So what would you like to see next at XenForo?

Back on a serious note, apart from more HYS videos I think the main thing missing is a solid add-on training tutorial. As several members have said, the bar of entry is higher in XF than in VB (even if the architecture is better), so without a strong tutorial system that babysits you through all aspects of addon development, there may not be as many developers as there would be otherwise.
 
I'm not sure that the alerts system is reliable in 1.2. I have posted in this thread, and am "Watching" it, but when MikeMpls posted I did not see an alert of new replies. But when I checked New Posts, this thread came up.
 
Found this thread after seeing it on www.xenadmins.com

* I would like to see some proper API documentation. Mike and Kier seem to have put in a *lot* of effort into the plug-in system, but we really need good documentation for devs to easily get into it (and perhaps more importantly, do things the XF way). I think KAM should seriously consider investing a few thousand in getting someone to do one for them if they don't have the time to do it themselves.

* I would also like to see some offers - such as buy five licences get five free - with the string that they cannot be transferred *unless* the site they are being used on has been sold as well (so can only be transferred to the person who owns the domain). This would mean 5 instant sales for XF, with potentially 10 more XF forums out there, and with little worry about them being resold.
 
Could always improve upon the idea of free licenses, by doing a lottery of some kind
For every license you buy, you gain a ticket which goes into a monthly lottery to win you a free license.

Personally I'd like to see another developer added to the staff list (yes I know it costs money! :P), who's sole job is to work on official addons, like the CMS/Blog/Gallery (assuming they aren't being created already)

OR a road map of sorts, to show what is to come, especially for large addons like the ones I mentioned above.
 
I would like to see the documentation improved vastly for both users and developers, as priority.

I would then like to see products... Blog, Gallery, so forth. Blog is a really important aspect of communities, and if done right, can work similar to Wordpress in that it can be a standalone CMS for staff to use as a content system, OR, allow users full control over having their own private / shared blog, and if not even both.
 
Anthony Parsons said:
I would like to see the documentation improved vastly for both users and developers, as priority.

I would then like to see products... Blog, Gallery, so forth. Blog is a really important aspect of communities, and if done right, can work similar to Wordpress in that it can be a standalone CMS for staff to use as a content system, OR, allow users full control over having their own private / shared blog, and if not even both.
Click to expand...
I can't agree more here! I had a incident the other day which has reminded me why I don't like to have to rely on 3rd party add ons for important things. An add on I use was suddenly deleted without warning or anything, the only reason i knew was when it wasn't showing in my watched resources list. Now it was a minor add on and theres another to replace it thats actually better, but thats not the point and it reminded me that if you do use a 3rd party add on your at whim of the developer.
 
  • A more "direct" link from my forum's admin panel to xenforo.com's resource section. I want to click a button and install/update both free and purchased addons.
    • In the same vein - click to install new versions of xenforo, assuming you have an active support agreement.
  • Let me give you money with something other than paypal... Google Wallet?
 
Brogan said:
I'm not sure that would make much commercial sense.
Click to expand...

I think it makes great commercial sense, because people will be more likely to start up a forum that otherwise might never see the light of day - in other words custom that XF would not get otherwise. It's about capitalising on opportunities, imo.

It also might prompt some people to switch some of their other sites to XF. I still have a number of forums on vB, yet only one is currently potentially going to move to XF - but I'm having second thoughts even for that, not because I don't like XF, but because it is a large site with lots of non-forum sections and I have to ask myself if I have the time to learn XF to that level ... Now if I was moving *all* of these sites then that decision would obviously be much easier.

Anyway back to the strongest reason why I think it is a good idea. I would hazard a guess to say that many people, myself included, have hundreds of domain names, and some of them 'could' potentially be great forums. However, many of them are actually in tiny niches, and (no matter how much I'd like to) I just can't justify the cost of a license and the time it takes to develop a skin for these sites - just to see - if they take off. (I wouldn't start them up and then 'take back' the forum from the community if the site didn't take off as well as hoped - so for me personally it the time and money would be gone.)

Being a XF fan, XF would be my first choice for any new forum I start - as I don't think it would be fair on the sites to give them anything other than the best chance to succeed. But obviously because of the reasons I have stated, this is unlikely to happen, because I just don't have the resources and I am not made of money. So such an offer might well twist my arm.

There is one other option, but it is not quite ready yet - Discourse. Discourse will be easy to use to trial new sites because it is free, and by the time it is ready for mass market, will be very easy to get set-up. However there is a danger (for Xenforo) that, if Discourse does reach this point (i.e. becomes good enough - and I have no doubt it will - because of the team behind it) then people won't just use Discourse to trial sites with a view to later convert to XF or another platform, but they'll stay on Discourse (because by this time it will be more than good enough). The more traction Discourse gets the more the more it will improve and the more fans and users it will get - competing directly with XF for a share in the forum market.

Perhaps the easiest way to look at this would be Xenforo asking why, people who have lots of domains for potential forums aren't setting them up with a XF install. And what would change their mind...
 
Perhaps it makes great commercial sense to you because it's not your company.

It's not my company and it makes very little sense to me.
 
Brogan said:
Perhaps it makes great commercial sense to you because it's not your company.

It's not my company and it makes very little sense to me.
Click to expand...

So you think creating sales that a company would not otherwise get = bad commercial sense? Very odd ;)

(Btw, this technique has been used to great effect in the sale of all sorts of products and services for decades.)
 
Why do you think it makes little commercial sense? Perhaps we can list the pros and cons of it.. I've started with pros - feel free to add your cons.
 

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