What’s wrong with this community ?

[Semper]

I don't know about you but for some time I have the impression that the forum is no longer frequented only by add-on developers than administrators. The "New Messages" page is almost filled with add-ons updates and now bug updates since a robot takes care of it... Do XenForo users sulk the community or is it a consequence of the slow but certain disaffection of the forums in general by new audiences?

I remember the activity 2 or 3 years ago, it was full of questions... and answers! New users, old ones, a moderator, XenForo developers animated the forum.

Today? Updates and a robot...

 

[Forsaken]

I don't know about you but for some time I have the impression that the forum is no longer frequented only by add-on developers than administrators. The "New Messages" page is almost filled with add-ons updates and now bug updates since a robot takes care of it... Do XenForo users sulk the community or is it a consequence of the slow but certain disaffection of the forums in general by new audiences?

I remember the activity 2 or 3 years ago, it was full of questions... and answers! New users, old ones, a moderator, XenForo developers animated the forum.

Today? Updates and a robot...

I haven't seen a lot of add-on releases, but I also ignore most of the vibe coders.

Older add-ons are also getting more updates because AI assistance does help with the speed of development, especially for some of the smaller bug fixes.

 

[CedricV]

It's not just XenForo though. Every major software (phpBB, MyBB, XF, Woltlab, Flarum, Discourse, etc) see a rise in 3rd party development. And honestly, why not? I see new communities being created lately too on various platforms. If the content doesn't resonate with you, scroll further. Everyone is used to doing that anyway.

 

[Semper]

If the content doesn't resonate with you, scroll further. Everyone is used to doing that anyway.

Why this aggressiveness? I'm just saying that the forum here on XenForo was nicer to frequent a few years ago, today I only see updates of add-ons and updated bugs, nothing more. This is my observation, it is debateable, between gentleman...

 

[CedricV]

Why this aggressiveness? I'm just saying that the forum here on XenForo was nicer to frequent a few years ago, today I only see updates of add-ons and updated bugs, nothing more. This is my observation, it is debateable, between gentleman...

Sorry if you find that aggressive, it wasn’t mean like that at all.

 

[smallwheels]

today I only see updates of add-ons and updated bugs, nothing more

I'd assume this is a temporary thing and actually a good one (while I agree that it is a bit annoying to open the forum and find two pages of bugs in what's new and barely anything else:

XF had accumulated a huge amount of open bugs that have been ignored for years. I.e. 733 open bugs in May 2025

We also have a bug forum that more or less works in the same way. It currently counts 37 pages of open bugs - 733 in total, the oldest one dates back to Dec. 1st 2018. Of those 733 open bugs 31 are confirmed, 14 are waiting for feedback from the reporter, 6 are tagged as "cannot reproduce", 8 as "third party" and 0 with "future fix", "Browser issue" or "Design issue". Which leaves 733-31-14-6-8= 674 bugs w/o classification, fix or reaction, many of them for years. 110 of the bugs received just one single response over time (from anyone, sometimes from the reporter himself), 338 did not even receive a single response. They are just reported, listed, stay open and collect dust.

Probably a bit of housekeeping would be a good idea.

and eight months later, in January 2026, it were 786 open bugs, many of them ignored for years and w/o any reaction from the developers:

The currently 786 open bugs in the "XF bug reports" forum are dating from:

2018: 2
2019: 3
2020: 14
2021: 65
2022: 124
2023: 108
2024: 301
2025: 176
2026: 5

Of those 786 open bugs

• 375 (so roughly half of them) have not received any reply (those with replies might have replies from anyone inc. the reporter himself, but not neccessarily from XF)
• 36 have the label "confirmed"
• 15 have the label "awaiting feedback"
• 4 have the label "cannot reproduce"
• 8 are labeled as "third party"

On top of that there are 17 open bugs in the "future fux" forum, 55 in "importer bug reports", 95 in "Media Gallery bug reports", 23 in "resource manger bug reports" and 8 in "enhanced search bug reports".

So a lot of housekeeping to do and overdue.

Now they have implemented an AI that crunches through them one by one automatically to finally get some cleanliness and order into this year old, long ignored mess. While the amount of postings sometimes is as annoying as the triage and statements of the bot are sometimes strange and embarrassing it seems a good thing to me overall and a proper approach to finally do the housekeeping and come to a healthy level of bugs. Sooner or later the process should be finished at least to the degree that all open bugs have been looked at and assigned a status and probably many have been closed, by either fixing them, deciding they would be irrelevant (respectively have become irrelevant in the meantime), recognizing they have been already fixed w/o recognizing or are duplicates anyway. Then this storm of postings by the bug bot should be over.

