purchasing add-ons

[Silverhair]

Hello, I am considering switching my forum to the latest xenforo version but have some questions I have not been able to answer to my liking yet...

Is there a list somewhere of standard features that come with the forum? ie: that you don't need to get by downloading an addon? I'm concerned that once I purchase the software at the initial cost, virtually all the features I would want on my forum will also cost me. These things add up. $50 for a gallery, $X custom sidebars, etc, etc...

Also, renewal time...is that just for support, or am I actually paying a yearly fee for the licence to use the software?

Ive done a lot of reading already, and messed around with the demo forum a bit, but as a novice forum operator, and having limited knowledge of code, a lot of this is daunting, so I do appreciate the help.

Lastly, I wonder if there might be some members here who now have criticisms or headaches to gripe about, (constructively), after having used the software for a bit, which might give me a better idea of what I might be getting myself into. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Thanks in advance for your time,

Adam

 

[Jeremy]

The renewal gets you updates and ticket support; you can run the software indefinitely.

There is no exhaustive feature list; just the demo. What features are you looking for?

 

[Silverhair]

Hi Jeremy, thanks for the prompt reply. I don't have a definitive list of everything, but a lot of the features I am thinking of are basic user features with some back end stuff mixed in.

Some basic examples of these include:

- likes, friends, direct upload of images to a post rather than through a 3rd party site, member photo gallery,

- placing links to different pages or sites in advertisements with sliders or banners for example, a blog option, customizing the navigation bar/menu, private social groups, the pop up bubble w/description of a category/forum when you hover over it, a list of who has read or is reading a thread at the bottom of the page, responsive design, etc, etc

I presume the demo represents all standard features only, but in running a demo by myself its very time consuming and labor intensive to try to explore many of these options effectively over a short period, as a novice anyways...

Thanks in advance for your help,

A

 

[Paul B]

Likes yes, friends no, but you can follow members.

Attaching (uploading) images directly to posts is possible.

Advertising is possible using the ad_* templates.

Customising templates is possible by editing them or via add-ons.

Anything you don't see in the demo, such as social groups, who has/is read(ing) a thread, etc. would need to be fulfilled via add-ons.

The FAQs in my signature cover a lot of common questions.