When will xenforo get a refreshed design?

eveneme

Member
Hello, I'm thinking about buying a license, but the appearance of the xenoforo forum leaves much to be desired ... it just looks old. Are there any plans to refresh the look according to the latest UI/UX standards?
 
The style should match the forum brand. That's my opinion.
Funny thing was, when I was looking at taking over one of my writing sites and moving it to XF, the default style was close enough to the site's original style that I was going to use default as the base and just do some fairly simple customizations to brand it.
 
Funny thing was, when I was looking at taking over one of my writing sites and moving it to XF, the default style was close enough to the site's original style that I was going to use default as the base and just do some fairly simple customizations to brand it.

I own 3 forums. And each each one has own style. 2 from @ThemeHouse and 1 from @Russ . But thinking maybe to get all of them from @Russ . Since @ThemeHouse left xenforo.
 
I own 3 forums. And each each one has own style. 2 from @ThemeHouse and 1 from @Russ . But thinking maybe to get all of them from @Russ . Since @ThemeHouse left xenforo.
They stopped offering add-ons directly on XenForo, and cut down on what they were offering because they found that the business model was not sustainable for them. They still support their styles here, and on their site.
 
They stopped offering add-ons directly on XenForo ...
That is why I no longer use them. That decision seriously derailed a project I was near launching. I also can't trust the rug won't be pulled out from under us for the styles. I need to know an add-on or style will be supported by a long-established developer before I will install it.

I'm happy with the current way of doing things. XF designs an in-house theme, and others like @Russ build upon that for a distinctive look. What I like, too, is that with the themes I am using so far, I can usually install the third party style upgrade during an XF upgrade (like from 2.1 to 2.2), and I have minimal changes to make. (I never edit templates--I write my own add-ons to apply template changes so I no longer have to spend hours wondering which template edits need to be merged during an upgrade. It has made life so much easier!)
 
That is why I no longer use them. That decision seriously derailed a project I was near launching. I also can't trust the rug won't be pulled out from under us for the styles. I need to know an add-on or style will be supported by a long-established developer before I will install it.

I'm happy with the current way of doing things. XF designs an in-house theme, and others like @Russ build upon that for a distinctive look. What I like, too, is that with the themes I am using so far, I can usually install the third party style upgrade during an XF upgrade (like from 2.1 to 2.2), and I have minimal changes to make. (I never edit templates--I write my own add-ons to apply template changes so I no longer have to spend hours wondering which template edits need to be merged during an upgrade. It has made life so much easier!)
No one is ever happy with business decisions that require a change in business model, but given the size of Audentio I do not know how they could have maintained support (especially with the entitlement they dealt with) for all the products they have. Styles are generally much easier to maintain, and they do not get a million feature requests like add-ons do. They also have less variables that can break them (generally only updates, add-ons or customer errors).
 
No one is ever happy with business decisions that require a change in business model, but given the size of Audentio I do not know how they could have maintained support (especially with the entitlement they dealt with) for all the products they have.
That was only part of it. I kept getting spammed, trying to pressure me into some "mobile development" services or something. Took a few tries before they stopped emailing me. They lost my trust. I'm done with them.
 
So if you have something that looks nice and works well, why change it? If this looked very similar to vbulletin circa 2002, I'd agree with the OP. But as it stands, it could be from 2013 and I don't think the average user would notice.
Blackberry staff was saying this same thing in 2008 and 2009 and 5 years later they were on their way out of the phone market. You're looking at things very insularly as e.g. you product meets a need and consumers will always come back, that's not how it works. In reality, your product meets a need FOR NOW until something better comes along.

If you're not constantly evolving to be that "something better" then eventually the something better will come along and destroy you. B2B and B2G is slightly different but anything that is B2C is always at risk of extinction. You think vBulletin leadership thought that the end was near? A decision maker at that company thought it was nice and worked well enough to milk it and now we're here typing on Xenforo's board.
 
It is good news to hear that widescreens will be put to some use with the default theme in XenForo 2.3 update. Nothing like having a 27" desktop screen and only using two thirds of it.
 
It is good news to hear that widescreens will be put to some use with the default theme in XenForo 2.3 update. Nothing like having a 27" desktop screen and only using two thirds of it.
I have 27s running at 1920x1080 and just use that space to zoom in (CTRL-Scroll wheel or set zoom to 150% or so in Chrome). Crappy eyesight even after removing cataracts and laser surgery so zooming in like that helps me read stuff.
 
Yes but until there's some revolutionary change in the way computer monitors function, there's only so many styles and designs for a web page. Being a forum narrows it down even further. And many of the things that you could do, are just plain bad ideas and have a poor aesthetic. Which would drive users away.

So if you have something that looks nice and works well, why change it? If this looked very similar to vbulletin circa 2002, I'd agree with the OP. But as it stands, it could be from 2013 and I don't think the average user would notice.

There is virtually nobody on my 20 year old forum that is under 30 years of age because forum software looks like something their Grandpa would use. And they're right. The internet keep on evolving and while forums are a great platform, the design is very dated.

The internet never stops evolving, and anything that wants to stay relevant online needs to keep evolving. Forum software not only needs to keep evolving but it needs to do it at a faster pace than it has been. The UI is slow, clunky and dated. It is intuitive only to those aged 45 and over.
 
The UI is slow, clunky and dated. It is intuitive only to those aged 45 and over.
Yeah... it's really hard to understand if you are less than 45 and want to discuss something about Telescopes, to click on the Telescope link, or if you want to talk about Cameras, to click on the Cameras link.

Screen Shot 2023-03-02 at 7.40.25 PM.png

And let's not even discuss how klunky the Post Thread link/button is to create a thread in the area.

Oh, and it's really hard to figure out to click on a link to a title of a topic to discuss that. And nobody less than 45 years of age can figure out if they want to reply to a thread, to use the Post Reply button, or choose the hard to understand Reply link in the post they are reading.

Seems like I see many a link in Reddit, FB and such to utilize... guess the knowledge of how to use them doesn't carry over to a web based browser to a forum. :eek:

All forums need to evolve into an LCARS system. ;)
And yes, I'm being facetious.

Are there improvements that could be made.... sure, but many functions that are present on a forum are present in other platforms. The MAIN issue is that much of society can't be bothered to sit down and take a few minutes to create a cognizant post. They are used to putting up cat meme's, selfies of their fish lips and such. Society has trended away from being creators, and morphed into consumers.
 
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Yeah... it's really hard to understand if you want to discuss something about Telescopes, to click on the Telescope link, or if you want to talk about Cameras, to click on the Cameras link.

View attachment 282254

And let's not even discuss how klunky the Post Thread link is to create a thread in the area.

Oh, and it's really hard to figure out to click on a link to a title of a topic to discuss that. And nobody less than 45 years of age can figure out if they want to reply to a thread, to use the Post Reply button, or choose the hard to understand Reply link in the post they are reading.

All forums need to evolve into an LCARS system. ;)

I've been using forums since 2001 so i know how they work, and so do most people my age. But show a forum to someone who is 20 and watch their reaction. The UI is dated. Young people today want something simpler and more intuitive, especially on mobile.

Those who think design from the 1990s is still relevant can continue to live in denial, but the decline in the number of forum installs in the last 10 years speaks much louder than I ever could.
 
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