What’s wrong with this community ?

[Alpha1]

If the XF team can work through the bugs backlog by the help of AI then we all benefit. Getting a mass of replies in the feed is a small price to pay. I think its very positive.

Seeing the endless vibe coded addons, most of which I don't trust, is another matter entirely. Hopefully those will be triaged as well.

 

[Forsaken]

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.

XF is likely preparing for an update, and that normally leads to a lot of bugs reports/suggestions getting updated. It seems more than usual because there is a lot of older bugs or duplicate bugs are also being updated, but this is within expectations.

Your first post is taking issue with the state of the community, specifically resource update/releases and also the bug updates from the bot. If it were simply a "I noticed something" that is one thing, but you've basically doubled down on a pre-set stance which means that you are either complaining or taking issue. All he did was point out a contradiction in your posts, no need to get upset

 

[Forsaken]

If the XF team can work through the bugs backlog by the help of AI then we all benefit. Getting a mass of replies in the feed is a small price to pay. I think its very positive.

Seeing the endless vibe coded addons, most of which I don't trust, is another matter entirely. Hopefully those will be triaged as well.

8 months since I asked for a policy update.

Since that time we've seen many add-ons that are clearly vibe coded, as well as people with no technical background offering services for complex jobs that would be catastrophic for customers (complex or bespoke community migrations). Even a soft policy to start would have been fine, with plans to update the policy while keeping an eye on how things develop. But even when you have staff admitting that they are having issues with vibe coded add-ons on the cloud service, there has still been no policy .

 

[Alpha1]

I think the problem will eventually resolve itself. LLM is getting better and better, which over time allows vibe coders to create better software and xenforo to audit the addons. Auditing all addons manually has always been an impossible task. But now its possible to do. I audit addons very frequently, thoroughly and often the addon developers are amazed at what I send them. Various developers have released bug fix releases and security fixes as a result. And I'm no developer. If I can do this now and AI is advancing weekly, then in time xenforo will be able to use AI to resolve the issue. Its a temporary nuisance.

 

[Max Taxable]

I think the problem will eventually resolve itself. LLM is getting better and better, which over time allows vibe coders to create better software and xenforo to audit the addons. Auditing all addons manually has always been an impossible task. But now its possible to do. I audit addons very frequently, thoroughly and often the addon developers are amazed at what I send them. Various developers have released bug fix releases and security fixes as a result. And I'm no developer. If I can do this now and AI is advancing weekly, then in time xenforo will be able to use AI to resolve the issue. Its a temporary nuisance.

Time marches on.

 

[Kevin]

I have the impression that the forum is no longer frequented only by add-on developers than administrators

If you're not an XF admin, developer, or have pre-sale questions, why else would someone be here?

 

[Semper]

XF is likely preparing for an update, and that normally leads to a lot of bugs reports/suggestions getting updated. It seems more than usual because there is a lot of older bugs or duplicate bugs are also being updated, but this is within expectations.

Your first post is taking issue with the state of the community, specifically resource update/releases and also the bug updates from the bot. If it were simply a "I noticed something" that is one thing, but you've basically doubled down on a pre-set stance which means that you are either complaining or taking issue. All he did was point out a contradiction in your posts, no need to get upset

If you're not an XF admin, developer, or have pre-sale questions, why else would someone be here?

I believe that the fact that I do not speak English and use a translation service to publish here does not work in my favour and my opinion has been misunderstood.

Too bad.

Here, this morning I'm telling myself what's new on XenForo, I click on "New messages" and on the first 20 16 are add-ons updates... I'm just saying that at one time these 16 add-on updates were disseminated in requests for help, some off-topic, etc... which made the community pleasant to frequent... but if you say I'm wrong then ok. I accept.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Seeing the endless vibe coded addons, most of which I don't trust, is another matter entirely. Hopefully those will be triaged as well.

How are you able to tell which addons are vibe coded?

 

[smallwheels]

How are you able to tel which addons are vibe coded?

There are patterns that make it highly probable like i.e.

