What I dont understand is......

Marc

Well-known member
..... how it can be there there are peices of software about, some of which I am using that have things in it (all of them alike) that are real annoyances. And yet xenforo seem to have managed to get it right.

Just for example and an extreme annoyance of mine when using a forum. I have just uploaded an image that it pretty huge, and yet it covers exactly the width of the page content.

And again, Ive just uploaded an image and I can choose not to show it as a bloody thumbnail because its something I want people to see at a glance.


Ya know to start with I thought it was just that you guys had started from scratch and therefore have the knowledge to avoid the annoyances that others simply dont seem to be able to work out of their products, and then I thought of invision which was rewritten, and vbulletin 4 that was completely re............oh .... scratch that one :D
 
I think when starting something new it is easy to do a few things very well. XenForo is in a similar state. They do a few things very well. The real challenge is doing a lot of things very well.

Regarding the attachments, I'd say that the resizing is very nice. But besides that, there isn't much different about how they're handled when compared to how they were handled a decade ago. The database side of things has some improvements, however, there isn't any easy way to reuse attachments, organize or manage them. If I do insert a thumbnail there is no one click method for floating the image left or right. There are loads of other things that image attachments could do but it doesn't.

Which brings us back to, doing a few things very well. This is a great foundation to build upon.
 
Its called Backwards Compatibility. The limitations on most software is usually because the developers are trying to continue to support legacy versions.

XenForo doesn't have any legacy versions... they could start from scratch and get things right.
 
Nah, Im not buyin the backward compatability with some of these things. Take the example in my first post. Showing the images at the width of the forum regardless of the images actual size is nothing to do with being backward compatible. Besides which Invision 3.0 was written from scratch, had no backward compatability with hardly anything. Dont get me wrong, the guys at IPB have done a good job with it but not in comparison to this and to be honest its not the big things such as the global attachments and other items that will have a big effect on backward compatibility. Its simple annoyances like the original reason I posted that have been concentrated on and personally, I like it :)
 
It's easier to tack on minor settings and options than to rewrite the entire process.Which is generally what most forum software companies do. XenForo, however, isn't entirely built from scratch, but they are working on removing the current "backbone" that they used from the Zend Framework to incorporate their style of software.
In my opinion, Kier and Mike have had lots of experience with forum software construction and are on their own schedule and their own ideas, this is why this software is much greater than many of the other ones out there. They've set their time-frame in which they projected to get certain things done and they are not held up by a bigger corporate person telling them that they need to have X amount of things completed in X amount of months, regardless of their difficulty.
 
In my opinion, Kier and Mike have had lots of experience with forum software construction and are on their own schedule and their own ideas, this is why this software is much greater than many of the other ones out there. They've set their time-frame in which they projected to get certain things done and they are not held up by a bigger corporate person telling them that they need to have X amount of things completed in X amount of months, regardless of their difficulty.
Spot on :D
 
vB3 was old and needed a re-write. Kier et al, felt vB3 needed a total rewrite. IB got lazy (think: $$$) and didn't want to do that.
Xenforo is the re-write vB3 needed and vB4 is well .... uh .... judge for yourself.
 
Just for example and an extreme annoyance of mine when using a forum. I have just uploaded an image that it pretty huge, and yet it covers exactly the width of the page content.

I can sympathize with you. But why rely on the forum to re size your image for you? Why not re size the image before you upload it? If your not sure what size most of the time 800 by 600 won't hog the screen. Just sayin.
 
I can sympathize with you. But why rely on the forum to re size your image for you? Why not re size the image before you upload it? If your not sure what size most of the time 800 by 600 won't hog the screen. Just sayin.
It's much more enduser-friendly to let the software do it. Many users simply don't want to deal with such things - they want to upload a picture they like and that's about it.
 
I can sympathize with you. But why rely on the forum to re size your image for you? Why not re size the image before you upload it? If your not sure what size most of the time 800 by 600 won't hog the screen. Just sayin.

Well the answer to this is simple really. On this one www.thedamncomputer.com which I will be starting IT related forum that I agree with you, however I also run this place www.husky-owners.com which is a forum for siberian huskies where 80% of our users are beyond non-technical to the extent I occasionally have had people ask how to get photos from their phone to the computer let alone resize them.
 
I also run this place www.husky-owners.com which is a forum for siberian huskies where 80% of our users are beyond non-technical to the extent I occasionally have had people ask how to get photos from their phone to the computer let alone resize them.
lol I can relate to that one..

Back on topic.. One thing i use 100% more on XF then i ever did on vB is "Whats New" cant put my finger on exactly why its so much better, but i now use that feature almost exclusively on my XF forums. Where on vB i never touched it.
 
[offtopic]I started reading that forum a while ago, though I don't have a Siberian Husky, nice site. :)[/offtopic]

Cheers Dean. Only gutting thing about it is that there are far too many features I would have to remove to get it on to xenforo :( .... Tell ya one thing though, the second those features are available to a decent extent I will be moving over without a second thought
 
Tell ya one thing though, the second those features are available to a decent extent I will be moving over without a second thought

Not to high jack your original post here but what features are you referring to? You have a nice site btw.
I do not see anything on your husky site that cannot be done with xenforo. In fact, just glancing at it you can hardly tell a difference anyway at least feature wise.
 
Not to high jack your original post here but what features are you referring to? You have a nice site btw.
I do not see anything on your husky site that cannot be done with xenforo. In fact, just glancing at it you can hardly tell a difference anyway at least feature wise.

This would be apart from the blog, gallery, arcade calender, chatroom and member subscription system thats all seemless Im guessing? LOL

For the forum part, I would completely agree. In fact xenforo is better in every respect IMO however the above my members could not live without and it would cause me far too much hassle to have multiple logins. Not to mention the conversion LOL.

I would absolutly love to be using xenforo, however for the moment its simply not viable. But hey, its early days :)
 
I think when starting something new it is easy to do a few things very well. XenForo is in a similar state. They do a few things very well. The real challenge is doing a lot of things very well.
I think the crucial thing for the developers is to be careful when adding new stuff. Not to get zealous and create lots of things where quality suffers.
 
"my members could not live without"
Clarification on this please.

Of course.

OK maybe not all of them, but 2 in particular.

My forum is based on Siberian Husky owners around the world and was originally set up for people to actually meet each other in various locations, arrange camping holidays, charity events and more. This being the case there is a lot that happens off the internet as well as on it and this generates a massive amount of photography around the forum. Therefore a gallery that is not integrated for my forum simply isnt an option. Also due to the content a lot of our member tend to be very very non-technical and therefore ease of use has to be a must and the more stumbling blocks I put in between such as logins, differing user experieces due to types of software etc, the higher the likleyhood of me losing membership because of this. Hence the gallery being one of the areas my members could not live without. In fact I am sure my forum would be overtaken by competitors, and at present we are the most active of our type by quite a margin.

The second would be the subscription. Again it is very simple, and as it is integrated also very easy for me to track the subcription status of the members. Put quite simply it pays for the resources that run the forum, and therefore without it I would either 1. Have a hell of a time in tracking it by using a simple button that leads to paypal, along with tracking which members have made which payments as they often do not use the email they have registered with when subscribing or donating. Or 2. Would lose income to the site.

If Im honest chatroom, arcade and calender I would probably move over without to begin with until I could find a solution that would fit my forum. However the 2 above I would not move my forum without. As much as I would love to do so because to be honest xenforo is leaps ahead IMO already with regards to stability, useability, and speed, even in beta stage.
 
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