what is needed for a successful lauch

MilesDB

Well-known member
We all know XenForo is a very modern forum software but what needs to be done to give XenForo a good start in the forum world?

1. It has to be affordable to attract as many customers and converts from vB and IPB as possible. I would suggest to price it below $130 as a grand opening deal just to beef up customer base.

2. Team XenForo needs to have several languages packs ready before its first release. I would suggest Spanish, German, French, Arabic and Chinese. This can be done in less than a week if professional interpreters are hired.

3. XenForo needs to foster a modding community.

These are just few things that came to my mind.
 
4. Slightly widen the breadth of forum-related features so that it is a more viable option to convert forums to (from more mature solutions).

5. Don't force the launch. Start with an alpha; listen to customer feedback. Rinse and repeat. If you spend 2 or 3 months in alpha/beta while responding to customer suggestions during that time, the product will improve quite a bit.
 
Fully agree with all of these suggestions, although I think #2 and #3 will come naturally, and I don't really think #4 is needed for a 'successful' launch because of #5. :)
 
I honestly don't think what they have now is good enough for a launch. It's great and all, but a bit feature lacking if people will be paying prices that are competitive with IPB and vB lol.

But yeah, honestly most of those things were probably already planned to happen before a release. #5 is most important imo, don't rush it.
 
I honestly don't think what they have now is good enough for a launch. It's great and all, but a bit feature lacking if people will be paying prices that are competitive with IPB and vB lol.

But yeah, honestly most of those things were probably already planned to happen before a release. #5 is most important imo, don't rush it.

Remember, vBulletin was charging $160 when it first started and there wasn't much at all, but they kept those prices all the way through to vB 3.8. I have no problem with $100+ knowing what's coming.

Of course we'll see the documentation and full feature list, and XF won't be released until at least the end of summer from what I've read so there's plenty of time. :)
 
Remember, vBulletin was charging $160 when it first started and there wasn't much at all, but they kept those prices all the way through to vB 3.8. I have no problem with $100+ knowing what's coming.

Of course we'll see the documentation and full feature list, and XF won't be released until at least the end of summer from what I've read so there's plenty of time. :)

But at that point in time, all softwares that were developing were pretty close feature wise, so it had all the features that it needed to compete. Right now, this product isn't worth as much as, for example, IPB. Only because all the man hours and features raise the price on it. Of course, I wouldn't buy IPB because I want this software and I'm willing to wait. And, no matter how feature lacking it is, I'd still buy it now for that price, however, I couldn't say the same for most of the rest of the potential customers. Obviously you're in the same boat as me. Just saying, before a release, there should be enough content and work put in to get that much money off each sale.

I'm tired, so if that sounded stupid, ignore it please. :P
 
But at that point in time, all softwares that were developing were pretty close feature wise, so it had all the features that it needed to compete. Right now, this product isn't worth as much as, for example, IPB. Only because all the man hours and features raise the price on it. Of course, I wouldn't buy IPB because I want this software and I'm willing to wait. And, no matter how feature lacking it is, I'd still buy it now for that price, however, I couldn't say the same for most of the rest of the potential customers. Obviously you're in the same boat as me. Just saying, before a release, there should be enough content and work put in to get that much money off each sale.

I'm tired, so if that sounded stupid, ignore it please. :p

Perhaps.

Also remember though that there are some forum solutions available today that charge thousands of dollars yearly and they hardly do more than allow user registration, forum posting, and private messages. Some corporations wouldn't even touch vBulletin or Invision Power Board because it was so cheap. In their minds if it's cheap it means it doesn't do anything, and that means it isn't worth it.

It's all a matter of perspective.
 
If you can find a forum system that costs thousands of dollars yearly and hardly does that, please let me know lol. The ones that are for thousands of dollars are usually from paid companies, meaning they have hundreds of employees (Or at least quite a few) working day in and day out to make it until it's quite perfect. The second they hear about a feature that's new in another forum software, it's in theirs lol. So yeah, probably over packed imo, and only for other corporate businesses that plan on using it. We lower people can't pay thousands of dollars, and in turn shouldn't expect too many additions too early on. They aren't getting paid enough for that. :P
 
But at that point in time, all softwares that were developing were pretty close feature wise, so it had all the features that it needed to compete. Right now, this product isn't worth as much as, for example, IPB. Only because all the man hours and features raise the price on it. Of course, I wouldn't buy IPB because I want this software and I'm willing to wait. And, no matter how feature lacking it is, I'd still buy it now for that price, however, I couldn't say the same for most of the rest of the potential customers. Obviously you're in the same boat as me. Just saying, before a release, there should be enough content and work put in to get that much money off each sale.

I'm tired, so if that sounded stupid, ignore it please. :p

It is for posts like this that I wish they would have added a "Dislike" feature.
 
Top Bottom