If XenForo's finished, what's next?

zappaDPJ said:
I'm hanging on for a car analogy. There's always a car analogy when it comes to software development.
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Scenic route/wrong turn where journey doesnt get any faster and the driver ignores passengers queries on whats taking so long whilst waiting at each pothole to be fixed so they have a smooth journey. Passengers get sick from the long ride and more stops taken as result.

How in the world did they intend to turnover releases every 6 months like they said? Didnt they grow their dev team in past few years? Their community showcase fell by the wayside. Their docs stopped being updated. Even threads created by them saying they will update anticipated release dates still show 2024. Imagine a potentially new customer coming on here and wondering wtf do they say and what they actually action.

Atleast invest in someone who is able to communicate. Sure family and personal issues comes above software development but to just remain silent for 6 months without any communications just shows utter contempt for customers and shows communications barrier will continue to be an ongoing issue. If you say you understand that you guys are mediocre at communicating, being silent for 6 months is not working to actually action/resolve that weak point.

happy with xenforo as a product, but disappointed at how xenforo has been faring over past few years.

Lets just hope 2.4 is not a collection of just donated addons bundled into core. Hoping to see original work to see where the vision of the development team is at.
 
tajhay said:
How in the world did they intend to turnover releases every 6 months like they said?
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There's a difference between dreams, intentions and reality. Didn't you dream of becoming rich and famous at at least one point in your life or even intended to? How did it work out? ;) Do your friends, family and the public still yell at you because you did not make your intentions become true within a couple of months?

tajhay said:
to just remain silent for 6 months without any communications just shows utter contempt for customers and shows communications barrier will continue to be an ongoing issue.
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You can continue to complain about yesterday's problems or have a somewhat more constructive attitude, look forward and hope for the best (knowing, that future won't be paradise either and there will be disappointments).

tajhay said:
Lets just hope 2.4 is not a collection of just donated addons bundled into core.
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We know for the most part what 2.4 will contain as far as I understand it. It has been published and quoted often enough. However: Nothing of what you wrote has any relation to the thread topic.
 
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Some of these complaints have drifted so far from reality they’re basically in lunar orbit. 😌

moon walk space GIF by US National Archives
 
tajhay said:
How in the world did they intend to turnover releases every 6 months like they said?
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Well - if you leave your phantasy aside this is what they actually said:

Sept. 13th 2024:
Our team has long recognized the value of more frequent software updates. While we haven't always met this goal in the past, XenForo 2.4 represents a step towards shorter release cycles. We're aiming to provide updates more regularly, allowing us to deliver improvements and new features in a much more timely fashion. This approach should help us evolve the software more consistently, better addressing the needs of you, our customers, and your users.
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Dec. 17th 2024
Happy to be corrected but I don’t think we explicitly committed to 6 months. Possibly suggested we would like to aim for two releases per year at some point but that’s not quite as explicit as every six months. Don’t get me wrong, that would be nice, but we’re not quite there yet.
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So basically your misery comes from not properly reading what has been said but instead claiming something that hasn't been said and getting furious about that this has not been fulfilled. Furthermore: 2.4 was/is intended as the starting point for somewhat shorter release cycles in future once 2.4 has been released- 2.4 is creating parts of the preconditions for that but is itself not following that approach, as far as I understood it. Also, two releases per year were named as a somewhat distant goal.

Possibly you would be happier if you related to the facts instead of insisting on your wishful thinking...
 
Mr Lucky said:
It was never about reality. The whole discussion is based on a false premise ...If xenForo is finished.

It obviously isn't finished.
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Exactly. The premise was flawed from the start, which is why the entire conversation kept drifting further from reality.
 
