Areas where XenForo fails

[Forsaken]

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!

Not every forums users use social networking.

One forum I'm on would die out with more required social networking features, as its a place made up of security experts who tend to be on the paranoid side.

If you want a purely social experience, look at Social Engine or one of the other platforms for a BYO Social Network.

 

[EasyTarget]

I'm MAD. Why can't we choose the number of itens every time it fetch the RSS FEED?

We used now and see that he is posting 5 of a time D:

That's why I suggested it be implemented here
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/limit-number-of-items-returned-from-feed.23293/

 

[mauzao9]

Not every forums users use social networking.

One forum I'm on would die out with more required social networking features, as its a place made up of security experts who tend to be on the paranoid side.

If you want a purely social experience, look at Social Engine or one of the other platforms for a BYO Social Network.

We would use some social network thing... But what matters it's the Forum, because the contents that a SN doesn't have, what I mean it's a Forum + Social Network tools.

And remember, make xenforo flexible would be have social tools and HAVE option to disable/enable them. This way everybody should be happy.

 

[AzzidReign]

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!

I'll have to agree with you for the most part on these. The status feed is a bit jumbled imo and should be cleaned up. Seems as though they just wanted to cram as much onto one page and not space anything out to make it easier to read. And yes, liking comments on profiles is nice.

I'm currently on IPB and our users utilize the profile system quite a bit (and it's much ****tier than xF's IMHO). I guess it depends on the community as to how much it gets utilized.

 

[mauzao9]

I'll have to agree with you for the most part on these. The status feed is a bit jumbled imo and should be cleaned up. Seems as though they just wanted to cram as much onto one page and not space anything out to make it easier to read. And yes, liking comments on profiles is nice.

I'm currently on IPB and our users utilize the profile system quite a bit (and it's much ****tier than xF's IMHO). I guess it depends on the community as to how much it gets utilized.

It depends how it's easy and nice to members to use it. In xenforo it's hard because even when we update the status, we don't have a place for see everybody recent status for talk, and know new people. We need to go to everybody profiles for see what they are saying.

And that news feed for followed people it's messed up, it's all on same place, if at least would be an option to filter as status, new threads, replies, others...

 

[Trekkan]

For the record, I'm not arguing against xF having addons with more social features such as calendars (I want one, and a good one!) or Photos, etc...

All I'm saying is that these are full apps themselves (Media Wiki, etc) and that they aren't "forum" software. They would be addons to forum software, which in their entirety would be a platform. I'm not debating their validity or usefulness, etc. All I'm saying is that you should set your expectations to a realistic level (there's 2 guys coding xF) and that if you bought xF with the assumption that it was a full "social network platform", you're probably going to be disappointed (as far as I know, I have no idea what KM have in store for us), at least in the short term.

Again, I'm all for new features to choose from and am not trying to shoot down what you want in any way.

 

[Forsaken]

I'll have to agree with you for the most part on these. The status feed is a bit jumbled imo and should be cleaned up. Seems as though they just wanted to cram as much onto one page and not space anything out to make it easier to read. And yes, liking comments on profiles is nice.

I'm currently on IPB and our users utilize the profile system quite a bit (and it's much ****tier than xF's IMHO). I guess it depends on the community as to how much it gets utilized.

I prefer the IPB tab layout to XenForo, due to it taking a bit less space and allowing more content. Its just way too bulky and slow (Due to their ajax).

We would use some social network thing... But what matters it's the Forum, because the contents that a SN doesn't have, what I mean it's a Forum + Social Network tools.

And remember, make xenforo flexible would be have social tools and HAVE option to disable/enable them. This way everybody should be happy.

Many of your suggestions would change the focus from discussions to socializing, which defeats the purpose of a forum. Discussions are the bread and butter of your community, anything else is just extra fluff (Used as a generalization of course).

Exactly, content is what drives a forum, not all the social interaction (Which is just a bonus). Many of your suggestions though would change the focus from being about content to being about social interaction, which is the wrong approach.

Also, what is your research based off of? Is it a single community, or have you looked at many communities? A single community is not like any other community and can't be used to generalize for all of them. If you're basing it off of multiple communities, are they in the same niche? Again, can't be generalized because every niche is different.

For the record, I'm not arguing against xF having addons with more social features such as calendars (I want one, and a good one!) or Photos, etc...

All I'm saying is that these are full apps themselves (Media Wiki, etc) and that they aren't "forum" software. They would be addons to forum software, which in their entirety would be a platform. I'm not debating their validity or usefulness, etc. All I'm saying is that you should set your expectations to a realistic level (there's 2 guys coding xF) and that if you bought xF with the assumption that it was a full "social network platform", you're probably going to be disappointed (as far as I know, I have no idea what KM have in store for us), at least in the short term.

Again, I'm all for new features to choose from and am not trying to shoot down what you want in any way.

This is how it should be, and not adding everything to the core. Many of the features would be overkill for most communities, and many of them would drive members away (Not every community has a subject you want to share to Facebook or Youtube).

