What are your favourite add on features by developers here?

AndyB has a number of add-ons that I find very helpful in managing a forum. I agree with Tracy on minimizing add-ons, but find AndyB'a very helpful.

This made me think about @AndyB 's addons. His site offers over 420+ for $35 per year. So it's worth it.
But he also has a version check addon:

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This makes keeping the addons up to date, or ensuring compatibility to the next major version much easier.

So I thought why not have this for all XF addons? I've pitched the suggestion here: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/version-check-for-all-xf-addons.209676/
 
A must-have addon for me:
 
I don't like adding too many addons. I have 6 they only 2 are of good use, 4 are rarely or not used.
The two I use are
1. [CinVin] Home (quick 'homepage' for widgets)
Developer: CinVin
2. Advanced Search
Developer: AndyB
AndyB has a number of add-ons that I find very helpful in managing a forum. I agree with Tracy on minimizing add-ons, but find AndyB'a very helpful.

I recommend AndyB as well great help and many addons.
 
I have written a couple dozen add-ons, but they are only for styling changes to the templates, or adding features that can be achieved through template edits (like an indicator for the thread starter). That way, I can upgrade the core XenForo at any time, and not have to worry about merging modified templates. And for conflicts, I can simply disable an add-on and the forum will function properly without it. In other words, template edits are "hands off" for me, now that I know how to create add-ons. (It's really not all that difficult to make simple add-ons!)

A handful I use:

Auto Complete Location (it forces users to choose a location vs. letting them type in nonsense), Amazon/eBay URL Parser, Password Tools, Search Improvements, ElasticSearch Essentials, Dragonbyte Security, Change Content Owner or Date, Approval Queue Plus, User Activity (by XenConcept), Ignore More (allows members to ignore threads and forums), XenCentral Feedback System, Font Awesome Manager, and Security & Passkeys. Developers I use both free and paid add-ons from are Xon/Atelier Aphelion, AndyB, DigitalPoint, OzzModz, and AddonsLab, among a few others.

We also have a handful of add-ons that are useful for moderators, like Report Improvements, Warning Improvements, etc., to make jobs easier for our staff.

We have quite a few add-ons since we have a large and very active community, and there are use cases for each add-on we use. Thankfully, other than one or two add-ons, none are deal breakers and, if they ever go away, nothing is really affected all that much.
 
  • @AndyB addons are great, he fixes a lot of things Xenforo should have in the first place.
  • @Xon addons are amazing as well, such as his Redis addon etc.
  • @BassMan makes some great addons as well if you really want to change up your site. Visually as well.
  • @mazzly with his AmpXF addon.
Thank you for the mention 😊
Xons search improvement addons are also great, especially with Elastic search enabled 👍
 
I don't like adding mods on as they increase the risk of security or maintenance problems, but I've been running XF for several years and there is only one (set of) mod(s) that I really wouldn't consider running a forum without: @Ozzy47 's spaminator mods (contact us and registration). If I could only use one other mod, it would be @AddonFlare 's Paid Registrations (though he seems to be MIA for the last few months, so not sure if he's still supporting it).

Favorite mods is going to depend a lot on what you are wanting to do with your site. Different niches will have different needs.

BTW, the Resources section here has a widget on the left side for "top resources". Click the header and you get a page of mods sorted by user ratings.
 
I added the @Siropu chat to one of my sites but nobody ever took interest in using it, even after I promoted it. But on another site, this same chat add-on was used regularly and worked quite well. If anyone needs a chat add-on, I can certainly recommend it.
Chat doesn't get a lot of use on mine(except by our staff), but I love the Siropu Ads Manager add-on. It sells ads, collects the money, warns advertisers when are due to renew, counts clicks and impressions, manages letting them change their ad/link/keywords, randomly displays the banners in the places I choose, etc. It's very powerful, and I use it on two Xenforo forums.

I am a big fan of AndyB's work, too.
 
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