What's our best play in the smartphone dominated world?

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bennylava

Active member
I wanted to stop by and ask how to deal with the fact that at least half of internet users are mobile users. I don't know the exact percentages, but I don't think that most people are browsing our forums from laptop and desktop computers. IIRC that's part of Reddit's current debacle.

Anyway it looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time fleshing out my forum. I'll add blog articles I wrote years ago, and even a book I wrote that I'll give away for free. In the hopes of attracting regular users. But do such efforts have an effect on the mobile people? How much can you cram into a small phone screen, when you've got a Xenforo forum with a lot to offer?

Maybe if someone posted up a screenshot (or just a pic) of their site's mobile experience, I'd have a better idea. It seems like you'd want your top banner (like RaceCarForums! or something) at the very top of their screen, and then the standard forum list descending below that. If that's the case, where is there room for my blog articles and free audiobook tab? Not to mention any ads, or other means of monetization.

Maybe mobile users simply aren't where the money comes from, when it comes to internet forums? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

An afterthought: I will say that I'm impressed with the way the site looks on mobile, even without me modifying it yet.
 
Have you actually visited a site that uses extensive add-ons (no, XF support site does not qualify) to see what is capable?
Feel free to hit the site in my signature... I use a LOT of XenAddon's.
I have a "base portal" landing page set up using XF's widgets...
The one thing I don't do on that portal is give you a "spiel" on why you should join... all you get is pure recent content.
But honestly.. for me... having folks join is not the prime concern... it's distributing data... and I realize that I am the polar opposite of the majority of site owners... especially those that spend a LOT of money to extend their site for any users/content.
 
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bennylava said:
If that's the case, where is there room for my blog articles and free audiobook tab?
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There will be a hamburger menu for the top navigation so your articles and book tab can be there along with other top level menu items. On mobile obviously there is no sidebar but you can have a widget for the articles either above or below the forum list.

If your articles are in an article forum (as with my articles) thnenthat will show in the forum list. Pages can be added to the forum list or you can have a link to anything in the forum list.

You can also have a notice above the forum list.

Many options to try and see what works best for you and your users.

bennylava said:
Maybe if someone posted up a screenshot (or just a pic) of their site's mobile experience, I'd have a better idea.
Click to expand...
That isn't necessarily very useful as it won't show expanded items such as the main navigation or anything that needs scrolling down to...

You can test any site using a responsive browser simulation (available in Safari under Develop or in Chrome and Firefox) e.g. please feel free to test mine, see what you think - any feedback and critiques are always useful
 
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Quick question - Does "start conversation" mean "Send DM" on other sites? I want to message a member, but I don't want it to start some weird publicly viewable conversation. I just want it to be a standard private message.
 
Rinkrat said:
Using the Progressive Web App feature on XF will bring more of theses mobile users in because it's an app like FB and IG.
Click to expand...

Well I've been thinking about this, and it seems to me that you must have both. There will be some people who don't want to download and install another app. For these people, an extra step just isn't worth taking. In the era of convenience, one extra step is often viewed as a hassle.

So you have to have the app for people who want an app, and then you have to have the regular mobile web site set up nicely as well. For the people who might want to check the site, but who really can't be bothered to install yet another app.
 
bennylava said:
So you have to have the app for people who want an app, and then you have to have the regular mobile web site set up nicely as well. For the people who might want to check the site, but who really can't be bothered to install yet another app
Click to expand...
Have you actually played with PWA?
Gives you an app appearing interface (strips most of the browser junk away)... you can simply "download the app" directly from your web browser, since it ultimately IS the web browser.
You aren't "installing" another app per-se... you are simply changing the interface appearance from browser-like to more app-like.
 
Tracy Perry said:
Have you actually played with PWA?
Gives you an app appearing interface (strips most of the browser junk away)... you can simply "download the app" directly from your web browser, since it ultimately IS the web browser.
You aren't "installing" another app per-se... you are simply changing the interface appearance from browser-like to more app-like.
Click to expand...

I'm not a programmer, so now I'd ask if you happen to know how much it costs to develop a PWA for a forum.

Seems like not very much, since the default web page doesn't look half bad. Just plain old Xenforo on my Brave browser on mobile, actually looks pretty good imo. We've all seen much worse.
 
bennylava said:
I'm not a programmer, so now I'd ask if you happen to know how much it costs to develop a PWA for a forum.
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In the current version of XF, PWA (if you have set it up in your ACP) should work for you and your users when accessing from mobile.
I "think" on IOS, you can select the hamburger bar and it gives you an option to install the PWA app now.
So there is no "cost" to have your site available as a PWA shortcut on the users mobile screen.
Now, there IS some "hassle" of creating a PWA "app" and getting it distributed on Google Play and the Apple Store (along with a fee for the latter). Not really worth it to me as when someone hits your site, I think they get prompted about PWA install now also.
 
I saw a warning against posting too many threads, so I'll play it safe and just keep posting my questions here. So:

1. Is there an exhaustive list of monetization methods anywhere?

2. Is there any way to turn the avatars from circles, into squares?
 
I'm trying to keep New Users (a group I created) from seeing ads for 14 days. But how will they graduate into the default "Registered" once that period is up? Do I need to move them into that group manually?

In the Monetization video, he also says "You can go to Advertising and set it so that the "New Users" group will never see ads."

I don't have any ads set up, but I also notice there's no way to set anything for user groups under "Advertising"
 
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bennylava said:
I'm trying to keep New Users (a group I created) from seeing ads for 14 days. But how will they graduate into the default "Registered" once that period is up? Do I need to move them into that group manually?
Click to expand...
You'll need to read up on using the Usergroup Promotions feature. It's simple once you see how it works--forum permissions "upgrades" are accomplished that way. Promotions offers you a way to use a member's post count, number of days registered, and other criteria to add them to a secondary usergroup.

Set up your Registered usergroup to not display ads, then use a secondary usergroup to add the permissions to display ads. Any existing users will automatically be added to the new secondary usergroup once you set the promotion up. (A cron job runs in XF that will periodically run the promotions system and apply the changes.)
 
Is there a dark mode for this site? The official Xenforo forums site. I had to reinstall my OS and it seems my settings are gone. Can't remember how exactly I set this site to be dark.
 
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