Areas where XenForo fails

[Paul]

For me Deleted posts = removed from Database, as opposed to just "removed from view" as it is now, meaning that the DB will never get any smaller. This is basic - really cant get why it's not been done.

 

[Onimua]

For me Deleted posts = removed from Database, as opposed to just "removed from view" as it is now, meaning that the DB will never get any smaller. This is basic - really cant get why it's not been done.

You can hard-delete posts, which removes them from the database.

 

[Forsaken]

FB and G+ are just fads, simple as. Content is where the action is.

While I dislike social networking myself, its become much more than a fad, and become more and more integrated into peoples lives.

And Google+ has quite a bit of content, much of which is relating to the tech industry (Where their primary user base is).

 

[Disrelation]

A lot of you expect far too much, too soon. Give XenForo time to grow.

 

[Paul]

You can hard-delete posts, which removes them from the database.

Delete a node, and all the posts remain. So erm - no not as far as i'm concerned!!!

 

[Onimua]

Delete a node, and all the posts remain. So erm - no not as far as i'm concerned!!!

Oh that; that's different from your initial post as I understood it.

They have said it will be addressed (and other things) in 1.2 if I recall correctly.

 

[digitalpoint]

While I agree that it would be nice if the posts didn't get orphaned, how often does a normal site *really* delete a node without first moving threads to a different node?

I can honestly say I've never had any need to delete a forum in my site.

 

[Paul]

Oh indeed - however in that case 1.2 cant come quick enough - we havent even gone supported on 1.1 yet!... More to the point - i have 1.6M posts on my forum that are currently "AWOL" i.e. still exist in the DB however i cant remove them... It still sees the posts as being searchable, cachable etc etc, just not visable!

 

[mauzao9]

lol! Yeah...ok. FB and such networks, when you look closely, allow for only small/short discussions. This thread would have lasted 2 hours before people didn't look at it. On top of that, people wouldn't write big messages like they did here. FB's downfall is it's hard to read a message when you post something really long due to the width constraints of the messages posted. I only use FB to see quick updates about things but when I want a discussion, I find a forum about it.

The only thing that could really kill forums is if, say FB, buys out xenforo and uses xF has their forum platform and has a forum for almost every niche and incorporates that into your walls somehow. It would be difficult but I'm sure they are smart enough to figure something like that out. I mean hell...they have had forums in the past (not sure if they still exist) and those were pretty desolate from what I saw.

I've not lost any significant traffic to social networks in the whole time I've ran websites, and the sites I've noticed that have lacked quality content.

XenForo is a forum platform first and foremost, and its focus is building the core software to be comparable to other forum software, not to compete with Facebook, Google+ (Where they have real content) or any other network.

Eventually we'll probably see more social features (Groups and albums for example), but currently the focus should remain on making the core as feature rich and bloat free as possible.

A forum is a community.

There's nothing to get mad about, I don't code xF or have any say in what gets added or doesn't (any more than any voice here anyway). The point is simply you shouldn't expect something xF is not (currently). It might change and such features might get added later, but the bottom line is (today) xF is FORUM software only and you should base any decisions and expectations on what it *IS*, not what you *WANT* it to be.

You guys are thinking wrong way.
You are Forum Owners, but Xenforo is not for Forum Owners, is ALL ABOUT THE END USER. And we must think on what end user want's and needs, NOT in what we want and need. That's because the point of having an Forum is having users using it.

In our community, we got alot of people who want us to make more social things, every time, they like the forum but they want more than a forum INSIDE the forum. If our users want that, why not? There are things in xenforo like status system, share system that are useless because they where not made the right way.

Xenforo should be diferent of the others, do things never done, even if they end like a FAIL, it's making new things never done before that we can take this Forum/Community Softwares for the next level, and not just making some improves here, improves there....

