The silence is deafening and concerning...

[smallwheels]

Judging off your join date, it seems you began here in 2022, so I can see how you don't see the contrast as much as others... and still feel "everything is okay".

I'don't think and feel "everything is ok" - how do you come to that conclusion? Rather the opposite. But I've seen and been in situations like that often enough that I see the structural reasons that possibly lead to a situation like that. This makes me more relaxed as I see that what is happening is somewhat common (and even unavoidable to a degree), may I like it or not. And I also have seen the outcome of situations like that which is typically positive longterm - yet won't be the cozy world of the past that you demand. I prefer to deal with those patterns and reasons rather than with the surface perception only and prefer to deal with the reality rather than blindly demanding something completely unrealistic and dreaming about a past that has long gone by (and probably is more shiny in memory than it was back then in reality as well). Yelling has barely ever solved a problem and ignoring the reality and living in the past has neither. To no repeat myself endlessly here's a post from a while ago about exactly this topic:

S

XF 2.4 Post in thread 'XenForo 2.4 status and what's new under the hood?'

Nov 14, 2025

While this is technically true, when I bought XF a big part of why I did it was because of Mike and Kier, and how involved they were with the community.

It doesn't change the presence if you mentally live in the past - it is gone.

I understand that wasn't something that was legally part of the deal but I'd argue that there are a LOT of folks here who chose XF for the same reason back then, and probably a lot who have now left because that's all gone.

Which seems reasonable. It is like it is and some of those that liked the past but not the presence drew their consequences...

• smallwheels

• 
• 

No doubt XF has a lot of room to improve in many areas. But for one it is still an excellent product that has not and will not stop working (so a lot has been achieved by the team) and secondly it is not on me to decide what they do but on them. So why should I make my life miserable? I can barely take influence and surely the probability of taking any influence at all is higher through constructive comments, objective facts, some empathy and hinting to small steps than trough yelling, daydreaming and loudly demanding the impossible in ignorance of the reality and the own position. At least that's what life tought me. I cannot decide what the XF does and neither do I want to. I am a customer. I can be demanding, supportive, helpful or annoying (and sometimes all of that at the same time) but I cannot make decisions for XF. I have to accept whatever they decide for their company and product and if I don't like what they decide and how they act and at some point think I can't live with that (or don't want to) I have the freedom to walk away and find a software that suits me better. It is that easy.

 

[dunowat]

This isn’t a new concept. There’s been a difference here for the last couple years now, compared to how Xenforo used to be and it’s okay for customers to take note of that and express concerns. We’ve been patient for the last 5 years, and nothing has improved tbh.

What are your alternatives? I haven’t found anything quite like XenForo for the price. You might want to start planning a migration or another replacement strategy

Typically once a software and company enters its mature stage, there is not a dependency on 1 staff member to keep the development ball rolling...

I think the hyperbole is what's discouraging. There's still staff and also another business model with the cloud offering. I think the issue is that you keep talking like this and expect them to do more because of it. I think the other issue is also the fact that this thread is how many pages long with you and a handful of others posting the same thing over and over again.

I don't know if that's your main site, but what improvements are you looking for that will help boost your community? My point is rather than spending time here, it's better to build your community. I took a look at your link and it has 840 members. I'd be asking myself how do i get to 1000. Do you really need another update to get to 1k members?

I think as long as we get better releases and if their plan is what they say they're trying to modernize the underlying framework, yet keep the price the way it is with the same stability, would be worth the wait. There's a lot of things in 2.x that could stand to benefit. They obviously benefit from developers and developers benefit from a strong extendible platform. If they are taking a longer term view and working towards that, which I hope based on what they say because of the quality of the software, i think it's a good thing. They're leveraging the benefits of the latest versions of PHP and working and communicating with high profile developers. As long as they continue to take a standards based approach. Those guys will continue to make $. I also hope they can help shape the software.

While I understand your concern, the software is plenty good for 10k members. I wish there was more flexibility with the format so that we could keep up with the times and have a threaded post option but i do like the forums too. I personally think there's always going to be room for niche forums for long form content for strong niche communities. In the meantime, while we wait, I'm thinking of how to run the software better and get used to all of the many configurations as the community continues to grow and how to continually grow it. When the release does come out, it's going to be important to have a feedback loop for the devs for any issues.

