Add-on Feed page (similar to Reddit)

Frode789

Well-known member
I would love to see an addon that tries to display a more modern approach to showing content on our XF powered sites. Many users are very familiar (and prefer) to use feed pages, that show all content (threads, posts, resources, images, custom addon content such as showcase entries, new tournaments etc, and easily customizable for other addon makers that want to include their content type) on one page, which can be filtered if you prefer.
Content can be liked (upvote), which will boost their appearance on the feed.
Default sorting is best, which is a combination of top rated and date. Can also select new or top rated.

This would either be a separate page (or alternative layout, depending on what fits the best in terms of development etc) to the traditional forum list. Many young/new users to forums, can find using traditional forum lists as more cumbersome. It would be in the benefit of us all to try and find a good middle road.
 
I just posted an thread similar to your question. Nice one!

I'm going to watch this too if the Community give an option or suggestion on how to do that.
 
Russ has a mockup which is a similar approach (but not quite), to get an idea as to how it could be done :)

screenshot_3-png.230432
 
I would love to see an addon that tries to display a more modern approach to showing content on our XF powered sites. Many users are very familiar (and prefer) to use feed pages, that show all content (threads, posts, resources, images, custom addon content such as showcase entries, new tournaments etc, and easily customizable for other addon makers that want to include their content type) on one page, which can be filtered if you prefer.
Content can be liked (upvote), which will boost their appearance on the feed.
Default sorting is best, which is a combination of top rated and date. Can also select new or top rated.

This would either be a separate page (or alternative layout, depending on what fits the best in terms of development etc) to the traditional forum list. Many young/new users to forums, can find using traditional forum lists as more cumbersome. It would be in the benefit of us all to try and find a good middle road.

I'm looking for something similar, a single page which would display all new content on a list (regardless of content type). To start, users should be able to specify which content types appear on this list.

If you come across anything like this please let me know. I may be willing to kick in a bit of $ for development costs if it's from a reputable developer (y)
 
Sure!

Strange that no addon developer has picked up on this, as if would really improve the content display to users viewing the site for the first time, younger audience etc.
 
 
Such functionality is not something you can simply uninstall once the developer pulls it. Your community will become accustomed to it and will complain badly. It will need to be from a stable and reliable developer who plans to keep their resources available for xenforo.
 

I don't buy it. Too shady for my taste, specially if i i decided to "keep" the resource as permanent feature, like @Alpha1 said above.

The idea seems great, but not without a fully committed developer, with great reputation on our XF scene.

Nothing against Theme House and/or affiliates, but i learned something a long time ago with von Mises: there is no such thing as free lunch.

Of course many developers in our scene do a tremendous and fantastic job offering some minor add-ons and offering paid options too, but like this? "Just take it, it's free, but no support offered, it's beta and can even break your site entirely, and yeah, no future planning about this we can give".

- "We have this option too, but costs more than U$ 1.000,00/year, plus installation, support, developing and adding more features"

No, thank you very much.

I opt to wait an official improvement, or, a real add-on (paid or not) with improved "Timeline" features.
 
Such functionality is not something you can simply uninstall once the developer pulls it. Your community will become accustomed to it and will complain badly. It will need to be from a stable and reliable developer who plans to keep their resources available for xenforo.

XF should do this. It's time for the forums to catch up with modern times and social media as we're like 20 years behind at this point.
 
Yes, I really hope something like this is part of XF 2.3. If not, hopefully a respected addon developer will pick up on this.
 
I'm looking for something similar, a single page which would display all new content on a list (regardless of content type). To start, users should be able to specify which content types appear on this list.

If you come across anything like this please let me know. I may be willing to kick in a bit of $ for development costs if it's from a reputable developer (y)
I've achieved this with a couple of add-ons by a respected developer, @Xon

Aggregating Forums add-on does what you want. You should check it out.
 
XF should do this. It's time for the forums to catch up with modern times and social media as we're like 20 years behind at this point.
If XenForo gets close to social networks then where will we find good forum software?
If you want your site to look like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit then find a suitable script but don't take away the opportunity to create good old fashioned forums...
 
