whitetigergrowl
Well-known member
Just curious: What would "properly threaded threads" be like?
Btw: Forums are "Social Media"
But not in the same context most people use it.
People say things like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and others are social media.
I've never heard someone say Xenforo, IPB, Vbulletin, etc are social media too. In fact I never have seen or heard anyone say a website like Xenforo is social media, let alone one run by any of those.
That's because the definition of it is not quite the same.
Social media to many is a website that's all inclusive and where you can easily and quickly share and retrieve information about or from other users.
For example, what do Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Tik Tok all have in common? They all are the ability to directly communicated with other people. And they are or can be limited only to those you know, while in a case like Tik Tok, new content from other users is separately added so you can see it and possibly follow or add them if you wish too to help grow the base or Facebook you may see that content through other means such as from a friend sharing it or it being suggested.
With forums you don't generally get that luxury. You see everyones content. Plus sharing of content is generally easier on social media. You don't have to jump through as many hoops.
Forums tend to be more singular and not be as user friendly as social media.
On Instagram sharing a picture is cake. Same with Facebook. I don't need to add any content if I don't want. No thread title or make a post. I can just upload it directly to my timeline as is for everyone to see with no extra work or content needed to be added. I don't need to a pick a forum either and hope it's the right one. Then I don't need to add a title and in most cases some minor text. I can't just upload it directly to the forum from my account without being required to meet other criteria first. It can be inhibitive.
The problem I see with general forum software is they are not really pushing to change beyond their comfort zone which is inhibiting them.
They do add some social media aspects, but are basically just band aids. They seem to be having a bit of an identity crisis. They want to have some aspects of social media, but primarily stay comfortable in the forum realm.
Forum makers I think need to re-evaluate their approach to social media and how users can interact on the forum.
We're in a world now that wants info quick and to get in and out quick without having to jump through hoops to do it or spending a lot of time doing so.
Forums may always have a purpose. But I think unless something changes, over time the purpose will become less and less. It's time to think outside of the box and find a way for people coming to a forum to be able to find and share info easily, quickly, and have it be available for everyone else to see more easily and quickly without having to jump through hoops to do it.
I like forum software to an extent and it may serve a purpose. But realistically, their popularity has declined over the years due to social media and I think it's time to step back and re-evaluate the market being aimed at.
Like anything if something is becoming less popular and is losing support, there's a reason for it. And usually it has to do with the inability or unwillingness to change a product. Or the product itself isn't appealing any longer for any number of reasons.
Pagers were the big thing back in the day while cell phones were still taking off. The companies making those pagers eventually saw the writing on the wall and started manufacturing cell phones.
Long story short, like anything, if you can't or refuse to adjust with the times and the wants and needs of the people, eventually you go the way of the pager.
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Walter
Well-known member
Social media = chat with more features.
Forum != chat.
One of the reasons of the fall down of forums is Google devaluating UGC, another one is in the beginning many search terms were occupied by forums, nowadays its not so easy to rank high.
Another reason is forum software vendors like Xenforo sleeping a deep and long winter sleep and neglecting modern features.
Another one are FB groups, see https://xenforo.com/community/threads/goodbye-forums-hello-facebook-groups.150102/post-1388326
Forum != chat.
One of the reasons of the fall down of forums is Google devaluating UGC, another one is in the beginning many search terms were occupied by forums, nowadays its not so easy to rank high.
Another reason is forum software vendors like Xenforo sleeping a deep and long winter sleep and neglecting modern features.
Another one are FB groups, see https://xenforo.com/community/threads/goodbye-forums-hello-facebook-groups.150102/post-1388326
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Mr Lucky
Well-known member
I see people expecting xenforo to have all the same features as social media. A good example being infinite scrolling.
But I think it would be a mistake to go that route and assume that would work well on a forum structure.
Forums are good mostly because they are different and fulfil a different role. When used for info and resources, not just chat, they can be way more valuable than any facebook group in regard to categorisngs, seraching archives etc.
The main issue I see that is bad for forums like xenforo is the real lack of decent SEO features that could help their popularity (or lack of)
Walter
Well-known member
I'm against gimmicks like infinite scrolling.
More SEO features? I doubt that you can win a fight against Google when they clearly devaluate UGC.
I'm more talking about pages (I want Xenforo a more round software, why do I have to use Wordpress for that???), better ways to promote existing content to new users, and so on.
More SEO features? I doubt that you can win a fight against Google when they clearly devaluate UGC.
I'm more talking about pages (I want Xenforo a more round software, why do I have to use Wordpress for that???), better ways to promote existing content to new users, and so on.
Mr Lucky
Well-known member
I agree entirely. I am stuck with two sites, one on xenforo and one on wordpress - if only xenforo had a better pages CMS I could intergrate them.
But this is also part of SEO. We can control what is on the pages - so for good SEO it would be useful for an elegant way to unindex selected UGC awhile focussing on our own pages.
frm
Well-known member
Speaking of SEO, I'm gonna just drop this suggestion right here as it's being overlooked.
Ability to change attachment and image file names on post/edit
File names play a very important role in SEO. I'm not going to spend a lot of time citing sources (Google, MOZ, Yoast, etc.) as anyone who cares about their sites should research this matter and use best practices in order to rank for themselves when adding content of their own. However, XF...
xenforo.com
See also: https://moz.com/community/q/image-optimization-file-name-important
Edit:
Now imagine if there was a mod (or even user) privilege to edit file names after uploaded because it's so hard to form a typical camera due to going into the file manager to rename and upload. And for what? There's no real incentive for the user to do so because the image they want is already posted.
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