[TH] UI.X Pro [Deleted]

Gosh. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out which route to go. Having trending topics on the landing page is probably the way to go, but at the same time I'm afraid that people will create less threads in the appropriate sub forums, leaving that work to us.

It's not hard to get people to post in current threads, but having them create new threads is much harder (at least for us). By landing at the trending topics page I'm guessing that people are less inclined to visit the forum list? Any thoughts on this?

Also hard to decide if one should do XF 1.5->2.0 first, and then do 2.0->2.1, or go from 1.5->2.1 straight away. If it's time consuming to adapt the 2.0 template for 2.1, it's probably not a good idea? Guess it's hard for Themehouse to give an answer to that without the beta being out. (Planning on letting themehouse adapt either UI.X Pro or UI.X 2 for us).
 
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Whats about customers with Theme & Add-on Plan, would be there an upgrade plan? ;)

According to this post, that is a no.

"It doesn't directly fall into a XenForo-only product, so we'll be changing verbiage on our subscription plans to exclude both UI.X Pro (which comes with a service) and XPress which comes with a WordPress plugin and theme. To be clear, the parts that make up UI.X Pro (as in the specific add-ons) are in the subscription, just not the service or anything that comes with Pro extra."
 
I thought I'd mention that all UI.X 2 customers will now be asked on install if they want the Material theme which is what we use on Pro. So the best way to think about Pro is that it's a specific configuration and that we set it up for you. If you really want to do it yourself there is a plan for that.

There are a.few things that come with Pro and more to come. Right now it's our reporting tool and Topics.
 
Another question, how are topics different than native tags?

I like the concept and was already working on implimenting something like it for content discovery, but I prefer native XF functionality. It seems the same thing could be accomplished via tags, so I’m wondering what the difference is?
 
I guess that means you guys are marketing this mostly to new customers...?
Not necessarily. Anyone who sees value in it. A lot of these tools and methods and details just come from doing over a thousand projects. This is literally the technology we start every project with. It solves a lot of things like speed and performance, but also details in the interface that the average theme ignores.I decided to group them into a single package to not only save my clients money but to speed the process up in general. We're able to serve a lot more people, a lot faster, and with tried and true technologies.

We decided to look into what a lot of other tech and online communities were doing that were making them successful over forums, and we aim to continue doing that. A lot of these tools are just what a lot of users expect, and not having them could be hurting in some ways.

And another thing, why spend $500 for a theme that only changes a few style properties and does a slightly different header style. I figured we could save a lot of money by building in the tools of what a theme designer might do and automate it. Its not to say you shouldn't get a full mockup done, sure that makes it a lot more expensive but indeed you'll always get better work the more you plan and the more details you cover.

And @imno007 to reiterate, existing customers can always pick and choose. Even new ones can, we sell just about all these products (and will sell ALL eventually) individually. The setup/theme customization is a big part of this. If you don't want that, I'd recommend buying them individually (but that would cost you $300-$500 depending on customization or get an add-on plan. At least currently.
 
Another question, how are topics different than native tags?

I like the concept and was already working on implimenting something like it for content discovery, but I prefer native XF functionality. It seems the same thing could be accomplished via tags, so I’m wondering what the difference is?
Tags are user generated, Topics are not. Topics are, for all intents and purposes, a method to bypass the "one thread in one node" problem. Users don't really need to know that Topics are a thing, only admins do. We use the word "Topic" a few times on the front-end but theoretically if you had a Topic for EVERY node you had you could change the phrase and call it "Forum". Doesn't really matter.

But we added Topics as a new data structure so it would work with add-ons and be easier to upgrade and work with. Using thread prefixes and tags were the first idea, but decided that overtime it would create confusion. Topics just makes everyone's life easier in setup, management, and for us in development.
 
Not necessarily. Anyone who sees value in it. A lot of these tools and methods and details just come from doing over a thousand projects. This is literally the technology we start every project with. It solves a lot of things like speed and performance, but also details in the interface that the average theme ignores.I decided to group them into a single package to not only save my clients money but to speed the process up in general. We're able to serve a lot more people, a lot faster, and with tried and true technologies.