I talked of Social Networks, because now the people only care about them, even if they keep using foruns the priority is going social, BUT the Social Networks doesn't have CONTENT, things that an forum have.
Soo I think this way, if we can go more social, we already have the Content that Social Networks doesn't have, we just need some social things and people will love it! I can't say what I really want because i'm English Limited, but that what I think about this, Social Network Things + Forum = ?

^^

 

[Morgain]

I'd say "fails" is the wrong word... failing at something implies you tried. You can't fail at something you didn't try to do to begin with.

This was discussed above. No one means to be nasty about XF - we all love it. It was agreed 'fails' is inaccurate but it's catchy and has sparked a good thread.

Yes, there are some features that I wish XenForo had and a few things it could do a little better... but I haven't run across anything yet that it failed at.

Actually I do think that the way it handles login timeout is a fail, and that's central. See mine earlier.
Areas where XenForo fails
It's annoying and frequent and if I were an ordinary user it would seriously put me off an XF forum. This is big.

Also not showing participants in a conversation so you have to open several conversations to see who's there and find the one you want, that's a fail too. Conversations are an important core supplement to the forums, not an add-on.

Also not having a sidebar manager - XF is not aimed at code experts as admins. The sidebar should be global by default, and flexible in admin to disable per location, and add/ remove components. A sidebar is about navigation and that's cdentral.
Ditto navbar manager.

Finally of course Pages which need BBCode editing preferably frontend, and pagination. They are a great addition to back the forums, provide guides and introductions. But again XF is not a coders elite paradise. A lot of its delight is because of that policy.

Which is not to say KAM have done it wrong. Their vision and hard work is quite simply beyond praise.
This is just to say please focus these as lacunae, missing things that need filling in. We say these things out of love and admiration, because we want XF to be the ultimate best - AS THEY DO.

 

[Morgain]

You guys are thinking wrong way.
You are Forum Owners, but Xenforo is not for Forum Owners, is ALL ABOUT THE END USER. And we must think on what end user want's and needs, NOT in what we want and need. That's because the point of having an Forum is having users using it.

Three cheers fro the bottom line centre point the THING WOT MATTERS.

 

[digitalpoint]

Yeah, I don't disagree... I just know what are priorities for you (or other people) are not going to be priorities for others. Like I have a list of priorities that *I* consider really important, but those aren't necessarily shared by others. For example, no master/slave DB setup is huge... enough so that I need to write a DB class to handle it before going live would even be an option. But for others, it's not important since they only have 1 DB server.

 

[Morgain]

Yeah, I don't disagree... I just know what are priorities for you (or other people) are not going to be priorities for others. Like I have a list of priorities that *I* consider really important, but those aren't necessarily shared by others. For example, no master/slave DB setup is huge... enough so that I need to write a DB class to handle it before going live would even be an option. But for others, it's not important since they only have 1 DB server.

Thanks DP. I totally agree on things like a gallery, photo albums, blog, wiki, chat and various other additional features. These vary immensely in urgency according to the community.
It is hoped that these will one day be created by the developers but as official add-ons perhaps for us to buy. This is because core is so much better on upgrade.

But the kind of things I cited are functions that affect the majority of forums if not all.

 

[Onimua]

Xenforo should be diferent of the others, do things never done, even if they end like a FAIL, it's making new things never done before that we can take this Forum/Community Softwares for the next level, and not just making some improves here, improves there....

There's a lot more to doing things never done before than doing it "just because." If it ends in failure, than it means it's been a waste of time and where would that place XF then? How would we, as customers, feel if something they developed failed? I think you're overlooking a few things because while XenForo has a sprinkle of things that aren't in, or at least widely used, in other forum software what it has does it much better, which I see is far more beneficial than trying to reinvent the wheel or create something entirely new that hasn't had a previous example to learn from or prove it works and for a new company, taking blind leaps isn't usually a good idea.

