What single 'new feature' would benefit xenForo customers most?

Rob

Rob

Well-known member
As the flow of bugs and fixes begins to subside work will no doubt commence on a feature building release. Some already released mods will I'm sure end up being adopted into the base code and we all hope some ideas from the suggestions forum are tagged for inclusion too.

Hopefully this thread will spark a discussion of ideas that will most improve the customisability of xenForo.

For me, I think the single most powerful addition to make would be 'custom thread fields'. If this were done in such a way as to allow the definition of content types, to extend 'threads' with additional fields then we could specify which forums use which content types.... and which templates a content type should use. This will open up a huge realm of possible customisations to the forum owner.

What ideas do you have?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Shelby said:
Hmm,

Honestly the one feature that would perhaps most benefit customers isn't necessarily a feature of XenForo software. It's about XenForo developers taking a step forward. Not relying on old habits, old ways of doing things, I want them to take a step forward with community software.
Click to expand...

XenForo is not a step forward, it is a giant leap forward for forum software.

A resolve to remove fear and silence about controversial topics. Approach old topics new ways.
Click to expand...

As a moderator, I won't allow any posts that I feel is slanderous to any person or company. This forum is the face of a company, not a platform for heated debates or airing ones' dirty laundry.

A realization that there is no such thing as atoning for laziness. Good in one area, doesn't cover for a lack of effort in others.
Click to expand...

XenForo is still beta. There is only two developers to date, and their accomplishments thus far is astounding. To imply laziness is frankly insulting to me, as I know how much time these two developers spend daily developing and improving XenForo. And still, with the 16 to 18 hour days they spend improving XenForo, they still take the time to answer questions put forth here by members, and to answer any question their moderators ask them.

A commitment to remain hungry. Hungry to make a difference for the customer and for their communities.
Click to expand...

Proven over and over again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think all he was really saying is that he wants the dev's to have fire in their belly Lawrence, that is more important to him long term than a few features, I guess it is his way of saying he is looking for continued inventiveness and innovation.

I think we all can see Kier and Mike have "fire" for this software.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I guess Shelby who posted abouit developer attitudes being important just didn't know very much about Ker and Mike's track, which shows just the kind of stuff Shelby said s/he wanted.

I'm a big fan of XF but that doesn't stop me being clearsighted and critical.

As for me the big lacks in XF are two -

1) the missing WYSWYG editor on Pages which limits their use to board staff who know html - on some boards that means Pages are useless.
The bridge with Wordpress is a huge help because WP DOES offer both WYSWYG and html edits on Pages. Bless it. Lovely interface to edit and also grand admin console installation of add-ons. Hope XF is comparable.
That leaves integration in the forum hierarchy - WP Pages have to be manually hyperlinked into the forums.
However they CAN still be used as a blog workaround - create WP Page, place URL link using WYSWYG if you like, at top and bottom of Page to a forum with same or similar name. Could restrict access to forum discussion to usergroup. I don't know yet if it's easy to put a URL link on a template so the WP Page can be linked off the top of the forum page?

2) My other gripe is that awful block currently set on notifications. Horrible to cut people off from being informed about the forum. After all we WANT members to get info and to visit.
I know the idea is that people will get anxious and visit in order to get notified again. But a) I don't like herding people by using amxiety like that and b) too often an email notify gets lost and you get cut off. It's happened to me here a number of times and probably more I'm not aware off. Have seen others saying it's happened to them to9o.
So admin option to Disable on this one.

3. I'd also like attachments for Personal Conversations. That's a big problem as driving people to go outside the board to exchange files is bad board strategy. Once communicating outside the board risks losing that relationship as a motivating factor to visit.

Otherwise XF is heavenly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thanx shanj you post is worth read
At this moment we need albums and community groups so we won't loss any data when converting our forums
make these feature simple just for the import and than develop it on the go..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lawrence, your reaction to my post seems somewhat emotional. Please remember, whatever you do, do not take it personally. For clarifications sake, which I rarely do. I'll go ahead and state that AnthonyCea is correct. More than anyone one feature off in the future. I want the developers to keep the fire in them and not get taken off course.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shelby said:
Hmm,

Honestly the one feature that would perhaps most benefit customers isn't necessarily a feature of XenForo software. It's about XenForo developers taking a step forward. Not relying on old habits, old ways of doing things, I want them to take a step forward with community software.