We decided to look into what a lot of other tech and online communities were doing that were making them successful over forums, and we aim to continue doing that. A lot of these tools are just what a lot of users expect, and not having them could be hurting in some ways.

And another thing, why spend $500 for a theme that only changes a few style properties and does a slightly different header style. I figured we could save a lot of money by building in the tools of what a theme designer might do and automate it. Its not to say you shouldn't get a full mockup done, sure that makes it a lot more expensive but indeed you'll always get better work the more you plan and the more details you cover.

And @imno007 to reiterate, existing customers can always pick and choose. Even new ones can, we sell just about all these products (and will sell ALL eventually) individually. The setup/theme customization is a big part of this. If you don't want that, I'd recommend buying them individually (but that would cost you $300-$500 depending on customization or get an add-on plan. At least currently.
Not questioning the value, Mike, or the workmanship, just pointing out that for those of us who already have most of your addon's, or even just some of them (and have therefore already set them up), it doesn't make a lot of sense to cough up another $140 right now for the main draw: which is Topics. But I'm going to freely admit that I'm a cheapo: I probably wouldn't pay for Topics by itself if it cost more per year than XF does per year, because I figure no one is likely doing more work on an addon than is being done on the core (although there are rare exceptions). So you probably don't have anything to worry about - because a lot of people probably won't mind spending the moola. No doubt you guys will clean up. :)
 
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Not questioning the value, Mike, or the workmanship, just pointing out that for those of us who already have most of your addon's, or even just some of them (and have therefore already set them up), it doesn't make a lot of sense to cough up another $140 right now for the main draw: which is Topics. But I'm going to freely admit that I'm a cheapo: I probably wouldn't pay for Topics by itself if it cost more per year than XF does per year, because I figure no one is likely doing more work on an addon than is being done on the core (although there are rare exceptions). So you probably don't have anything to worry about - because a lot of people probably won't mind spending the moola. No doubt you guys will clean up. :)
The funny thing is that comparing third party to XenForo isn't something that can be directly compared. For example, everyone here has bought XenForo but not everyone here will by Topics, so they get economies of scale on their price. Also, third party developers have a lot of different hoops to jump through that they themselves do not (theme, add-on, they ARE the environment, they ARE the market, etc. :p)

But I get your point.

There is a service in UI.X Pro (.5hr of labor for install/customization). I am considering doing Pro for $99/yr and then taking the install/setup and making it optional. Would you guys prefer that?
 
The funny thing is that comparing third party to XenForo isn't something that can be directly compared. For example, everyone here has bought XenForo but not everyone here will by Topics, so they get economies of scale on their price. Also, third party developers have a lot of different hoops to jump through that they themselves do not (theme, add-on, they ARE the environment, they ARE the market, etc. :p)

But I get your point.

There is a service in UI.X Pro (.5hr of labor for install/customization). I am considering doing Pro for $99/yr and then taking the install/setup and making it optional. Would you guys prefer that?
I'm not disagreeing with you, Mike. Everyone's standard by which they judge value will be different. That just happens to be my own thrifty rule of thumb. And it's just a general rule at that, because like I said, even for me there are (rare) exceptions.

I had written out this long post detailing how and why I sub to update your various addons and styles, thinking it might benefit you guys to know the mindset of at least some of your customers, but in end I couldn't convince myself that it was more for your benefit than mine, so I'll just say, "Yeah, $99 a year sounds better." :LOL:
 
There is a service in UI.X Pro (.5hr of labor for install/customization). I am considering doing Pro for $99/yr and then taking the install/setup and making it optional. Would you guys prefer that?
I haven't made a firm decision yet about UI.X vs. UI.X pro, but I think it makes sense for the setup to be separate, as long as there are clear instructions. We'd have to install it on our test site first, so either I'd need the setup done twice, or I'd need to understand it well enough to do it myself, in which case it doesn't make sense to get it in the first place.
 
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