very impressive. With these changes, it can be more so!

 

[John L.]

But when we are in the thread, search the thread don't looks to me an needed function.
If it was something for search global threads in a more easy and fast way I would like, alot of people talk about "Tags", but I just mean something easy and simple, that isn't the actual search system. :X

For example let's say a user developed a plugin here on XenForo's forums and it is very popular. It has over 100 pages of posted information. The plugin author has updated it and didn't update the initial post with the changes. I want to find out what's changed. I go to thread and can't find it due to all of the posts that have been submitted after him. So, how do I find it easily? Well searching the thread for the version number or something might help, but currently we can't do that .

If you're looking for a specific quote in a 100+ page thread, search is definitely required.

Exactly.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Automatic notices for upgrades to the core software and add-ons. Or is something like that already being mentioned elsewhere?

 

[mauzao9]

If you're looking for a specific quote in a 100+ page thread, search is definitely required.

Okay I agree but I wont like it as a defeaut thing, it may be an option for who wanna it activated, in our users, we must get the forum the Simple possible or the users get more lost than they already are with somethings. Most of them never used an forum system, soo you can imagine how hard it's for them start at this. That's why I don't want this little usefull things because they wont be used in our case.

For example let's say a user developed a plugin here on XenForo's forums and it is very popular. It has over 100 pages of posted information. The plugin author has updated it and didn't update the initial post with the changes. I want to find out what's changed. I go to thread and can't find it due to all of the posts that have been submitted after him. So, how do I find it easily? Well searching the thread for the version number or something might help, but currently we can't do that .
Exactly.

I understand but like I said now, it should be not be defeaut and should be an option to who wanna activate, make Xenforo more complex isn't goood. Simple, Easy and Powerfull it's how Xenforo must be.

 

[mauzao9]

Automatic notices for upgrades to the core software and add-ons. Or is something like that already being mentioned elsewhere?

I never saw this mentioned, but it should exist that database like wordpress for make our lifes easy updating us about new versions, etc...

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Well, for add-ons, especially. With the vB add-ons site, vbulletin.org, you can configure it to send you automatic email notices of product/plugin upgrades. When you have 12-15 add-ons, it's critical to be aware of changes, particularly when a new XenForo update breaks some of them.

 

[mauzao9]

Well, for add-ons, especially. With the vB add-ons site, vbulletin.org, you can configure it to send you automatic email notices of product/plugin upgrades. When you have 12-15 add-ons, it's critical to be aware of changes, particularly when a new XenForo update breaks some of them.

If Xenforo was like WordPress in about the MODs and Updates system, WOW, it would make everything easy, and surely going to the top. But I doub they can do that. =/

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Well, SMF lets you know about updates in the admin panel, and you can install through admin as well. That might be a goal towards which XenForo should aspire. Having not done any updates yet, I haven't seen how reconciling changed templates works, but I never liked the way it was done in vB.

 

[erich37]

Slow loading pop-ups for the editor, and perhaps the background fade isn't really necessary for editor functionality either.

you can actually already disable the pop-up-editor (via ACP) if you do not want to have it.

http://xenforo.com/community/thread...sible-to-delete-text.11751/page-3#post-237845

 

[mauzao9]

you can actually already disable the pop-up-editor (via ACP) if you do not want to have it.

http://xenforo.com/community/thread...sible-to-delete-text.11751/page-3#post-237845

At least I was talking about the Loading of the Pop Up of the Video, Image, Quote, Link, etc... That one is slow.

 

[Deepmartini]

I'm still waiting for the CMS, albums and calendar functions.

 

[John L.]

I'm still waiting for the CMS, albums and calendar functions.

Not to downplay your suggestions, but you may be waiting for a while. The calendar may be something added in the near future in association with the forum. The albums I am not sure how much this is desired amongst us all and the CMS I am sure is not something the dev team would work on until a major release like 2.0.

Just seems like a lot to manage between two developer with a forum AND CMS. I, personally, would rather have them work on a way to integrate XenForo seamlessly with current CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.