Been away for a few years

Just based on what i have seen today. I do not see where any forum software has stepped up to spearhead the path forward into the future. xenforo seems to be ignoring the “voice of the customer” which is red flag 101.

“vb6 looks sweet” is about all i'm sure of.

Forums need to do what facebook can’t.

I am failing to see any reason to start a community in 2024 on any topic other than a topic not allowed on facebook. That was my last hoorah a facebook forbidden topic .. flew too close to the sun on that one. it was a success but at a cost.

I have a new passion that i am considering starting a community on … it can be easily monetized (and is on the up and up) but i would probably be banned from the facebook group for spamming to try to push membership. and i know the grind of trying to get a forum going by normal
means such as self populated content and seo
The "customers" as you call them or a good majority still using forum software aren't here for the " new look" 99.9% of the users I have and most others have are people in their 40's on up and they prefer simplicity and ease of use. I don't want forum software to look like social media, I think that's a waste of time and energy.
I think your expectations appear to be unrealistic, if you have great content and subjects that your core membership can discuss and collaborate about/on then your community can thrive. The platform you present it on is secondary.
 
I would stop using XF if that was ever implemented.

The "customers" as you call them or a good majority still using forum software aren't here for the " new look" 99.9% of the users I have and most others have are people in their 40's on up and they prefer simplicity and ease of use.
I personally think both of these mindsets are missing the bigger picture.

I do like the old-school feel of forums having grown up with them, but I also know the next generation has a different preference as well. Diesel is technically a customer to XF and writing in the context of "customers want" defeats your own point. While I like the simplicity of pages, I wouldn't be upset if XF introduced scrolling posts instead of pagination in XF 3 if that's what people prefer today (i.e. the large adoption of discourse). I personally don't think I'm ready for scrolling threads within a post though :P

I do think XF could do more in terms of iterative development/releases, but I also do appreciate they are building a framework that allows developers to greatly extend/customize the board so communities can provide unique offerings. I'm keen to see if agility picks up once there is alignment on XF 3.0 forward, instead of having split development on 2.3 and 3.

There's a subset of folks on here that want XF to do everything. There's another subset that have development expertise and want extensibility. And then there's a subset that want to continue the status quo for their current community.

These three personas are hard balance, but if XF doesn't try new things, that doesn't spark innovation either.
 
Google attempted infinite scrolling and moved back to pagination as it was affecting advertising revenue - each new page displayed a different set of adverts, with infinite scrolling there were only a few adverts displayed per search. Any forum dependent on advertising revenue would suffer a similar loss if infinite scrolling were implemented. It may be OK for Social Media sites, but not for forums. It isn't a case of 'moving with the times' rather one of practicality. I personally would not want to see infinite scrolling, and I don't show adverts, lol.

I would suggest this be left to a developer who wishes to create an add-on that does infinite scrolling, then those that want it will have an option. We need to be careful about changing the nature of forums, otherwise the system will just become like Social Media platforms and that defeats the function of forums. If you want something that mimics Social Media, there are scripts out there that will accommodate.
 
i do not remember what software it was but i went to one site that gave you an option at the bottom
you could either load more posts or go to another page.
you had what amounted to the best of both worlds.
 
This is all possible with Xenforo 🫡


You should check with Google on how to prioritize search results (and then share with the rest of us!)

If your biggest issue with Xenforo is the default theme, then you'll be fine. There are plenty of options of themes and vibrant Marketplace.

Congrats on the success of your forums, always great to see thriving communities!
They do prioritize search results. They give the best rankings to those sites that they deem authoritative and serve the best content for the users in that particular niche.

After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritize those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify signals that can help determine which content demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”
 
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Google attempted infinite scrolling and moved back to pagination as it was affecting advertising revenue - each new page displayed a different set of adverts, with infinite scrolling there were only a few adverts displayed per search. Any forum dependent on advertising revenue would suffer a similar loss if infinite scrolling were implemented. It may be OK for Social Media sites, but not for forums. It isn't a case of 'moving with the times' rather one of practicality. I personally would not want to see infinite scrolling, and I don't show adverts, lol.