My goal is just to stay positive and supportive and hope that they are planning for another version. If it becomes more extendible I'd love to create my own addons with a new framework with modern standards. The base they provide is very solid and if you know how to extend it, it's very powerful as is. If they make it easier, I think more devs will return once communities come back to fashion. I just wish we could have more variety with the "look" of the site.

 

[Wing]

What are your alternatives? I haven’t found anything quite like XenForo for the price. You might want to start planning a migration or another replacement strategy

Tbh, I dont know yet. Which is why I still am holding onto hope for the next 5 years. The thought of switching platforms after all the passion and enthusiasm with Xenforo makes me sick to think about, if that time ever came. Too much custom work done. The site listed in my signature is a very close-knit flight simulation hobby group. Its private but has daily activity with the select users on our Roster for flight operations and planning.

 

[Ricsca]

If they released stupid updates every month (or even every 15 days), many admins would constantly renew their licenses and with that money alone they could pay more than a developer working on Xenforo Core.
If there are no updates, admins aren't motivated to renew (even if they're simple updates), and this is a huge financial loss that only hurts the Xenforo project.
Iltore, a software that's always updated and with more and more options, also helps forums keep up with the times. If a forum has interesting options for users (beyond the content, of course), users will return to visit and participate more often. It's in Xenforo's best interest that forums remain interesting in 2026.

 

[smallwheels]

If a forum has interesting options for users (beyond the content, of course), users will return to visit and participate more often. It's in Xenforo's best interest that forums remain interesting in 2026.

Sure. On the other hand that is the case as well if a forum has nothing else to offer than good, high quality content and a decent community culture. There are literally hundreds examples for this. W/o that a forum won't find visitors and struggle with longterm survival, no matter what fancy features it may have. A XF based forum that currently struggles does not do so b/c of a lack of features in XF and won't become a visitor magnet once 2.4 or 3.0 will be released or if XF build in fancy features. Forums are about content.

 

[Wing]

Even though forums are about content, there is always room to grow. As much as I hate Discord, that platform has shown a new innovative organization of discussions. Now imagine if Forums took some of that, but kept it inside a Forum structure and format... heck, its 2026, imagine if we had VOIP built into our Forum communities. There's just alot out there these days that can be developed and assist with modernization of the user experience. Even basic userbase management features of some of the new-age platforms would go a LONG way inside our Forum formats.

 

[smallwheels]

I would expect a greater level of service from the smaller company because they have more to lose if I'm no longer a customer.

Absolutely. That is the reason why I prefer a smaller seller if the rest is equal (and sometimes even if it's not): you'll typically get better, more individual and more personal customer service instead of standard replies and processes. Still bigger investments in products (aka development efforts and product conception and design) are typically easier to handle by a bigger seller, simply because he has more customers that share the cost in the end.

Secondly, I was considering working on a new project, and visited this forum after a long time away. I've been to a number of forums for community platforms recently, and none of those platforms spoke with the snark and dismissiveness to a paying customer that I witnessed here (looking at that XF Cloud customer thread). It appeared the staff took this person's call for help as a personal attack against them and took an immediate defensive stance. I've seen free, open source platforms treat their members far better than that and they are receiving no funds from those members.

Don't get me wrong, this is great software. But I won't be using it moving forward. I'm not a Xenforo basher. I'm just a user who wanted to renew my license to use this platform for a new project, but was turned off by staff responses to a genuine customer support request. It's unfortunate, and I hope things get better around here.

That is a very valuable and honest response and I am thankful for it. When I joined the forums a couple of years ago the attitude and wording of the moderatrors/XF supporters her on the forums was what irritated me the most. It seemed generally rude and often inadequate, esepcially for staff in a company support forum. The more as - at that time - the forum and basically all it's members seemed quite supportive and friedly to me (which has changed over the last year to a degree). These irritations kept popping up regularly but the thread you refer to was an absolute lowlight in that regard. I haven't seen worse in this forum and am still baffled about that behavior. Especially in a situation like the current one where the company basically overpromised and underdelivered and a lot of people are rightfully annoyed about that. To me this behavior including the fact that it was not one but two staff members/moderators made me turn away from XenForo so drastic that I was resconsidering my future plans with it and thinking about alternatives. If I was a perspective buyer this would clearly and without any doubt had made me going for a different seller in the market. I've barely ever seen anything as unprofessional as that (and I have seen a lot).