Bringing together 3 different communities

[=MGN=RedEagle]

I run three communities which all have things in common but right now are separate. I would like to bring all three closer. I am looking for the best tech to do so.

Community 1:
A sandbox gaming community

Required features:
Mobile friendly
Fast

Ideal features:
Currency system
Patron integration/Donation System


Community 2:
Unity game developers

Required features:
Q/A system
Resources or file hosting
Patron integration

Ideal features:
Currency system

Community 3:
Niche virtual reality group

Required features:
Ability to keep all posts private
Speed
Ease-of-use

Ideal features:
Currency/Reputation currency system
Discord integration



So my options for this I think are:

#1) 3 forums with links to each other, single sign on.
-- Can I connect a XF 2.0 with an XF 1.0 via SSO?
#2) One forum with "groups/clubs" for each niche.
-- Unless I go with Invision I will have to depend on a 3rd party plugin for this. What if it's badly coded?



I'd love help with the questions under #1 and #2 above

 

[Robust]

-- Can I connect a XF 2.0 with an XF 1.0 via SSO?

Using an add-on, yes. This isn't possible in the core, as Brogan answered in your other thread about the same question.

-- Unless I go with Invision I will have to depend on a 3rd party plugin for this. What if it's badly coded?

You run the same risk with every piece of software you purchase, or more generally, *everything* you purchase. Many add-on developers here work full-time on add-on development, it's their jobs. If they produce badly coded crappy add-ons, they just won't get sales. That simple logic should ensure that the add-on quality should be satisfactory. The RM contains plenty of well coded add-ons, far more well-coded than poorly-coded.

If, by some chance, it is poorly coded, your primary methods of recourse would be talking with the developer to resolve the bugs, and if the developer shows no interest in doing so (in a fair, timely manner) you can either make a chargeback on PayPal or cut your losses.

As you get used to shopping for add-ons, you'll typically have a good-developer bad-developer list.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Using an add-on, yes. This isn't possible in the core, as Brogan answered in your other thread about the same question.

Thank you so much. I have never used SSO before. I can't find any plugins for XF2.0 that would make this happen. Do you know of any?

 

[Ozzy47]

No, there is none listed as available for XF2 here yet.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

I guess ima go with 3 forums then. Ouch, the license fees ;-;

 

[Alpha1]

Here you go:
https://xfrocks.com/other/threads/bd-api-for-xenforo-2-0.615/

 

[TPerry]

I love XenForo as a forum script, but for what you are needing, IPS would probably be the better choice.
I'm a firm believer in using the correct tool for the job.

 

[Alpha1]

Because IPS has an API built in and Clubs?

 

[Robust]

I love XenForo as a forum script, but for what you are needing, IPS would probably be the better choice.
I'm a firm believer in using the correct tool for the job.

Second sentence is accurate, the first sentence is a bit flawed. The lack of some specific features is irrelevant. They can be added fairly simply with custom development or with pre-existing add-ons, if you're lucky. You should look for the platform that, in general, most fits your community and is the most extensible for custom work, since the uniqueness of a forum will come with the style and add-ons which tailor the software to your target audience.

The lack of a clubs add-on or built-in API are relatively minor compared to the differences in XenForo and IPB itself. Heck, I'd prioritise level and quality of support from the forum developers far higher than the lack of some features, too.

Though, of course, go with whatever platform you feel best suits your target audience and community.

 

[Alpha1]

The lack of a clubs add-on or built-in API are relatively minor compared to the differences in XenForo and IPB itself.

For me its a huge deal and major pain points in XF that cannot be helped with addons. Its not without reason that API is one of the top voted suggestions and that Reddit and Facebook groups have become the main competitors. Nothing remotely minor in my book.

 

[Robust]

For me its a huge deal and major pain points in XF that cannot be helped with addons. Its not without reason that API is one of the top voted suggestions and that Reddit and Facebook groups have become the main competitors. Nothing remotely minor in my book.

An API can absolutely be helped with add-ons, an entire API can be created with an add-on. The only issue you have is support/maintenance by the developer of the API, which is an important issue and the main hurdle I suppose. Developers needing to utilise an API will probably refuse to integrate with a 3rd party API since they won't be able to maintain it and flaws in such API would also cause their product to stop working. Other than that issue (more regarding "trust" and reliability), an add-on can deal with the API issue.