Tamer said:
The premise was flawed from the start, which is why the entire conversation kept drifting further from reality.
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Not so sure - when the thread was created the latest statement from XF was left to bee seen (which has happened in the meantime). The silicence created fear with some which lead - among other things - to this thread. While in the meantime the statement was released the whining, the irrationality, the negativity and the destruciveness have not stopped. Which led to the two existing long threads about 2.4 being closed (for good reasons, if you ask me). As a consequence, the whining brigade (that has in wider parts lost track to reality completely quite a while ago already if they ever had one in the first place) now flood other threads whith their whining, their destructiveness and their phantasies, no matter what the topic of these threads is. Obviously they cannot stand reality and cannot stand any positive perspective plus foremost cannot change their own attitude to something a little more construcive, reality based and future oriented and they seem to even not want to: They simply love to whine, to accuse and to destruct and won't stop doing so, no matter if they have a foundation or not.

The thread that has been affected the most by this behavior is this one. The topic itself could be interesting as a theroretical exercise - but is has been highjacked and is now just another valley of misery and destructiveness, caused by a hand full of tremendously destructive people. It seems almost as if the whiners could not stand it and would poison themselves if they did not spit all the negativity and disinformation that they hold in their brains out and annoy and poison other people with it. Somewhat astonishing that the very same people each are accontable to run, moderate and maintain their own forums. One can only wonder how they would be able to do that w/o turning them into horrible places full of disformation, depression, FUD and destructiveness. Let alone caring for things like useful and stringent threads.
 
Want to chime in for a second time if I could...

Again for me it is the reliability of the software and I already find Xenforo a bit bloated and wish there was a way to simply turn features off instead of having to install an addon to do it.

Two examples...

1. Profile posts.. they are overly confusing and detract posting (IMHO) I prefer not to have it

2. All the additional Recent Posts, recent activity etc. Again (IMHO) it creates conflict with people searching out what someone said or did. I prefer not to have it and have just an ABOUT page which again you cannot default to without an extension.

3. Even the profile pop-up, I had to install an extension to remove it and go to full profile instead.

So for me, coming from more basic software, I like Xenforo having the features but there should be a way to turn more things off.
While everyone is asking for more (which is great) I have 16 of Andy's add-ons installed to remove unwanted features.

I think there are more users like me (and cloud is a perfect example) that are willing to pay more for stability, security updates, and ease of use than cramming more and more into the software.

The slower pace is peace of mind for me knowing the focus is more on stability, and security instead of rushing a new release. Everyone has their own preference but having Xenforo back away from aggressive updates is not a bad thing for me.

PS. I think a lot of addon developers are tired as well, the 2.3 shift wore out a lot of them and if the same were to happen to 2.4 I predict we will lose a lot of them.
 
MapleOne said:
So for me, coming from more basic software, I like Xenforo having the features but there should be a way to turn more things off.
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I agree. While there are many communities which benefit from feature rich forum software I'd argue strongly there many others that don't. There are multiple features just within this editor that never get used here or anyway else that I've seen. People, particularly those posting from smart devices, in general just want a text box, quote and reply, and an easy way to drop in an image from their device.
 
A while ago, I was also one of those who wanted more updates. Now I'm not worried in the slightest; I've preferred to pay for the custom add-ons I needed that were never going to come with XF. The only thing I miss is better SEO in the core of XF, something like Yoast for WP.
 
This is all quite disappointing for me considering I only recently purchased XenForo to create a forum. I quite like the software so far but I feel a lot of third party addon developers seem to have abandoned it. Also there is very little help or information around to fix things. A lot of the older tips, trips and fixes around customisation only work for earlier versions of XenForo.
 
MrJP said:
This is all quite disappointing for me considering I only recently purchased XenForo to create a forum. I quite like the software so far but I feel a lot of third party addon developers seem to have abandoned it. Also there is very little help or information around to fix things. A lot of the older tips, trips and fixes around customisation only work for earlier versions of XenForo.
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It's a natural evolution on the stage of forums. Developers leave for numerous reasons; life changes, interest, employment opportunities. There are still a good many strong contenders in the Xenforo marketplace.