The argument that forums are for end-users is completely true, however if you cater to every demand of your end-user your site will have no real focus as every user will want something different.

 

[mauzao9]

Many of your suggestions would change the focus from discussions to socializing, which defeats the purpose of a forum. Discussions are the bread and butter of your community, anything else is just extra fluff (Used as a generalization of course).

Exactly, content is what drives a forum, not all the social interaction (Which is just a bonus). Many of your suggestions though would change the focus from being about content to being about social interaction, which is the wrong approach.

Also, what is your research based off of? Is it a single community, or have you looked at many communities? A single community is not like any other community and can't be used to generalize for all of them. If you're basing it off of multiple communities, are they in the same niche? Again, can't be generalized because every niche is different.

The argument that forums are for end-users is completely true, however if you cater to every demand of your end-user your site will have no real focus as every user will want something different.

You get me a bit wrong, in our foruns I notice alot one thing, people are "chatting" on the forum, some create all days topics "good morning", "good night", "my dog as ran out", my suggestions are about this, if we got something like an Facebook wall (for status update system), this people that flood the forum with that chat things that are not allowed, they would start to do their "chat" in the status system an not in the forum by topics/posts. This way we can create an division, people can do their talks in status, and discuss about things in foruns.
There is already the status system, but you may know that without an "wall of status" people rarely use it because they know it would be rare someone like/comment.

I know there is alof of kinds, since ages to subjects. I'm staff of 5 foruns, 2 in admin, others in MOD, one of them is the XF, in that same, main themes aa gaming, virtual worlds, interesting things... By curiosity I did by topic in every of them to ask that and see what they say about. There was huge ammount of replies, in that I based my posts here too, most of them agree with me.

BUT AGAIN, every single forum is diferent, that's why I said, we can have social options, and we can have option to enable/disable that. Since there is already for alot of things in xenforo.

 

[Forsaken]

You get me a bit wrong, in our foruns I notice alot one thing, people are "chatting" on the forum, some create all days topics "good morning", "good night", "my dog as ran out", my suggestions are about this, if we got something like an Facebook wall (for status update system), this people that flood the forum with that chat things that are not allowed, they would start to do their "chat" in the status system an not in the forum by topics/posts. This way we can create an division, people can do their talks in status, and discuss about things in foruns.
There is already the status system, but you may know that without an "wall of status" people rarely use it because they know it would be rare someone like/comment.

I know there is alof of kinds, since ages to subjects. I'm staff of 5 foruns, 2 in admin, others in MOD, one of them is the XF, in that same, main themes aa gaming, virtual worlds, interesting things... By curiosity I did by topic in every of them to ask that and see what they say about. There was huge ammount of replies, in that I based my posts here too, most of them agree with me.

BUT AGAIN, every single forum is diferent, that's why I said, we can have social options, and we can have option to enable/disable that. Since there is already for alot of things in xenforo.

It looks like your users would continue to post that even if there were more social features.

 

[Claudio]

You get me a bit wrong, in our foruns I notice alot one thing, people are "chatting" on the forum, some create all days topics "good morning", "good night", "my dog as ran out", my suggestions are about this, if we got something like an Facebook wall (for status update system), this people that flood the forum with that chat things that are not allowed, they would start to do their "chat" in the status system an not in the forum by topics/posts. This way we can create an division, people can do their talks in status, and discuss about things in foruns.
There is already the status system, but you may know that without an "wall of status" people rarely use it because they know it would be rare someone like/comment.

I know there is alof of kinds, since ages to subjects. I'm staff of 5 foruns, 2 in admin, others in MOD, one of them is the XF, in that same, main themes aa gaming, virtual worlds, interesting things... By curiosity I did by topic in every of them to ask that and see what they say about. There was huge ammount of replies, in that I based my posts here too, most of them agree with me.

BUT AGAIN, every single forum is diferent, that's why I said, we can have social options, and we can have option to enable/disable that. Since there is already for alot of things in xenforo.

Few years ago, where 1 page to upload images
other to upload videos
other application to chat with your friends..

nowadays 2.0 web unify all in one page..this = facebook

forum cant still being forums, they need to implement social functions like xf has done

 

[Morgain]

I can remember this debate about pure forums and social networking exploding on VB back on the 3.7 upgrade.

First the issue is a range of needs - some admins need a "pure forum" others need a bit of SN others need a lot.
That in no way makes SN "fluff."

Discussion is not just about making statements, laying out logic, giving references and sources.
Academic do that but not many of us operate like that outside formal debate situations like academic journals.
Also even academics are affected by personal relationships around the content they write.

Examples of how SN supports and enhances forum content.

As someone not at all expert in code I want to ask a question I know the coders around here will find terribly basic.
I could easily feel intimidated and not ask. That would mean i don't get5 the CONTENT I need - nor do other members benefit who might need it.
But here, because I have a (fairly) good Conversation system, I have talked with several coders individually. I know they do not despise me. So I risk it, and ask.
The result is fantastic. I got a long careful guide from a coder. More than I expected.
But if I could not see this guy and others popping up - recognisable with their avatars - with a little info to personalise who they are where they are ... if I could not have some private Conversations ... I would not feel brave enough to ask ... and learn ... and benefit others with eliciting that magnificent support answer.

