Implemented Time to take the gloves off

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jauburn

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The #1 thing that you need to do to steal market share away from vBulletin and all of the other scripts you are trying to conquer is this:

Get the activity on your forums/blogs/whatever out in front of the users!

Have you ever seen the "recent posts" hacks on vbulletin.org that so many forums rely upon? Their success is because users want an easy way to see all of the updates that are made to a given site.

Forum? Blog? Social Groups? Directory? Wallpaper?

Who cares?

All of this is bunk unless the users of a site know what's been updated, at the moment. Facebook, anyone?

So you can write your forum script. You can try to compete with vBulletin, SMF, and others.

But what you need to concentrate on, first and foremost, is the mechanism whereby you put in front of people's faces the updates that are made in the various areas that you code!

Otherwise, your efforts are farts in the wind.
 
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You have this fancy ajax stuff that presents a window in front of me if I want to add to or edit a post, but guess what? It doesn't work! (And it doesn't impress me!) I look at the home page of your forum, though, and it's confusing. I don't see the latest posts. I don't see the latest anything. If I don't see that, I don't give a ****!

You are doing some marginally fancier coding here than vBulletin, but you're not really addressing the issues that forum owners are facing: how to get the activity of the forum out in front of the users.

Good day. I should be charging you for this advice.
 
Again.
What exactly is the suggestion?

My advice is simple (and I'm biting my tongue): start with an "activity monitor," and do not add any feature to a forum or site script that does not update the activity monitor. Any time a user of a forum/site types anything into anything, that activity must be recorded and put in front of the other users. It is the #1 most requested feature on vbulletin.org. It is the reason that facebook is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. It is the reason that vBulletin and your software ultimately leave users uninspired.

Jeeezus. I feel like I'm saying the obvious.
 

Exactly. vBulletin is funny. They went off an developed all of these cool features--social groups, blogs, for example--but they didn't bother to build in mechanisms by which the forum users (by far the biggest population) were updated about the updates to these additional features. So they languished--and died!

What you must understand as a guiding principle is this: no user should ever type anything into your software that is not instantly put in front of the other users of the community! Otherwise, you have failed.

Again, simply look at Facebook. It's probably not too late, but it might be.

The reason I'm so incredulous is that I'm as much a forum user as a forum owner. If I make an update to my blog on the forum, I want that to show up in the list of recent posts! Otherwise I've wasted my d-damn time!
 
My advice is simple (and I'm biting my tongue): start with an "activity monitor,"
Already done.
do not add any feature to a forum or site script that does not update the activity monitor.
Already done.
Any time a user of a forum/site types anything into anything, that activity must be recorded and put in front of the other users.
Already done.
It is the reason that [your] software ultimately leave user[s] uninspired.
Sorry you feel uninspired. Perhaps you should investigate the XenForo feature set in a little more depth?
Jeeezus. I feel like I'm saying the obvious.
You are. We already did everything you suggested, a year ago.
 
Well, maybe I'm stupid, Kier, but I don't see those activity monitors on this site. And "already done" is the refrain I typically hear from programmers such as the horrible support staff at PhotoPost. I guess that's good news for me because what I try to do is not deflect but understand our users' concerns. Good day.
 
First of all, you don't have to be arrogant to bring accross a message. If your suggestion is useful and beneficial, people will notice.

Unfortunately it isn't. The proposed mod with latest posts on the forum main page is something personal, and not every forum needs it. It's a mod for a reason. I also do not see how it helps to make things so much more 'easy' as you put it. To me it's nothing but clutter.

Also, like Brogan stated, it's already very easy to find updates with the above mentioned links. I've been here for over a year, and never have I seen anyone complain about not being able to find updated content easy, you are really the first and only one.
 
First of all, you don't have to be arrogant to bring accross a message. If your suggestion is useful and beneficial, people will notice.

Unfortunately it isn't.

Hey, I appreciate your comments. But I've been in the software industry for 18 years, and I know that there are programmers, and there are users, and in the gulf between them lies success. Actually success lies more in the realm of users, I'm afraid.

So you and the others here need to say thanks for the feedback and solicit more of my feedback, not less.

But oh well. There are a gazillion forums out there designed by geeks, and they're all destined for oblivion.

Good luck and I'm done wasting my time.
 
The #1 thing that you need to do to steal market share away from vBulletin and all of the other scripts you are trying to conquer is this:

Get the activity on your forums/blogs/whatever out in front of the users!

Have you ever seen the "recent posts" hacks on vbulletin.org that so many forums rely upon? Their success is because users want an easy way to see all of the updates that are made to a given site.

Forum? Blog? Social Groups? Directory? Wallpaper?

Who cares?

All of this is bunk unless the users of a site know what's been updated, at the moment. Facebook, anyone?

So you can write your forum script. You can try to compete with vBulletin, SMF, and others.

But what you need to concentrate on, first and foremost, is the mechanism whereby you put in front of people's faces the updates that are made in the various areas that you code!

Otherwise, your efforts are farts in the wind.

You have this fancy ajax stuff that presents a window in front of me if I want to add to or edit a post, but guess what? It doesn't work! (And it doesn't impress me!) I look at the home page of your forum, though, and it's confusing. I don't see the latest posts. I don't see the latest anything. If I don't see that, I don't give a ****!

You are doing some marginally fancier coding here than vBulletin, but you're not really addressing the issues that forum owners are facing: how to get the activity of the forum out in front of the users.

Good day. I should be charging you for this advice.
Wow ok not to tear a hole in your logic here but....
Who is trying to steal customers from anyone...in fact your rants seem like rants of a person who thinks that is how it works so I would be inclined to think that you are a vb fanboy

vBulletin was not made successful because of a "recent posts hack"

Who cares...I do...I am not that lazy where i need to see a front page full of stuff that is inside the forum. If you know how to utilize a forum software, that should be good enough.

I also don't understand how comparing facebook and xenforo is even valid.

The layout of a forum is within the forum itself....a frontpage is a per site thing. I don't need one...nor do I want one....if I do end up wanting one I can go make one easily with Kotomi powering it. So the only thing I hear when you say this is that unless xenforo copies what everyone else does (which everyone else does themselves) that they fail which is completely wrong. IF they do what everyone else is doing they would just be another company...that is not the way things get done around here.

Fart's in the wind ehh....seem's like that would not be the only hot air mentioned in this thread...

If you want to see the newest stuff click "what's new"....I know it's very tough to do...i hope you catch up.

I would rather throw 5 cents in a wishing well than listen to your nickels worth or free "advice"...you come across as a know it all and very disrespectful. Good luck with your endeavors.
 
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