I wonder how the XenForo developers made this forum software

[rgb]

I am trying to make my own forum software, but I noticed that this is really hard. And, I wonder, how the XenForo developers started making forum software? What is your advice for making forum software? I can not find any documentation or thread about this topic, I am asking this question in here because I think asking question to the XenForo developers is better way. Also this is my first thread, I hope I am posting this thread in the correct forum.

 

[briansol]

There's 100,000 + people hours into this software, probably more.

Start like you would start anything... draw a picture. break that picture down into smaller parts with more details. connect the dots. turn those into user journeys, user experience, pain point rectification, and you can start writing business requirements.

From there, you can start technical requirements and perform POCs on concepts to support the ask and scale.

If you're still reading this, you probably should just buy a license.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I am trying to make my own forum software,

For what purpose?

 

[Old Nick]

For what purpose?

to make my own forum software

 

[frm]

You might not get as far as Xenforo, like ever, on your own, or without months of 40-hour work weeks. There are so many 3rd party additions to it that you would need to learn how to utilize that to make your forum the same (editor for instance as well as Font Awesome and a ton more). You might get to a bare-bones forum much sooner, but then you would have users requesting features they see on other forums, taking time to implement them, when you could just have the features immediately with Xenforo.

But, you could probably make an old-school nested/threaded bulletin board in a week or two, max.

Thread
> Reply
>> Reply
> Reply
>> Reply
>>> Reply
>> Reply
> Reply

Then you have to ask the question: What would the user experience be like and would it work for you?

I remember creating an old BB like that as an additional feature for a text-based game I made. It didn't take much effort at all, and the players used it. I chose the nested BB board format because it stayed contained in the game, whereas an alternative BB (paid or free) would be out of bounds and cause a player to leave where I wanted them to be. Sure, I could link accounts to the forum, but they would leave the main purpose of the site, the game, to play around on the board. I ultimately updated it from threads/nested replies to a format like Xenforo (thread view with all the replies as one), but that took some time too; though, it did improve the UI, but I couldn't tell you whether it was the game getting more popular or the updated forum view that made the forum used more.

 

[Taylor J]

Yeah as @briansol said it's a huge undertaking. I've been working on one slowly in Typescript with a premade framework called NestJS and it is so much work that I've barely gotten anywhere on it. To be fair it's a back burner project and it's just something I want to someday offer maybe as an OSS solution if I ever even make it that far.

 

[TickTackk]

You might not get as far as Xenforo, like ever, on your own

Are you saying this because the OP doesn't know how to build a forum software or are you saying it is impossible for a solo developer to do it?

 

[frm]

Are you saying this because the OP doesn't know how to build a forum software or are you saying it is impossible for a solo developer to do it?

Saying it because they don't know how to build a forum (yet). A solo developer could surely do it, but it would take a massive amount of time and effort to duplicate it and keep it up to date, using all of the 3rd party additions that also need to be implemented to make a "clone" of XF, that would also need to be updated and integrated into the forum. Though, they could save time by stripping the extra libraries and creating their own.

 

[javakhir]

anything can be done, if you have enough money & staff. expirience & time you spent, you can not buy it! answer is: you can not create a solid engine in next 10 years

 

[CedricV]

Xenforo devs be like

 

[🔥Iggy🔥]

ask an ai to do it for you

 

[findozor]

I am trying to make my own forum software, but I noticed that this is really hard. And, I wonder, how the XenForo developers started making forum software? What is your advice for making forum software? I can not find any documentation or thread about this topic, I am asking this question in here because I think asking question to the XenForo developers is better way. Also this is my first thread, I hope I am posting this thread in the correct forum.

I wonder what kind of answers one expects to get when asking such (pointless) questions?

 

[FTL]

I am trying to make my own forum software, but I noticed that this is really hard.

Yup, it certainly is. It's extremely complicated software. Even the simpler free open source ones are really complex.

An experienced developer would have a really tough time of it, and impossible for someone that has little experience in programming. At most that experienced developer could create something basic that wouldn't be very nice to use. To have the rich functionality of XF takes a team of devs years to create. You're much better off just using XF than trying to create your own.

 

[Old Nick]

This forum software is home made:

Forum Excel-Pratique

Besoin d'aide pour résoudre un problème EXCEL ou VBA ? Ou un problème avec Google Sheets ? Ou encore avec d'autres applications ? Le forum est là pour vous aider !

forum.excel-pratique.com

 

[ŽivaAkcija]

I am trying to make my own forum software, but I noticed that this is really hard. And, I wonder, how the XenForo developers started making forum software? What is your advice for making forum software? I can not find any documentation or thread about this topic, I am asking this question in here because I think asking question to the XenForo developers is better way. Also this is my first thread, I hope I am posting this thread in the correct forum.

That is dust in wind try, also baldrick says its cunning plan my lord!

 

[Suzanne O]

You might have to look up some programming courses and do them at uni

 

[BassMan]

And, I wonder, how the XenForo developers started making forum software?

 

[TickTackk]

Though, they could save time by stripping the extra libraries and creating their own.

It's the other way around.

 

[mjda]

Save yourself some time. Do what Vertical Scope does with Fora and just modify XF to do what you want.

 

[rgb]

Also I wonder @Kier and @Chris D's replies.