It Just Hit Me - Facebook + Forum = xenForo

Anthony Parsons

Anthony Parsons

Well-known member
Just making my hot chocolate before bed time, and it hit me that this is extremely familiar to social networking style, yet still a threaded discussion platform. Extremely combinable aspects from both realms provide the unique feel. It doesn't scream Facebook / social network, nor does it scream clunky outdated threaded forum posting... kind off a mix between the two to produce a really smooth use.

Hard to explain... but its actually nicer to use than vb or IPB as a forum, and nicer than using Facebook or twitter with the news feed type chat.. strange!
 
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It has some qualifies of it, but twitter is a micro blogging site, that lets you send and receive updates via SMS. Facebook is a social platform to stay in touch with close friends/family. And xenforo is a forum software that isn't a hosted service(?) and runs by admins who want to add discussion boards to their site to (publicly) discuss topics of interest. It's just cool that the social aspect of all of them are those familiar qualities. Makes for great return traffic / regulars.
 
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I agree it has some qualities of the social sphere, and it is indeed very lightweight and fast but it still feels like a forum but a very very nice forum :D
 
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If forums wants to keep competitive in this era, they need to evolve. I think XF is a great step toward that goal but something needs to be done. As I said in a previous posts, Facebook released yesterday Facebook Questions. What do you think it is? A forum for Facebook!
 
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Anthony Parsons said:
Just making my hot chocolate before bed time, and it hit me that this is extremely familiar to social networking style, yet still a threaded discussion platform. Extremely combinable aspects from both realms provide the unique feel. It doesn't scream Facebook / social network, nor does it scream clunky outdated threaded forum posting... kind off a mix between the two to produce a really smooth use.

Hard to explain... but its actually nicer to use than vb or IPB as a forum, and nicer than using Facebook or twitter with the news feed type chat.. strange!
Click to expand...

It's not just you. After looking around and using, my first impression was Facebook + Twitter + Forum = xenForo. :)

I'm not sure what it is, but it seems pretty smooth so far, and very user friendly.
 
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JulianD said:
If forums wants to keep competitive in this era, they need to evolve. I think XF is a great step toward that goal but something needs to be done. As I said in a previous posts, Facebook released yesterday Facebook Questions. What do you think it is? A forum for Facebook!
Click to expand...

A feature to IMPORT friends from Facebook to XF is needed ... once the conversations move all to Facebook your control is gone and its game over for most forums.
 
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Lawrence said:
Anthony Parsons said:
Just making my hot chocolate before bed time, and it hit me that this is extremely familiar to social networking style, yet still a threaded discussion platform. Extremely combinable aspects from both realms provide the unique feel. It doesn't scream Facebook / social network, nor does it scream clunky outdated threaded forum posting... kind off a mix between the two to produce a really smooth use.

Hard to explain... but its actually nicer to use than vb or IPB as a forum, and nicer than using Facebook or twitter with the news feed type chat.. strange!
Click to expand...

It's not just you. After looking around and using, my first impression was Facebook + Twitter + Forum = xenForo. :)

I'm not sure what it is, but it seems pretty smooth so far, and very user friendly.
Click to expand...

The only thing missing is a YouTube like video tagging system and the best practices will be on XF. :D
 
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GodForum.com said:
JulianD said:
If forums wants to keep competitive in this era, they need to evolve. I think XF is a great step toward that goal but something needs to be done. As I said in a previous posts, Facebook released yesterday Facebook Questions. What do you think it is? A forum for Facebook!
Click to expand...

A feature to IMPORT friends from Facebook to XF is needed ... once the conversations move all to Facebook your control is gone and its game over for most forums.
Click to expand...

Certainly that would be a very nice feature. However, I think there must be a very attractive feature to keep the conversation on your site! A nice and good looking forum like XF is important. But a threaded discussion board is not enough. Facebook already has that.
 
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GodForum.com said:
The only thing missing is a YouTube like video tagging system and the best practices will be on XF. :D
Click to expand...
What is the YouTube tagging system?

Lawrence said:
It's not just you. After looking around and using, my first impression was Facebook + Twitter + Forum = xenForo. :)
I'm not sure what it is, but it seems pretty smooth so far, and very user friendly.
Click to expand...
Yep yep I agree. I like this very very much!
 
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Peggy said:
GodForum.com said:
The only thing missing is a YouTube like video tagging system and the best practices will be on XF. :D
Click to expand...
What is the YouTube tagging system?

Lawrence said:
It's not just you. After looking around and using, my first impression was Facebook + Twitter + Forum = xenForo. :)
I'm not sure what it is, but it seems pretty smooth so far, and very user friendly.
Click to expand...
Yep yep I agree. I like this very very much!
Click to expand...

YouTube tagging system is basically YouTube in a box ...

people search for videos on your forum and similiar videos get tagged and displayed on the right hand side ...

videos are more popular and addicting than blogs ... funny that both VB and IPB added blogging systems when videos are what generates traffic better.
 
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GodForum.com said:
videos are more popular and addicting than blogs ... funny that both VB and IPB added blogging systems when videos are what generates traffic better.
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Yer, I think I could cope without blogs, but I couldn't use this software if it didn't have basic article / cms functionality, to atleast allow total control to create a front-end to the discussion area. If you are a really well structured profile page that is similar to FB profiles with commenting, then that suffices in lieu of blogging for the personal user, without detracting the forum discussion concept.

It just doesn't surprise me that FB have released mini forums for users. FB can't keep users... because communities aren't really formed which is what invokes constant discussion. Forums cater that market extremely well. As the announcement contained, it should be similar in nature to offerings by the leading two, which should make things quite interesting by the time it reaches Gold for sale. I have a 19 yr old and my wife an 18 yr old to previous marriages, and both boys have stated they rarely use FB now as they have a life, cars, more important things to do. They still post the odd message to it, but they have moved out of the teen FB craze and experiencing life itself, which doesn't cater for as much online interaction.
 
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Darkimmortal said:
I disagree - I've always seen IPB as feeling like Facebook (in a bad way), whereas this feels like a polished vBulletin (that's a good thing in my book)
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I totally agree with every remark. I never ever liked the UI of Invision and I adored the UI of vBulletin 3.8. Even the dreaded vB4 has a better UI then Invision, because it is still based on vB3.8 , However Internet Brands decided to release it in such a pathetic unfinished/unpolished way, it is really puzzling and keeps being unconvincing in so many aspects. If you need something convincing, just look at and use this site! A difference of day and night!
 
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