• someone w/o any track record fires out a somewhat complex add-on all of a sudden only days or a few weeks after joining the forums
• someone fires out a whole series of new add ons within like two weeks
• an add on is so badly coded that even the most obvious use cases do not work while at the same time the add on description is more than shiny and overwhelming
• an add on receives countless updates in short time, often several times on a single day and each version contains bugs after bugs
• development speed in terms of feature development is so high that it is unplausible that this could be manually coded
• someone asks for a certain add on and another person fires out a new add on for that only hours later, sometimes repeatedly
• someone fires out add ons in a row that each more or less exactly copy the functionality of established paid add ons
• it is mentioned in the add on description

 

[Faust]

Unfortunately I have no time to be on this community. I think lots of people have moved on.

There’s not much activity from the developers either, slow development as well, maybe they have moved on as well.

I just focus on my communities and hobby. Being me active here or no, won’t change anything. And yes, I see lots of Ai addons on this community.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I use this community quite a lot as a first call for getting support. There are not so many helpful members around it seems.

 

[briansol]

OG and proud. Sticking it out. Running it. Checking in daily.

 

[beerForo]

Add-on updates and bug fixes in a software support forum... the horror!

 

[Wildcat Media]

How are you able to tell which addons are vibe coded?

To add to this, I believe a future requirement to post add-ons in Resources here should be to indicate whether AI slop was used to vibe code the add-ons. So that many of us know to avoid them on principle, and for security. And yeah, to add onto what was said above, if you're not an established developer or long-time member here with a track record of integrity and honesty, I am not downloading your new vibe coded AI-slop add-on.

I already deleted one that was recommended in the Crazy Amount of Guests thread, for that very reason...

 

[zappaDPJ]

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.

It could be a language barrier but as I read it I don't think the two equate. The automated messages appear to be a tool employed to assist in clearing the large number of reported bugs while the low member activity is almost certainly due to the slower than expected development cycle i.e. there's nothing new to talk about.

I'm sure that will change after the next major update is released and after all, this is primarily a product support forum, not really designed for general chat.

 

[smallwheels]

the low member activity is almost certainly due to the slower than expected development cycle i.e. there's nothing new to talk about.

This is certainly true. One could even phrase it positively, saying that XF works so flawlessly that there are not many open questions or problems to tackle (true or not). Yet still it seems also obvious that the forum is not exactly a vibrant community at the moment. And much less lively than it was i.e. before 2.3 was released (which was also way later than everybody had hoped for). So it has probably a different cause. Maybe one could be that the general helpful and positive culture of the forum got pretty toxic last autumn and it seems that quite some people have left or do at least not actively participate any more. The complete absence of moderation and practically also absence of the XF crew in the forums has no doubt done their part as well. The in comparison high amount of add on updates and releases, partly AI triggered, plus the new AI bug bot activity makes the low amount of human posting even more visible.

I'm sure that will change after the next major update is released

Fully agreed.

 

[MapleOne]

I usually come here when I have an issue of sorts but I have found the ticket system to work quite well for me. The main reason I used to visit was ask questions of how to do something but, I find myself getting proficient to the point where I don't need to visit daily.

Once in a while I get an email on a watched thread and it reminds me to come here and yes I feel it too but one thing I have noticed is a lot of developers are pulling traffic away from this site over to their own for support and questions.

So where in the old days the developers used to engage here they are now engaging on their sites where they have more control over the data.

I see some decent traffic on the developer forums and was just saying to myself I'm having to track more and more sites and passwords to keep everything updated.

So long story short, the traffic is definitely getting split and because the updates are incremental there are not a lot of things going wrong making the need to come here daily redundant.

Looking at my site as an example it is running smoothly and I don't often have to visit for support.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I think the problem will eventually resolve itself. LLM is getting better and better, which over time allows vibe coders to create better software and xenforo to audit the addons. Auditing all addons manually has always been an impossible task. But now its possible to do.

Obsidian.MD has automated the auditing of addons / plugins.

and they have a scorecard regarding the quality.

Notebook Navigator

A better file browser and calendar inspired by Apple Notes, Bear, Evernote and Day One.

community.obsidian.md

They are a MUCH smaller dev team than Xenforo.

 

[Suzanne O]

For me i come here just to see if there is any updates.
I also add stuff to my own forum

 

[ES Dev Team]

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.

I kinda agree with OP. It would be ideal if updates were in another section so that you don't have to sift through all the various automated postings to see human communication.

I find 'whats new' to be totally useless and from that POV it looks like nobody is participating in the forum due this slanted ratio.

i see how someone can question it and it's a design issue