Presale Question - Fora platform including Xenforo

[Shim]

Question, I am interested in purchasing Xenforo.
I've been seeing sites such as this: https://www.smithandwessonforums.com/
There seems to be CMS platform by Fora and includes Xenforo forums.
Is this the same software package included with Xenforo forum?
Or is it Xenforo with a 3rd party extension?

Any help would be much appreciated!
Shim

 

[Chris D]

The Fora platform is a network of sites or a hosting service (not entirely clear) owned or managed by the company Vertical Scope. It is unclear what the availability of Fora is, what it consists of, or how to obtain it.

The only official place to obtain a fully supported XenForo install is from our own website here. We are soon to be launching our own hosted service where we will take care of the hosting side of things as well as providing and supporting the software. You can read more about that here with more information coming soon.

 

[Mr Lucky]

As Chris said, it's not totally clear. Vertical Scope buy up independet forums. They now use their own customised version of xenforo which is more or less exactly the same theme and templates across all their sites. It is (for obvious reasons) highly optimised for ads. I'm not sure if all their sites have been transferred to their customised xenforo platform, but it seems to be their plan to standardise them all.

The sites they buy often retain their own admins and mods as volunteers. However Verticalscope as owners set the main T & C and admin/mod permissions.

It is basically the same software, but their implementation appears quite simplified for users, quite a lot of the navigation items are reduced, the interface has been altered in some key repsects such as the text editor icons at the bottom instead of the top. User edit and report link at the top instead of the bottom.

 

[IFireflyl]

Out of curiosity, are they allowed to package a customized version of Xenforo with their software? Do they have bulk licenses that they have purchased for each implementation, or did they buy (or pirate) a single copy of Xenforo and then distribute it out with their software, therefore making money off of Xenforo's work? It doesn't affect me in any way, but it's something I'm curious about.

 

[Paul B]

They are in compliance with the licensing agreement we have with them.

 

[Bob]

They are in compliance with the licensing agreement we have with them.

As well as mine (for Showcase).

 

[Mr Lucky]

Out of curiosity, are they allowed to package a customized version of Xenforo with their software?

What do you mean by their software? They are using xenForo.

 

[IFireflyl]

What do you mean by their software? They are using xenForo.

I thought they had Xenforo integrated with their CMS, so that's what I was referring to as "their software".

 

[Shim]

I thought they had Xenforo integrated with their CMS, so that's what I was referring to as "their software".

That's what I thought. Question, does Xenforo offer a type of CMS where a front cover page is easily created? If not and there's a 3rd party in the Xenforo marketplace much appreciate any reference. I'm looking for something just like this Xenforo site has for its' "homepage".

 

[Paul B]

It's fairly easy to create a landing/home page using the built in features - an article forum, search forum, page node, etc.

 

[Shim]

It's fairly easy to create a landing/home page using the built in features - an article forum, search forum, page node, etc.

Thank you!

 

[Mr Lucky]

I thought they had Xenforo integrated with their CMS

Well it certainly looks like xenforo to me, albeit cut down (dumbed down?) in places

 

[Paul B]

It's just a customised version of XF.

 

[Mr Lucky]

So basically you can buy xenForo and make it look like that if you want. But with some addons and some custom development.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Well it certainly looks like xenforo to me, albeit cut down (dumbed down?) in places

Their XenForo conversion made no sense to me. They first launched Fora with many XF features stripped out. And now they reintroduce them as a Big Accomplishment. Essentially it's a theme that upset the well laid out user interface of XenForo, and took features away from it. I let them know as much, as I frequent a couple of Vertical Scope forums. (I've complained about it in the forum, and also responded in kind to a survey with the same complaints.)

The Fora platform is a network of sites or a hosting service (not entirely clear) owned or managed by the company Vertical Scope.

They own and manage forums, and use Fora as the name of their in-house developed theme and add-ons. (I inquired about a feature they had, and that's when I learned they do all their own work.)

 

[MapleOne]

I have been running forums for 20 years and other than modifying the styles and colors a bit I will not be doing any more major modifications. It just makes the whole upgrade process a mess. Besides Xenforo seems to be super clean from the get go so other than activating what I want and deactivating what I don't, I am going to leave the installation alone for the first time.

I also plan to build a number of forums in the next year and what fora is doing sounds good in theory but will eventually become an upgrade nightmare.

I remember I had an Ikonboad board 20 years back that was so heavily modified I never did upgrade it because the thought of doing all the modifications again was overwhelming. I repeated that mistake later with Invision and vBulletin.

I also use PunBB on a tiny board I have and that is the easiest to mod because it is only basic software unless you start installing extensions.

I did so much research before landing here at Xenforo and now with their cloud service taking all installation and hosting problems off my hands I can start doing what I do best and that is making sites. All the software mods are no longer an issue with me.

That said the Xenforo admin panel is a bit overwhelming but I am slowly figuring it out. The puzzling thing is there is no place to modify the header logo. Ie upload a logo or use a text header. That seems supper odd and cumbersome to change (definitely not intuitive) but I am sure once I figure it out it will become easy on the next site.

 

[Chris D]

That said the Xenforo admin panel is a bit overwhelming but I am slowly figuring it out. The puzzling thing is there is no place to modify the header logo. Ie upload a logo or use a text header. That seems supper odd and cumbersome to change (definitely not intuitive) but I am sure once I figure it out it will become easy on the next site.

If you're unsure about anything, please post in one of the customer forums.

You can change the header logo under Style properties > Basic options:




You can click the upload icon on the right-hand side of that Logo URL field to upload a file of your choosing.

You can customise anything you like in the software, though of course that may seem a little daunting until you're more familiar. But here's an example of using a text-based logo:

Unmaintained - Text Logo

If you like to keep things simple (and have zero graphic editing ability, like me) then a text logo is for you. No more messing around with graphics programs and coming up with something which looks like it was created by an 8 year old. It's...

xenforo.com

 

[Paul B]

The puzzling thing is there is no place to modify the header logo. Ie upload a logo or use a text header. That seems supper odd and cumbersome to change (definitely not intuitive) but I am sure once I figure it out it will become easy on the next site.

Enter 'logo url' in the ACP search.

I created a guide for a text logo here: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/text-logo.7421/

If you have any further questions or need support, you can post in one of the customer forums.

 

[MapleOne]

Thanks guys, I will be sure to do that, I won't take offense if you delete that to keep this topic clean.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I also plan to build a number of forums in the next year and what fora is doing sounds good in theory but will eventually become an upgrade nightmare.

Don't be afraid of add-ons. I've only had one well-known developer leave me in the lurch with a few important add-ons we are depending on, but luckily another is taking a couple of those over, and for the last remaining one, I've found a substitute.

Fora is heavily modified, all with custom modifications. You can still tell you are using XenForo but they've decided to reinvent the wheel with IMHO some dubious changes to the UI. I can find my way around OK, and I've helped fellow forum members at a couple of them with tips on how to use the software, but they have dozens if not hundreds of communities, and they can afford a full-time development staff to do the upgrades. That said, I think they are still on XF 2.1. Or they have removed so many 2.2 features that I can't tell the difference.

One thing I can say after doing a lot of work on the forums myself--if you stick to the stock XenForo you'll have the smoothest upgrade experience. I also never modify XenForo's templates (which control the function and layout of the site)--instead, I write my own add-ons that make those modifications (the template system, to put it in the most basic of terms, offers a search/replace mechanism that add-ons can use to insert or modify existing template code--it was a game-changer for me). That way, when I upgrade, it goes really smoothly, without a lot of confusing template merges or edits. Learned my lesson the hard way.