I think it's relatively minor. I don't think XenForo needs an API. It wouldn't hurt, but I can't think of many use cases for an API in XenForo. Some people might utilise it, and it might be very useful for some niche sites, but for the majority I don't think it'd be that important. It'd mainly only allow automation by users, helping in marketplace-type forums etc., unless you're thinking of a use case I'm not.

(edit): As for Facebook and Reddit, they're more conversation styled sites. API usage on reddit is mainly with the bots and scraping content. Bots on a more threaded forum style software like XenForo would be spammy and messy anyway. The scraping I suppose it'd help with.

 

[TPerry]

Second sentence is accurate, the first sentence is a bit flawed. The lack of some specific features is irrelevant.

Not everyone prefers to be dependent on 3rd party additions that may or may not continue to be supported long term. With a core inclusion that is not an item that you typically have to worry about - although IPS does have a history of dropping some things during a version upgrade (Sphinx comes immediately to mind).
Therefore, the lack of a feature set it is not irrelevant if one desires a more guaranteed long term viability.

 

[Alpha1]

@Robust You seem to have missed the point about Reddit's subreddits and Facebook's Groups. Both social groups with multilingual support.

When you have a network of multiple communities, its really hard to manage on XenForo. For example I have a number of communities. I used to run all from the same install, but with different front ends. Among these were one German and one Dutch community. On XF I can only have these as either separated installs or as categories on the same install. I choose the latter because I do not want to manage too many separated installs, with close to 100 addons. I already need to do updates at least weekly for multiple installs and need to keep checking each site for new content. I have no desire to increase the number of installs. As a result the Dutch and German communities are pretty much dead now.

Having one install in a multisite setup through an addon is not feasible if you run many addons. Things will break time and time again which means your sites are gone. The solution needs to be core to prevent this.

Social Groups like IPS Clubs (as a core feature) can be a solution for this. But you cannot rely the existence of a whole community on a single addon.

An API is the next best thing, but it would need to a an extensive API which allows for extensive integration of the installs. Again, its best to be core to prevent addon conflicts. I do run bd API and its a really nice addon, but more limited in scope than my needs. I am not relying on it to revive my 2 dead communities. I will revisit it when XF2.1 arrives.

 

[Robust]

@Robust You seem to have missed the point about Reddit's subreddits and Facebook's Groups. Both social groups with multilingual support.

When you have a network of multiple communities, its really hard to manage on XenForo. For example I have a number of communities. I used to run all from the same install, but with different front ends. Among these were one German and one Dutch community. On XF I can only have these as either separated installs or as categories on the same install. I choose the latter because I do not want to manage too many separated installs, with close to 100 addons. I already need to do updates at least weekly for multiple installs and need to keep checking each site for new content. I have no desire to increase the number of installs. As a result the Dutch and German communities are pretty much dead now.

Having one install in a multisite setup through an addon is not feasible if you run many addons. Things will break time and time again which means your sites are gone. The solution needs to be core to prevent this.

Social Groups like IPS Clubs (as a core feature) can be a solution for this. But you cannot rely the existence of a whole community on a single addon.

An API is the next best thing, but it would need to a an extensive API which allows for extensive integration of the installs. Again, its best to be core to prevent addon conflicts. I do run bd API and its a really nice addon, but more limited in scope than my needs. I am not relying on it to revive my 2 dead communities. I will revisit it when XF2.1 arrives.

I ignored that point since I assumed you were only referring to the API part of things, since that's (imo) more important than a clubs-type thing in the core (which, honestly, I think if that was in the core would be bloat).

You must admit that what you're describing is very niche. I understand you'd rather use a solution made by XenForo for this, rather than a 3rd party developer whose reliability you question (that seems to be the issue in this case, correct me if I'm wrong), but what you're requesting is quite niche, tbh. Most forum owners, are not running a network of communities that are so closely knit yet independent at the same time where categories don't work and separate installations are too burdensome to maintain. If I had to guess, most forum owners aren't even running a network of communities. The typical forum owner has one or two forums. I'm sure you could ask XenForo for statistics of the number amount of licenses held on average by accounts (25-75th quartile).

I don't know what IPS Clubs is, so I can't really picture a solution to your problem anyway. Your problem seems to just be a case of owning too many communities to maintain appropriately, which sounds like more of an infrastructure problem than a software problem. That said, if you have a German community and a Dutch community, these are *completely* different communities, restricted at minimum by a common language barrier even if operating in the same niche. I don't see how/why you want to combine these.

Again, can you clarify what issues you're having that you think an API would solve?