Reasons we hate XF.

[DRE]

OK I do seriously hate it that Brogan left who was the best mod in the universe. He just had natural genius as well as needing so little sleep there was a running joke he was a bot. Vale Brogan I wish you could have stayed.

I also hate trying to extract an absolutely crucial addon out of the coders I need to transfer my second forum to XF. I've fought since XF started to get it and I'm on my third coder who says "it's almost ready" .... a lot. Sigh.
BUT my first and third forums are going great. It's just so painful having to go back to "the other software" to work on no. 2.

I totally sympathise on coding taking you over. XF makes it so easy to do most of the obvious things that you charge through your basic design ... then obsession hits.
Here Jake Bunce is the genius and HAS THE ANSWER when you ask! So here's a female kiss for Jake.

But yes how many nights have I sat here pounding the keyboard, searching the W3 website for CSS to get three words to appear in the right place ....
while the most delicious male in the world lies upstairs tenderly spread on my bed falling asleep because I'm not there. I mean we used to have a honeymoon 25 years marriage until XF.
Thank the Goddess my darling understands or at least is forgiving. But as HE'S in his workshop all afternoon fiddling with model ships (very similar top coding CSS by the swearing that I hear) there's not much time left for the meeting of hot hairy bodies.
Oh XF look at what you've done! Your code is just TOO sexy!

Just get ready to resist the seduction of CSS and you'll be fine. XF is SO sleek and comfy. It does need a few addons installed to be truly elegant but all forums do, and hey they do exist. All except that one specialised one for me.

You also hate my spam.

 

[Morgain]

You also hate my spam.

Aw sweetheart hate is too strong. I just feel that as a user getting an admin email about delightful updates to the board more than say every 6 weeks - better 8 - is counter productive.
Most of the exciting updates we install as admins are of little interest to the majority of users. Painful truth. It's like the great majority of net users - they only use basic email and check a handful of sites they know and find useful/ attractive. In the same way for example most of my members login and click What's New and some will Reply to one of those threads. That's it. A small group use our chatroom.

So any one update feature will be of interest to a certain minority group only. As a user that means I look down a list of exciting features the admin slaved over and enthusiastically announces and NONE of them connect to my interests. That equals spam - to me.
That doesn't mean it's not worth it adding stuff.
1. If there's a feature a group of members desperately want there'll be a thread about it so they'll hear its arrival there. Celebration and gratitude!
2. Other features do seep gradually into usage - a big way to push that is keep mentioning it on the board + get mods to mention it. With care - not to spam with irrelevance. Over time users do realise that their experience is getting richer.
3. The other big thing that gets new features known is support threads. Someone asks about X and you/ your mods explain XXX but you also point to Y. (Y = new feature) "What you can do about X is XXXX. But you might also like to check out Y."
That gets the info within reach of board searches by users.
4. Board announcements also get into searches and some users do browse over to scan the section. But best not make it do global notify UNLESS you are doing a Bulletin.

A Bulletin can be great. It reaches out to members making them feel in with the in crowd. It pokes the many who have forgotten us!
BUT it risks being spam. Especially if we belong to several forums, several email lists, Facebook and a blog or two! These aer just the active people we want to keep in connection but they are sensitive to spam/inbox overload. Can lead to unsubscribe or unread binning.
So
a bulletin should be
INFREQUENT - 3 months is ideal For a small tight community 6 weeks is OK.
SHORT One screenfull or 1.5.
DENSE & INTERESTING Terribly difficult. But this is going to ALL Members and we don't want it to a) irritate b) go unread after the first paragraph c) motivate unread binning on the next one d) trigger unsubscribe.
The art is the write a draft, then CUT and CUT and CUT the wording to shorten. Go over it around FIVE TIMES to do this. There ain't no shortcut to repeated edits to get good concise writing. This isn't about giving all the info. It's about giving teasers - very brief keyword phrases/ point list with links to find out more.
Example:

Hello all. Lots going on so here's the lowdown.
#*# Live chats now WEEKLY ON THURS see more incl. timezone times
#*# New section on XXXX XXX XXX which is creating FURIOUS discussions - hot info here
#*# The News section is very strong recently, thanks to everyone for sending in such excellent links and comments to make our News service such high quality News forum.
#*# You can now add ABC to your Profile with a couple of cliocks details here
#*# Would you like to publish an article or some photos? (public or just for members) Details on how here
#*# No more problems with MMMM or VVVV that's all fixed.
#*# New mod Patricia joins the team. She'll help you with aaaaabbbbcccc. Patricia's page. But we say goodbye to Johnny who is starting his own business so less time for us sadly. Big thanks Johnny and he'll still be around. Joihnny's page.
#*#We have FOUR new babies born since last news email, TEN new business start ups, THREE members got to target weight, Spike's built his kit car at last and Hekate has posted 43 joke posts which could get painful from laughing too much if you read it all in one go!

All for now and all the best
Petie, your dedicated forum admin.

Now that ain't too good because of all the blanks to fill in so it doesn't look very spicy. Also I only edited it once, not five times. But the general idea is there.
Note each item should only be TWO LINES max.

Hope this is helkpful to some.
From Shan Morgain your bossy but helpful fellow admin.

 

[BGL]

Agree with all of that except No. 6. From before/after pics, looks like Jake has seen too many chocolate kisses so I'm thinking we get him Pedal-A-Watt Bicycle Generator so he can get his exercise, charge his MacBook Pro and not have to leave the keyboard and give us 24/7 support.

 

[Morgain]

Seriously I like it. Can it fit between me and the desk? I'm always reluctant to get up and need more exercise.

 

[Sim]

I hate XF because I haven't had time to re-code my custom plugins for my large vB sites and migrate them across to XF and it's really bugging me every time I have to log into one of my old clunky vB sites - and my users keep nagging me to upgrade to something new.

I hate XF because every time I use it, it makes me hate my vB sites more - especially when dealing with the uptick in spam recently - too cumbersome on vB, too easy on XF.

I hate XF because I only have 8 licenses and aren't getting my maximum 11+ license discounts yet.

I hate XF because I keep dreaming up new ideas for applications I can build which use the XF engine as a framework, when I don't have time to build them now.

 

[Digital Doctor]

#4 Skinning - It is fun playing around with the CSS code. This takes up a lot of time and I am meant to be having sex with my wife to have a baby. Instead, I am slowly learning CSS3 :/

Each child you have costs you $250,000 over a lifetime. Think of all the money you are saving learning CSS3 !

 

[wickedstangs]

Reasons we hate XF

No updates like VB

 

[dutchbb]

Reasons we hate XF

No updates like VB

No bugs, no small updates.
Many bugs, many small updates.

 

[erich37]

man I hate XF, because I can not find any bugs in this software