Round the other way there are users who are a lot less experienced than I am in running a business. I have contacted them or they contact me, and I have given them advice privately. I also help coders with the user interface issues.
We talk sometimes via Conversation ... I recognise their avatars ... their personal information helps me understand them a bit ... I am more likely to read their posts carefully because they are more real to me ...

I enjoy it when I find an Alert connected with any of these contacts - those I help or those that help me.
This ALL motivates me to return here far more than if it was just a kind of encyclopaedia to look up information content. Actually if it was just that I'd often be doing web searches instead, looking at other info sites.

What makes this forum sticky for me is the combination of high quality data and people interaction.The two together are irresistible - many naughty late hours as a result and an XF widower husband at night - but boy do I contribute content!

Content is not like a dictionary definition or encyclopaedia article - it issues from PEOPLE with all their complexity of relationship. Hence Likes being soi helpful.

Now some admins/ communities are not really communities of people. They are marketplaces or pure exchanges of data.
Fair enough. But the majority of people relate to each other AS PEOPLE and THAT generates content.

 

[TNCclubman]

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.

ya, but it would break most every time we update to the latest xF. I need something vanilla. Been in the forum game for 12 years to know that if its not part of the core, its a ***** everytime you upgrade to the latest release and be protected from attacks.

 

[Forsaken]

ya, but it would break most every time we update to the latest xF. I need something vanilla. Been in the forum game for 12 years to know that if its not part of the core, its a ***** everytime you upgrade to the latest release and be protected from attacks.

Uh... Yeah with other systems.

Nearly every mod made for XenForo is foward-compatible with new releases, especially if they're made well. And there haven't been many add-ons with security issues.

 

[kkm323]

OMG the primary reason for this thread is to improve XenForo.
please delete all post and leave leave the one with suggestion, again is not a thread for new feature.

 

[mrGTB]

Ha! I went to bed really early last night, was very tired and on checking my emails early this morning got lead here. Wow, did somebody drop and atomic bomb on this thread while I was kicking ZZZZzzzzz out?

There's too much wrong with the newly added features to start worry about extending the feature list to bloat. It's just being shown that the features that still need working on are not being utilized by people, the same folk that one more added in and will never use the new features that they think they want. Probably the same people whom will come back complaining about bloat being added. No thanks.

Anyway, whatever happens I'm sure I can apply more dirty fixes to get the current features partially working.

Without waffling on, that! I think Shelley makes some good point's there.

 

[erich37]

I would say XenForo is very good software... and I have tested a few others extensively and those others really fail in terms of amount of bugs and confusing interface (e.g. BuddyPress).
So far XenForo is the best I have seen and easy to use for both users and admins.

There are a few things which can get improved and tweaked, but I am sure Mike+Kier will do that going forward as they are very intelligent and talented.

as an example:
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/who-uses-recent-activity-here-xenforo-com.19449/

And I think this community is very unique and has lots of experience, which we all should leverage in making this product even better.

 

[mauzao9]

It looks like your users would continue to post that even if there were more social features.

Not really. What it's more talked about it's that I said, one status page, just for get the Status system more interesting would be fine. That's because I notice that users sometimes are bored in forum, there are diferent types of users, some like to post everyhere, others like to create nice topics to impress the others, others like meet new people talking by profiles, others are just read-only that are always online but never post, and others want an "facebook wall" inside the forum for chat there when they get bored.

What I wanna give them, is when they get bored, or there is nothing new interesting for read, they can do other things on site, instead just close the window.

 

[mauzao9]

Few years ago, where 1 page to upload images
other to upload videos
other application to chat with your friends..

nowadays 2.0 web unify all in one page..this = facebook

forum cant still being forums, they need to implement social functions like xf has done

I defend here if everything is "upgrading" on web, foruns must it too. And not just still stoped with the classic forum system from YEEEEEEEEEEEARS ago.

Right, I know, it changed alot from YEAAAAAAAAAAARS ago, but still with same bases, let's see, the status system, blogs, groups, albuns, alot of improves in how things are done, IPB is the best example of it, but they did too complicated, for who want a simple site, IPB it's argh. Xenforo is only following in most part of what other forum softwares was done, there is always something new, but the base still the same.

 

[mauzao9]

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.

1 HOUR IS THAT? OMG, that is for xenforo? I see PHP coders at 50% less in the most cases... But really, it depends in how much time they take to get something done, where did you get those prices? Is that price they ask in for do it for xenforo?

Soo many questions

 

[jonsidneyb]

A think to think about. Many of us want different things. Like I have said before if I get bloat I want to bloat it on my terms, not bloat it with things I will not use. Theads and alerts are social enough for my forum, threads is what makes my forum and my members can be social in there. I feel much has to do with the nature of individual forums.

I want the best basic forum software possible then almost everything else to be à la carte.