I would suggest this be left to a developer who wishes to create an add-on that does infinite scrolling, then those that want it will have an option. We need to be careful about changing the nature of forums, otherwise the system will just become like Social Media platforms and that defeats the function of forums. If you want something that mimics Social Media, there are scripts out there that will accommodate.
as a viewer i want less ads
 
I personally don't think I'm ready for scrolling threads within a post though :P
I would be open to it if XF remembered where you left off on a thread when you exited it, and put you right back in that position when you reopened it (unless from a /post-XXXX link that would direct you elsewhere). You can't do this with paginated threads here; you just have to remember to bookmark where you left off.
Any forum dependent on advertising revenue would suffer a similar loss if infinite scrolling were implemented.
Not necessarily. There are two sidebars that you could use for skyscraper ads (or any other dimensions) that scroll with the content so the user only ever sees those ads, making it more attractive to someone who wants to buy ad space as they're always the secondary (to content) focus of attention.
 
Has anyone ever heard the saying, "Please don't feed the trolls"? We were saying this in the early 1990s on IRC Chat and Usenet. LOL
Since this concept is not being followed here is my reply.

Started with VB in 2003 on our Thunderbird Forum used PHPbb prior to that in 2001-2003. Unfortunately, VB got bought by Internet Brands, and things went downhill IMHO. I wrote a detailed review of it on Trustpilot https://trstp.lt/jXyg60tFO .

We are all creatures of habit. Fortunately, I realized that XF was a better team and software, so I ditched VB in 2018. Our forums have dominated our space, and we had one competitor who still uses VB, which has been hacked and has had all sorts of problems. Their site is pretty much dead now!

A year ago, I decided to throw together a hobby site for fun and started a Xenforo forum for it. With little effort, I was able to make this, and we're up to 750 members. It's not anywhere close to the 20k users on my other forum, but it's still fun and informative.



Screenshot 2024-08-25 215717.webp
 
as a viewer i want less ads
I hate adverts with a passion, however if the survival of a site is dependent on adverts .....

Not necessarily. There are two sidebars that you could use for skyscraper ads (or any other dimensions) that scroll with the content so the user only ever sees those ads, making it more attractive to someone who wants to buy ad space as they're always the secondary (to content) focus of attention.
If everyone used a desktop/laptop I would run with this, but as we all know more people access the Internet via mobile phones, so those sidebars would be wiped.
 
If everyone used a desktop/laptop I would run with this, but as we all know more people access the Internet via mobile phones, so those sidebars would be wiped.
I'm sure Google AdSense could load ads in between posts. If not, you could always serve them up in a template edit (or plugin) to be between each X post. It'd be nothing different than what you would see on Facebook. If mobile view, you might as well design ads to look like posts for a better CTR or engagement.

Took a bit of time to make this, @Davyc . Probably the most elegant way of placing an ad in between posts, blending in as it would on other mediums. If a community relied on ads and was used more on mobile devices, I'm sure something like this would work better than a traditional landscape banner.
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Yes.

You need to articulate what it is you are expecting in future releases instead of just saying "make it better/different".
Isn’t that the job of Xenforo staff on the pay roll to come up with new innovation as the years go on?

That’s atleast how it is with every other company out there, to keep their products producing 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
Google attempted infinite scrolling and moved back to pagination as it was affecting advertising revenue - each new page displayed a different set of adverts, with infinite scrolling there were only a few adverts displayed per search.
what percentage of forums use ads ?
 
In that case we should just do away with the suggestions forum then.
Just use ChatGPT. Everyone knows ChatGPT is the best thing ever, and could totally take the place of all developers, project managers and take the place of every genius to have ever existed throughout history.
 
Just use ChatGPT. Everyone knows ChatGPT is the best thing ever, and could totally take the place of all developers, project managers and take the place of every genius to have ever existed throughout history.
I was curious what'd it come up with...... 👀

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