As for support, you can always ask a question on here and the members will be happy to help if they can, or if it's vital you can raise a ticket.

I'm also curious as to the naysayers who have a lot to say about lack of expediency in delivering updates, but they never say what they expect those updates to bring to the table that will make their forums better, and more attractive to prospective members.

It seems there is little empathy when it's explained that some (perhaps all) of the developers have family issues that take precedence over work until resolved. Xenforo just works, sure there are niggling bugs and many have been noted as fixed and will appear in the next update.

I would advise everyone to have a look at their licence agreement that they accepted when they purchased Xenforo, there is a very important paragraph in there that states:

The Software is provided on an "AS IS" basis, without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

You acknowledge that the Software has not been developed to meet Your individual requirements, and that it is therefore Your responsibility to ensure that the facilities and functions of the Software meet your requirements prior to purchase. You acknowledge that the Software may not be free of bugs or errors, and agree that the existence of errors shall not constitute a breach of this Agreement.

The entirety of the risk as to the results, quality and performance of the Software is with You.

In the event that You are purchasing the Software as a consumer, nothing in this clause shall affect your statutory rights.

Have a Happy Christmas and embrace the spirit of the season.
 
Moshe1010 said:
If pointing out that the car has been stuck in the pit lane since 2024 makes me a 'bench racer,' then what are you? The cheerleader waving pom-poms while the mechanics are on a 2-year coffee break?
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Not even a slight fit. I'd rather say the car runs as well and as reliable as it has always done. There is an ongoing issue that a relevant amount of former spectators of car races consider car races now pe se as too boring and too demanding as they take long and require some preparation by the audience to enjoy them, so they perfer watching micro-sports instead that take just one minute, need no competence, commitment or time effort by the audience and are for the most part based on short-lived sound-effects. The most popular sport today is watching colorful parrots crying against each other while others prefer farting as loud as possible in the public as a competition.

The XF mechanics have in the meantime delivered maintenance, so the car runs as smoothly as ever, but failed to deliver a long promised engine upgrade which was delayed multiple times for various reasons, nonthelast health issues with the mechanics. Some racers claim this would be the reason for them not winning races but they also claim they would urgently need new more colorful stickers, bigger spoilers for a more dramatic look of their cars and bigger exhaust-pipes for the same reason and the lack thereof would be the true reason why they fail. Only then, so they claim, they could and would win races (completely ignoring the old wisdom "it's not the car, it's the driver" that win's a race and also that for one there still are countless drivers winning races and attracting huge audiences with the same car those disappointed racers claim would be defect and secondly that even a completely new developed car is in the end not a parrot and never will be, even if you paint it in parrot colors and a car race is not a "who's parrot is the loudest" competition and never will be. Lastly the mechanics never promissed to delover parrots, stickers, spoilers or exhausts - they promised a reliable car and that is what they have been delivering and will deliver in future.

Moshe1010 said:
I’d rather be critical about performance than blindly applaud a parked car.
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If your car is parked that is because you parked it and left the driver's seat, not because it would be defective. It is not.
 
MrJP said:
This is all quite disappointing for me considering I only recently purchased XenForo to create a forum. I quite like the software so far but I feel a lot of third party addon developers seem to have abandoned it. Also there is very little help or information around to fix things. A lot of the older tips, trips and fixes around customisation only work for earlier versions of XenForo.
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Shame there's so much negativity around nowadays, mostly fueled by the lack of updates, which Chris D addressed the other day, as XF remains an excellent product.

I've subscribed to @AndyB's add-ons for several years now and continue to be very happy with their performance and function. The yearly sub is super cheap and there's over 500 of them that it gives you access to, so I suggest taking a look and see if there's some you're interested in.

As others have said, there's also other quality developers still active on XF, so don't despair, it's still supported and works very well.

 
If xenforo ends, I'll still be using it on my forums for years to come. I wanted to move to IPS but the licensing is tricky and cruel.

XenForo is fine.
 
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