 

[Max Taxable]

The Bug Bot account is hardly new, and I suspect it's human activity - xF staffers use it to post updates on bug reports. You're seeing a flurry of activity from the account because a new version is coming relatively soon.

 

[Kirby]

The Bug Bot account is hardly new, and I suspect it's human activity

Yes, the account is old - but the recent activity burst is most certainly not human driven:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/clairvoyance-bug.236550/post-1797006

Automated triage: Duplicate
[...]
This is an automated assessment. A member of staff may review and update it.

 

[smallwheels]

You're seeing a flurry of activity from the account because a new version is coming relatively soon.

I had thought that as well initially. But the posts are clearly vastly different from those we are used to before a release and furthermore Chris clarified that AI is the cause:

I think those are automated actions, maybe using AI?

Yes. Long term plan is to get the backlog down so it's easier to manage and surface the issues that are important that we may otherwise overlook. This adds up to more frequent maintenance releases in the long run. Using AI enables us to make quicker decisions and determine what might be the higher impact fixes.

It helps as we approach bigger release milestones too as fixes that require more extensive work may only be appropriate in a second/first point release.

 

[Max Taxable]

Yes, the account is old - but the recent activity burst is most certainly not human driven:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/clairvoyance-bug.236550/post-1797006

I had thought that as well initially. But the posts are clearly vastly different from those we are used to before a release and furthermore Chris clarified that AI is the cause:

Thanks for the correction! I need to pay better attention!

 

[nodle]

Yup, see my post here:

Thread 'I sure miss the old Xenforo days'

Jun 16, 2026

I was thinking about how I sure miss the old Xenforo early days. I miss all the interaction with the members and staff, and how alive the forums felt. I find myself only coming here weekly now to check in to see if there is a new version out, and it seems like all the new posts are nothing but AI-generated addons. I miss the times with @Chris D, @Kier, and @Borgan, interacting with everyone. There are still some old members roaming behind the scenes, I see, like @Bob and @Russ, etc., but it just doesn't feel the same anymore. Anyone else miss it?

• nodle
• old times xenforo
• Replies: 141
• Forum: Off topic

• 

The community doesn't have the community 'feel' anymore.

 

[new_view]

Maybe life happens, and people have families; I don't know. Some of us are bachelors.

 

[rdn]

The Bug Bot account is hardly new, and I suspect it's human activity - xF staffers use it to post updates on bug reports. You're seeing a flurry of activity from the account because a new version is coming relatively soon.

View attachment 347122

This month's activity seems that account is powered by AI, and as I understood, Chris D confirmed that.

Post in thread 'Let's talk about 2.4 baby'

Oct 6, 2026

I think those are automated actions, maybe using AI?

Yes. Long term plan is to get the backlog down so it's easier to manage and surface the issues that are important that we may otherwise overlook. This adds up to more frequent maintenance releases in the long run. Using AI enables us to make quicker decisions and determine what might be the higher impact fixes.

It helps as we approach bigger release milestones too as fixes that require more extensive work may only be appropriate in a second/first point release.

• Chris D

• 

 

[Russ]

I think it's a mixture of things. Lack of releases and AI helping with basic questions leading to fewer questions asked here. It's definitely not the activity of the early days anymore, but that's okay. I've been busier than ever with XF work and forget how little I post here sometimes.

 

[Mr Lucky]

AI helping with basic questions leading to fewer questions asked here

I think a lot of forums are suffering from this sadly

 

[Semper]

I think a lot of forums are suffering from this sadly

If AI only sounded the end of the forums it would be a lesser evil, unfortunately it sounds the end of many other things. It's another subject but I can't yet say if AI will do more good than harm in the future...

 

[nodle]

I don't mind the AI Xenforo Bug Bot, especially if it helps the team knock out bugs and allows them to push out more updates faster. I am all for it.

 

[Semper]

No one complains about the AI Xenforo Bug Bot, obviously it's a good thing that bugs are treated.

 

[CedricV]

Updates and a robot...

No one complains about the AI Xenforo Bug Bot, obviously it's a good thing that bugs are treated.

Well I mean.....

 

[Semper]

That's all you have to do...

Instead of trying to understand you jump on a false opportunity to be smart: the extreme visibility of the XF robot update messages is the consequence of the very low user activity... that's what I complain about, nothing else.