XenForo just started, you can't expect them to have every base covered all at once. It will get there I'm sure, but not today and not tomorrow. What you want is quite detailed, and take a lot of time, research, experimentation, and development to execute properly. Mike and Kier are doing a wonderful job building a solid base to build on but the basics need to be taken care of first before they can focus on external efforts like add-ons.

Yes, to some people the "obvious" is missing but I doubt it's sheer forgetfulness on the developers' side. They're weathered software developers, and I'm sure they have a rhyme and reason for what they do and when even if it's not apparent to us.

 

[TNCclubman]

I think you need to understand what you are asking/saying...

Xenforo is FORUM software and it's damned good at that.

Event Calendars and Photo Posting have NOTHING to do with FORUM software. They are website features that many people like (and many don't), that have been bolted onto existing FORUM software, but are themselves NOT forum software. What you are asking for are addons that help round out a WEBSITE.

I get what you're saying, but having expectations of these types of things, is unrealistic when you are talking about FORUMs. If you/we get these features, great! (I personally really want a good event calendar (There's already a gallery mod)) But to expect them is a little much.

Sorry for all the caps, but... heh

Sorry, but xF currently isnt just a forum. The feeds, likes and follow system are more current with a social network. If user albums are so untoward for a forum, why allow people to upload an avatar at all. Maybe it should just be a username only as its a forum. And a calendar, come on, every forum has a calendar. Not digging on xF, just the post that xF is a FORUM first. I dont think that is the vision here. (or at least I didnt get it from the guys in charge and Ive been here from the begining.) This isnt 2001... this is 2011.

Just saying lets get the show on the road. Saying no new big features or we'd be in alpha modes all the time. Um dude, we're in alha releases now. (Ok as of yesterday, RC) and thats without launching anything major. Its been over a year. Realistically, the site already has an album feature, the attachment system is amazing. It would be 1 hour of work to make the photos assign to a user as opposed to a post.

 

[AzzidReign]

You guys are thinking wrong way.
You are Forum Owners, but Xenforo is not for Forum Owners, is ALL ABOUT THE END USER. And we must think on what end user want's and needs, NOT in what we want and need. That's because the point of having an Forum is having users using it.

In our community, we got alot of people who want us to make more social things, every time, they like the forum but they want more than a forum INSIDE the forum. If our users want that, why not? There are things in xenforo like status system, share system that are useless because they where not made the right way.

Xenforo should be diferent of the others, do things never done, even if they end like a FAIL, it's making new things never done before that we can take this Forum/Community Softwares for the next level, and not just making some improves here, improves there....

I talked of Social Networks, because now the people only care about them, even if they keep using foruns the priority is going social, BUT the Social Networks doesn't have CONTENT, things that an forum have.
Soo I think this way, if we can go more social, we already have the Content that Social Networks doesn't have, we just need some social things and people will love it! I can't say what I really want because i'm English Limited, but that what I think about this, Social Network Things + Forum = ?

^^

I feel the status updates and profile comments are a great start. Much better than any other system out there so I don't know what you think needs improvement. Maybe just a ticker like fb does but we have the one page that contains that...so maybe you just want that in the right column to see instant updates of what everyone is doing that you are following.

I really don't know what more social things you want. Maybe some examples? Xf is doing many things that others aren't doing. I think the alerts is great. The trophies is definitely something great to increase activity but something that definitely needs work done and I plan on hiring someone to modify it to work differently that can ultimately change the way sites work as well as how users utilize the site.

I'm just confused as to what social things you want more of...

 

[Forsaken]

Sorry, but xF currently isnt just a forum. The feeds, likes and follow system are more current with a social network. If user albums are so untoward for a forum, why allow people to upload an avatar at all. Maybe it should just be a username only as its a forum. And a calendar, come on, every forum has a calendar. Not digging on xF, just the post that xF is a FORUM first. I dont think that is the vision here. (or at least I didnt get it from the guys in charge and Ive been here from the begining.) This isnt 2001... this is 2011.