The key features I would include:
  • A resolve to remove fear and silence about controversial topics. Approach old topics new ways.
  • A realization that there is no such thing as atoning for laziness. Good in one area, doesn't cover for a lack of effort in others.
  • A commitment to remain hungry. Hungry to make a difference for the customer and for their communities.
I belive that behaviors will drive XenForo development and the feature I most desire is one that always is taking a step forward.
Click to expand...

Not even IB has managed to do that. In the Xenforo thread there, I see plenty of people wanting that thread closed because of it's controversial ways and how its doing more damage than good to IB. Xenforo, VB, IPB are all a product offered by a company. They are businesses. As such, reputation and professionalism are important. Allowing some controversial topics may be fine. But at the same time those same topics can scare people away and damage the product and reputation. Business forums in general are not forums for crap that can potentially scare away customers and damage a brand. Just look at the VB forums. PLENTY of negativity there. Sure isn't helping them and some of it IS controversial. They allow it, but at the same time what is it doing to the brand. Nothing positive. Of course IB is doing a good enough job with that too.

The fact is, a business has to be careful of what to allow. Controversy on a business forum can hurt the business more than help it. No matter the reason. Simply put controversy is controversy, no matter how one tries spinning it or how it is approached. Most people see it for what it is. And even if it started out approached differently, it's almost a guarantee it will revert into what it is by the members. Thus dragging it down. Then of course the minute the thread is closed, members start crying about 'freedom of speech' and how there is a conspiracy or just confirms things and crap. You wouldn't walk into a business and start talking to them about controversial things with their business without being shown the door. They have a business to run. And controversy about that product can hurt it and the business.

Just look at IB/VB. Wouldn't say it's helped them no matter the spin they put on it or how they approached it. IMO controversy should be kept off the forum. If there is a problem a member has with the forum of the company, they should contact the developers or owners privately about their concerns rather than create a cesspool on the forums for other customers to have to deal with.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Spinning the truth and spreading malicious lies is controversial , so the lawsuit filed against Xenforo seeded controversy since it is filled with lies that insult the integrity of the creators of Xenforo.

Discussing the truth and facts about a matter is not controversy, but spreading malicious lies and propaganda (which is always based on pathological lies) is.

PS: vB does not allow it (the truth to be published) because it is all hidden in the private forums from the public, in addition the history of the rebellion there was heavily censored because thousands of posts were deleted from the record and members were banned, if you want an accurate record you would have to read other forums including the thread linked in my signature here.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lawrence said:
XenForo is not a step forward, it is a giant leap forward for forum software.
Click to expand...
I've been involved with forums for a number of years, managing, using, etc, and I will definitely agree here.

Lawrence said:
As a moderator, I won't allow any posts that I feel is slanderous to any person or company.
Click to expand...
Ahh, but, see just because you feel it's slanderous doesn't mean it actually is. While I agree, in most cases, what someone thinks is slanderous, or offensive, or insulting really is, in many cases it's not. There's a fine, fine line there, and basing such a quick and harsh call based on a feeling is going to be detrimental to say the least, to you, and to the community. I've seen more than one example of an individual getting 'banned' because of personal 'feelings' when the person doing the 'banning' had no call to make said judgement.

Lawrence said:
XenForo is still beta. There is only two developers to date, and their accomplishments thus far is astounding. To imply laziness is frankly insulting to me
Click to expand...
Implying laziness wouldn't be insulting to you, but insulting to the developers, and I think the original point of the post was to say devs need to actively work to NOT be so. I've seen no implication that devs were lazy, because that would be very off base. XenForo is a work of art and it looks beautiful.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shanj said:
As for me the big lacks in XF are two -

1) the missing WYSWYG editor on Pages which limits their... etc etc etc
Click to expand...
Shan, seriously, I know that you want a WYSIWYG editor on Pages, and I'm sure that in time it will get one, as Mike and I have discussed the matter and agreed that with some tweaks to the system there could be a place for it. But repeating the same arguments again and again just comes off as 'Oh, Shan's thing again'. We got the message the first time, really! :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kier said:
Shan, seriously, I know that you want a WYSIWYG editor on Pages, and I'm sure that in time it will get one, as Mike and I have discussed the matter and agreed that with some tweaks to the system there could be a place for it. But repeating the same arguments again and again just comes off as 'Oh, Shan's thing again'. We got the message the first time, really! :)
Click to expand...

Kier thank you. I didn't know you and Mike had discussed it only that you said it could be done by a mod fairly easily.
However there's no sign of anyone doing it as a mod.
So what I've been doing is exploring getting the same functionality using Wordpress + XF as WP DOES have the two edit options html and wyswyg.
But doing that means doing workarounds on other issues so that's the next step which I was describing above.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Top Bottom