Limbic having done heaps of assessments on software to use in our business I can really feel where you're coming from.
I agree a features li8st would be great.
One of the big advantages of XF is that if you Suggest a Features list, you really have a good possibility of getting one. I haven't seen it suggested yet but if you did you'd get others interested I think.
At the moment the way XF shows what it can do is by doing it. It's in an early stage of production: the Beta is due on Tuesday. XF 1.0 Gold will follow on.
Kier and Mike, the leadiong developers, have said that in this early stage they are focused on the core product. So they will not b e looking at adding e.g. a cms, gallery or other add-on, until after the Gold is out.
But a very keen community of coders are already actively connected, ready to code such add-ons. Not only is the c ore product coded to make such mods easy to integrate with the core code so it works smoothly, but the mod coders are many of them coming from years of experience coding on VB.
To have the two leading developers of forum code on the net doing this product, is worth a lot. To know from experience with them over years how reliable their work is - few glitches, bugs, quickly fixed, is worth so much.
Add that the responsiveness of the team to what WE the users want that this is known track with them, is solidly reassuring.
Add on the about to be born modding community ofr experienced coders, working with a product that strongly supports their additions, is way good.
Yes it's a sea of pastel colour - but it's been stated that the admin level design variability on colour changes is unlimited, and when they tell us this will be easy to do they can be believed because they have that track of saying it how it is.
Very thorough discussions have been held on a whole mass of micro features - the placing of buttons, the usage of Private Conversations and 100s of others, all to make them genuinely intuitive in use. The end user instead of being cluttered with a mass of programming links and options - with end-user content appearing in small text looking like a shrivelled afterthought buried in the great and mighty designer's system - instead all the controls you need are right there to hand, yet not shrieking at you and dominating what YOU have to say.
Look at the pages. The users' discussions are what you see, yet controls are right there where you want them.
There is little Help necessary because it's so well designed.
Nonetheless you're right it needs a list of Features. That's what I go for like a shark if I'm assessing software.
Watch my Suggestion appear putting that on the agenda.