Just saying lets get the show on the road. Saying no new big features or we'd be in alpha modes all the time. Um dude, we're in alha releases now. (Ok as of yesterday, RC) and thats without launching anything major. Its been over a year. Realistically, the site already has an album feature, the attachment system is amazing. It would be 1 hour of work to make the photos assign to a user as opposed to a post.

XenForo is a forum first, however they have added elements that other forums don't have. That doesn't change its focus.

Also, there is no album feature, there is an attachment system. I don't think you realize the amount of work to make a full fledge album feature, because you're clearly underestimating the time it would take to do things properly.

 

[AzzidReign]

Realistically, the site already has an album feature, the attachment system is amazing. It would be 1 hour of work to make the photos assign to a user as opposed to a post.

For one hour of work, why not you create it or hire someone to create it? I was seeing that some PHP coders cost between 30-70/hour. So that shouldn't be much change out of your pocket.

 

[mauzao9]

There's a lot more to doing things never done before than doing it "just because." If it ends in failure, than it means it's been a waste of time and where would that place XF then? How would we, as customers, feel if something they developed failed? I think you're overlooking a few things because while XenForo has a sprinkle of things that aren't in, or at least widely used, in other forum software what it has does it much better, which I see is far more beneficial than trying to reinvent the wheel or create something entirely new that hasn't had a previous example to learn from or prove it works and for a new company, taking blind leaps isn't usually a good idea.

XenForo just started, you can't expect them to have every base covered all at once. It will get there I'm sure, but not today and not tomorrow. What you want is quite detailed, and take a lot of time, research, experimentation, and development to execute properly. Mike and Kier are doing a wonderful job building a solid base to build on but the basics need to be taken care of first before they can focus on external efforts like add-ons.

Yes, to some people the "obvious" is missing but I doubt it's sheer forgetfulness on the developers' side. They're weathered software developers, and I'm sure they have a rhyme and reason for what they do and when even if it's not apparent to us.

I know that. What it may be done like IPB does, it's addons that are extras but not part of software, this way, they can gave us more options, and make the script even more flexible, just started isn't a good word, it's 1 year, and that's time. And because that what is really bad it's the lack of MODs, and some of them, like that threads sidebard we use, are abandoned and there is no alternative. Sometimes I get mad when I see alot of Owners care only about Portals when much of end-users don't care about that, and make repeated MODs... others are abandoned. D:

 

[mauzao9]

I feel the status updates and profile comments are a great start. Much better than any other system out there so I don't know what you think needs improvement. Maybe just a ticker like fb does but we have the one page that contains that...so maybe you just want that in the right column to see instant updates of what everyone is doing that you are following.

I really don't know what more social things you want. Maybe some examples? Xf is doing many things that others aren't doing. I think the alerts is great. The trophies is definitely something great to increase activity but something that definitely needs work done and I plan on hiring someone to modify it to work differently that can ultimately change the way sites work as well as how users utilize the site.

I'm just confused as to what social things you want more of...

I Like that too, but repare, the status and profile are rarely used, and that's not because users don't want to use it, it's because it's hard and not interesting to use.

Like I said in first page it would be nice an Status page, like an Facebook wall, with status updates, likes, comments, it would be nice for make the status system get more used, and take that ****-chat out from the foruns, people like that kind of things, I don't understand why Forum Owners don't like that WHEN I already did some studies in our community and they want that at rates of 90% YES in 2000 of users how participed.

Another thing would be nice, it's like what Youtube as, and conection to twitter/facebook, when a user uploads a video, like a video, etc... It posts and Tweet/status update, if that would exist in xenforo, 100% the visitors will increase and it's an great way to promote the forum.

Only that 2 things would be awesome for a more social options, that for sure make the site more active. It's not really a question of "this is what I think", huge ammount of our users liked this ideas, why Forum Owners here don't? Xenforo is for End-Users not for Forum Owners!