New Posts Similar to Facebook Feed on Mobile

[Sal Collaziano]

I think it would be a good idea to make the mobile XenForo experience similar to the Facebook experience. It's just what people expect these days. Instead of the New Posts page just showing the title on one line, poster's username and forum title on the second, and replies and time on the third - show the user's name and avatar at the top, the post (characters adjustable per admin) so people can be drawn in to comment, an image (if the thread has one) and a LIKE and COMMENT button beneath it...

It also wouldn't hurt if there was a way for admins to participate in a scenario where a single feed would be created from various forum databases (opt in) so that people could browse many forum topics in one place...

 

[ichpen]

You keep talking specifically about FB Groups, where I think the original poster and others here are talking more broadly about FB in general, in addition to FB Groups, IG, and other platforms that are easy to interact with on mobile.

In all reality, there really is no reason to debate if FB is the future or not - it's the present, for better or worse. They're setting the standard and shaping user behavior and interface expectations. Trying to clone their layout 100% could very well take away from what forums do well. But blending some of their ease of use browsing features and interaction features into options that can be enabled/disabled by admins and select-able by our members makes a lot of sense. In other words, I think we all agree on the suggestion, we might just not completely agree on why people use FB, which is perfectly okay.

FB is not a forum nor was it ever designed to be one. Ig even less so. If it's a UX discussion then absolutely xf can be improved. There are a few themes that change xf UX drastically, I'm thinking in particular of the UIX topics one but again totally different kettle of fish. If you want the FB experience then you should be looking at a FB clone app. The FB experience is also deeply problematic when it comes to nested discussions. Have you tried to browse through a big post with thousands of nested comments? Absolutely impossible.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Wrong. It's not about cloning Facebook. It's about putting content up front and center to get people participating. User activity. Content creation. A lousy topic title is not enough to get replies - which means new user content is not being created. Content, content, content. Good luck without it.

A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture and part of an actual discussion to read is what I'm asking for here. A title is not enough in 2018. Who the F is going to like or share a title? Or even comment on it today?! It's time for change. Dramatic change.

 

[Ludachris]

FB is not a forum nor was it ever designed to be one. Ig even less so. If it's a UX discussion then absolutely xf can be improved. There are a few themes that change xf UX drastically, I'm thinking in particular of the UIX topics one but again totally different kettle of fish. If you want the FB experience then you should be looking at a FB clone app. The FB experience is also deeply problematic when it comes to nested discussions. Have you tried to browse through a big post with thousands of nested comments? Absolutely impossible.

Who said that FB was ever a forum and what does that point have to do with anything? These sort of statements prevent us from finding ways to develop useful interfaces that can be effective communities - regardless of what you want to call the platform. I’m interested in building new communities with features people want, not cloning FB or trying to get people to understand why they should embrace older looking forum interfaces. I want to make communities where people don’t care if it’s a forum they’re using because it is so easy to use and engaging.

You seem to agree with the basic idea the OP posted, but are fiercely against the theory of why he wants it and what he believes. Shouldn’t we all get past debating forums vs FB and find ways to improve “communities”? Seems like it would be more productive.