The silence is deafening and concerning...

[FTL]

Based on the bug forum it seems that bugs are reported by the users but barely looked at by the team for the most part.

I suspect that most of those bugs, especially pre 2.3, have been fixed one way or another. But yeah, they should be addressed in that section, not just forgotten about like that. Another consequence of that lack of communication with their paying customers.

 

[Moshe1010]

I'm curious to know how much Xenforo made in 2025

Enough to not care to communicate with their clients

 

[smallwheels]

Will be interesting to see their communications in 2026 and if theres been any learnings.

Or not.

under this thread there are two recommendeations for similar threads (both locked):



The on from 2013 reads:

I've wanted to renew my license....but until I see something...anything...that shows that the forum isn't in a dead state...I just can't and won't.

Some keep asking about a roadmap. I'm not even concerned with that much. Talk of an upcoming new feature in the next version (whenever that is) every now and then. Word of various additions or improvements in the near future. Anything to show there is some (even if slow or gradual) progress is being made. But it's all pretty much non-existent. (...)
Leaving customers hanging isn't a good way of doing business with existing customers, nor is it a good way to gain new ones.

With the glacial pace of forward movement on the product I'm inclined to believe that anything that is going on behind the scenes in regards to the software is minimal at best. (...)

(...) It's just sad to see that Xenforo has gotten to the state it's in. It used to be a vibrant community and forum with a lot of potential. But now it seems relegated to the same few people on the forum to keep it active and to try and keep interest and faith there.

W

Thread 'The silence is deafening.....'

Jan 26, 2013

Ok we all know about the lawsuit with IB. And as I understand some changes have happened behind the scenes with Xenforo. But whatever.

I've wanted to renew my license....but until I see something...anything...that shows that the forum isn't in a dead state...I just can't and won't.

Some keep asking about a roadmap. I'm not even concerned with that much. Talk of an upcoming new feature in the next version (whenever that is) every now and then. Word of various additions or improvements in the near future. Anything to show there is some (even if slow or gradual) progress is being made...

• whitetigergrowl
• Replies: 16
• Forum: Other XenForo discussions and feedback

• 

Sounds familiar?

The one from 2022 reads:

Over the years with the decline of all forums unfortunately this forum has also declined. That would be okay because nobody can control that really. But for quite some time there is pretty much no interaction by the XF team with the community anymore, or much less (like 90% decrease).(...)
This is concerning to me because I feel like the last 4-5 years the devs of this forum doesn't communicate with us anymore. I just went back to 2021, so my numbers show only the time in the last 2 years. But if I went back further, one could easily see the decline in the last 4-5 years, too.

In addition to the "participation of the devs", it was said that XF 2.0 will make development faster. And 2 new devs were added to the team. Yet XF 2.3 is yet to be seen. 2 years no new version. Communication/participation/interaction is at the lowest it has been from all 3 main devs. I have never seen the bug reports forum this abandoned. It looks like the last 1 year the bugs hasn't been resolved as quickly as it was used to be. So it accumulated to ~300 reports now. I remember a time where that forum node has had 8 active reports. Usually 2 pages at most, right now 15 pages.
The progress of XF was in my opinion too slow, but right now it is beyond slow.

Thread 'Current state of XF and the participation of the XF Team'

Sep 21, 2022

Hello,

I am concerned about the current state of XenForo and I am starting this topic to see if I am overreacting or if my concern has some merit to it.

I always try to be helpful, supportive and positive on here. So the last thing I want to do is to start a drama. On other sites I have a more direct and sharp tongue, but on here I want to be a part of a warm-welcoming family. I feel like I owe it to XF and all forum owners. One day I help someone out, another day someone else will help me out. Give and take. We are on the same boat, this way everyone benefits. But lately I am struggling...

• sbj
• Replies: 150
• Forum: Other XenForo discussions and feedback

• 
• 
• 

Sounds familiar?

So the situation is not new - rather it seems persistent for more than a decade. Which means: Insufficient and bad communication (or what the customers percieve as such) is tied deep into the culture of XF as a company. It seems to be a (negative) core value. With a behavior tied so deep into cuture and habits it is hard to overcome even it if was tried to. And it seems for the last months it has been worse than it ever was, judging from what was written in those old threads and what we experienced over the last year. The only conclusion can be: Not much hope for learning and a change in behavior, sadly.

As XF seem to strictly follow the Las Vegas rule for what is going on in the company ("what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas") one can only hope that they have at least as much fun as they would have in Vegas.

 

[AndreaMarucci]

What I've noticed is that at the very beginning of xenforo every question I've posted received a reply very fast, now I've posted some question and no one ever received a reply or, the be more clear, one received 2 replies just after a lot of bumps from myself. Something is not going in the right direction...

 

[Digital Doctor]

short term pain, long term gain.

Xenforo are expert coders, and not so great businessmen.

/not worried.

 

[webbouk]

TBH I've no complaints and neither have our 32,000 members

I'd be more concerned if XF staff closed this forum and website down because that would indicate that they were in difficulty.

 

[Seeker-Smith]

The bug bot has been reporting fixes so someone is working.

 

[QuackieMackie]

TBH I've no complaints and neither have our 32,000 members

I'd be more concerned if XF staff closed this forum and website down because that would indicate that they were in difficulty.

I have one complaint, but it's pretty minor.
I just want a staff member to check out the dev docs. I've PR'd a bunch of topics but still nothing. (Maybe if I add more )

Otherwise, I'm happy with the state of everything. The community can help me handle any problem I've faced so far so I have no need for Xenforo staff outside providing me with the core software.