If XenForo gets close to social networks then where will we find good forum software?
If you want your site to look like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit then find a suitable script but don't take away the opportunity to create good old fashioned forums...

you still have it.

the request many of us want is a clean homepage that shows threads and forum replies in a manner similar to what billions of people see on a daily basis.

It would basically be like people posting a status update on their profile, but all status updates appearing in one place. And of course, allow media and certain permissions on them too.

We could have both the traditional forum setting/content or a homepage showing all status updates.

I think the crew at XF would be best to do this so our little sites can start to compete with social media more.

I have members signing up and posting status updates that no one ever sees because they literally have no clue how to use a forum.

The team here is 100x's better than the generic social media scripts out there, but I do think we need a way to compete with the bigguns.
 
If XenForo gets close to social networks then where will we find good forum software?
If you want your site to look like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit then find a suitable script but don't take away the opportunity to create good old fashioned forums...
Adding a feed that brings more attention to content does not make XenForo a social network, it just brings more visibility to the content.

I'm against chasing after social media to compete against social media, but bringing good ideas from other platforms is just how software grows.

Honestly it's stupid to be against anything that brings more content visibility or allows members to curate their own content feed. It is also equally stupid to ignore anything that could help integrate add-ons better for better visibility.
 
I am not against developing XenForo if it remains above all a forum as we know them in their fundamental structure.
Add 2 wheels to a bike and it's no longer a bike...

Otherwise I'm not convinced that a flow of news on the home page amplifies the visibility of the content... It is just presented differently.
And there are number of widgets that allow content to be presented in a different way on the home page.

Social networks are the realm of the ephemeral, the flows that update themselves all the time are well suited to this philosophy.
Forums are for me the realm of hard content, which lasts over time, which refers and therefore the content as it is presented on a classic forum seems appropriate to me.
 
This thread is getting a bit de-railed.. The thread is about a proper feed page to display all sorts of content on your website, across addons/forums. Making it easier for new users to discover interesting content that they want to engage with, without having to click through 8 nav entries and sub-forums.

If XenForo gets close to social networks then where will we find good forum software?
If you want your site to look like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit then find a suitable script but don't take away the opportunity to create good old fashioned forums...

Did you even read the OP? It clearly stated optional layout.
I want a better way to display content from my FORUM SOFTWARE. If I wanted to have a Facebook page, I would make it. If I wanted a Reddit subreddit, I would make it.
I assume most of the XF admins here use XF because we love XF. It's a brilliant forum software, and forums have many advantages that other platforms such as the aforementioned social platforms, can't match. I don't want XF or other forum developers to blindly copy Facebook in a desperate attempt to "stay relevant". There is no need, forums will still have a place. Forums are unrivalled in many parts of the discussion segment, compared to the social platforms.

BUT. XF is far from perfect, and there are certainly certain things from the social platforms, that can be adjusted and used to improve on the forum experience on XF.
I think that providing a balance between trying to be "new/innovative", and still trying to provide the "core forum experience", is important to please all users of forums (and critically, entice NEW users, that currently don't use forums).

A admin, based on his target audience, should be able to chose different layouts to serve as the main front of the forum.
1. Traditional forum index. If you want the classic look, you should be able to. Easy.
2. Feed page. A revamped "feed" page that is a separate page from forum index, but the page can be disabled for those who do not wish to have it. It's a living feed that updates live when new content is added/changed, and you can see all types of content on the same singular page. Real time updates, infinite scrolling.. Content will be tagged accordingly in terms of type, so the user can easily see if it is a resource, image, new tournament (3rd party addon), market entry (3rd party addon) thread, profile status update and more. Content can be upvoted (like reaction) directly from the feed, and top voted content will show at the top of the hot list. The user can also filter by content types etc such as Questions, from specific categories ("Board Games", "PC Games", "Social" etc).
There will be one button on that page, to "Create", in which the user can select "write a thread, upload resource/image" etc, reducing the barrier to post new content.
 
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