 

[Grump1!]

Who cares if it's quiet

 

[Silverstar]

People are chasing after features and bug fixes when they should be chasing after content and community.
Let the founders of Xenforo do their job; for my part, everything is working well to keep my community thriving.

 

[Yenxji]

Short answer: because XenForo is a private company and small of developer isn't really enough to keep up this for bug report and stuff, update the releases.

Long answer: XenForo is still a best and solid platform with excellent performance, but I'm concerned about several patterns I've noticed.

The core issues include: communication vacuum, minimal staff engagement and 786+ open bug reports (some from 2018), no status updates, broken promises for XenForo releases 2.4 build version with new editor was supposed to be faster releases and but has dragged on for years, cultural problem and this exact complaint thread has appeared in 2013, 2022, and now 2025/2026

Maybe hire more developers could help, but the deeper issue is company culture and communication practices. XenForo seems to follow a "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" approach and zero transparency about:

• Development progress
• Timeline changes
• Bug prioritization
• Resource allocation

The real impact is for developers like us building on XenForo and this creates cascading problems:

• Third-party addon developers can't plan properly
• Users keep asking "when will X be fixed?"
• Major functionality (like the editor) blocks custom work for years
• Trust erodes with each missed/silent deadline

I'm concerned that the 'they're just busy coding' defense isn't sufficient when bug reports sit untouched for years and basic communication stops. Even a monthly "Here what we are working on" post would help immensely so for XenForo to truly compete as long-term, they need to fix their communication first at developer capacity second but so without transparency, even more developers won't solve the trust problem they have created.

 

[Alpha1]

People are chasing after features their users have asked for and fixes for bugs that are a daily problem, when they should be chasing after content their users cannot find in their community.

Fixed!

 

[webbouk]

One comment I will make in defence of the XenForo team, is it must be disheartening to read threads and comments such as this one, and others, berating them, even more so when members/users/licence holders state that they are not renewing licences until updates come about.

Firstly, if they are working as hard as they say in the background, bearing in mind most are like us juggling work, life and family time, do you honestly think that knocking them will give you the best from them? I know from my personal experiences the more you are knocked the less likely you are to put the effort in.

Secondly, all those who don't renew licences but still use the product are in effect taking but not putting back in. XenForo isn't a one-off product, a fit and forget, its something that is worked on and nurtured by all - that's you, me, the add-on developers, the XenForo staff and devs, it's a team effort. When the biscuit barrel dries up, when wages and costs can't be met, don't expect it to survive, then where will we all be?

If it's not broken, don't fix it, is a good adage to bear in mind. Improvement and advancement will come but it requires commitment, from all parties and at cost, break the chain then see where that puts you.

 

[Mendalla]

Secondly, all those who don't renew licences but still use the product are in effect taking but not putting back in.

To be clear, we are not renewing a license, we are renewing support. That's a crucial distinction. The license is bought outright when you make the initial purchase. The annual payments cover ticketed support and updates. If you don't need support or updates, you can still legally use the software without paying support. It's the same model that corporate software like my employer's ERP system (which I manage) used for decades until the advent of SaaS made big software greedy.

That said, I get your point. Not renewing support impacts the company's revenue stream, impacting their ability to provide said support. Ideally, we would all renew annually. But there is also an obligation on the company to give us a reason to renew. IMHO, Xenforo has done so pretty consistently year after year, if only with patch level updates (yes, those count). I am happy with company and product, even if more communication and transparency about some of the concerns raised would definitely be a good thing. I renew every year, but I sometimes wait until there's a patch release or other reason to do so rather than jumping right on it on the renewal date. It's a flexibility we have with Xenforo that is rare in software in my experience.

 

[rickhz]

The bug bot has been reporting fixes so someone is working.

They know that attachments are being shown upside down and the fix is to download a patch from a thread here, upload it to the site, and then sit around with this error in the control panel until who knows when...

Check completed on 15,204 files. The files listed below have contents different from those originally downloaded.

If you have edited these files yourself, you may ignore this message, otherwise you should investigate further as this may be evidence of corrupted or altered files.

XenForo

js/xf/attachment_manager-compiled.js

A proactive team would have fixed this properly by now.

Secondly, all those who don't renew licences but still use the product are in effect taking but not putting back in.

The ball is in their court. Show us some progress and people will pay for it. 7 months since the last update about the future of XF doesn't inspire me to send them my money.

 

[philmckrackon]

They know that attachments are being shown upside down and the fix is to download a patch from a thread here, upload it to the site, and then sit around with this error in the control panel until who knows when...

Check completed on 15,204 files. The files listed below have contents different from those originally downloaded.

If you have edited these files yourself, you may ignore this message, otherwise you should investigate further as this may be evidence of corrupted or altered files.

XenForo

js/xf/attachment_manager-compiled.js

A proactive team would have fixed this properly by now.



The ball is in their court. Show us some progress and people will pay for it. 7 months since the last update about the future of XF doesn't inspire me to send them my money.

I know this does not address your issue, but FYI - I have core files that I have edited that fail the health check and I use this addon to ignore them. (It's now on Snogs site)

[OzzModz] Ignore Files From Health Check

Requirements: XenForo 2.2+ Description: At times we might need to edit core or addon files. The issue is that we are plagued with the dreaded file health check results showing up on the ACP index. Well this addon solves that. Now if you have...

snogssite.com