Which Direction?

[Marc]

This is something that interests me a fair bit and I should imagine it will to many other users. Vbulletin have pretty much a forum only peice of software (although they are trying to expand on it very very badly) ... ........ Invision promote themselves as community software and have blogs, galleries etc that are pretty well featured (can ya tell which one Im using currently yet? lol )

So my question to you guys, is which path area you likely to follow with xenforo? The "Its a forum path" where we get third party apps to do other stuff like galleries etc, or will you be adding to it as a peice of community software?

 

[FredC]

Do you buy everything in your house including groceries, computer parts, auto parts, etc. all from 1 store?

When ever possible yes. Walmart didnt get where it is by selling groceries only.

 

[FredC]

That could take a while.

I know im in no rush.. my largest forum is barely 2 years old. I started out on IPB Free then migrated to a premium IPB License, then moved to vB then upgraded to vB4. it would be in my best interest to wait for awhile b4 i begin to test there patience with me and my mad migration skills. But i do have other smaller forums that are bridged to Joomla that im looking forward to moving away from vB.. Depending on the ease of styling an xF forum and pricing. Ill be looking to make the switch sooner then later.

 

[Andy Huang]

Joomla/Drupal have a 5 year head start on CMS.
Wordpress has a 5 year head start on Blogs.
Menalto Gallery has a 5 year head start on Galleries.

I see no need to reinvent the wheel, or compromise XenForo by including a half-baked add-ons. I'd rather XenForo be the best forum software out there, and enable me to snap in whatever other plugins I want.

Even if XenForo had the perfect Blog, which was feature-comparable to Wordpress, elegant, smooth, and perfect, it would still be the lesser choice because Wordpress has thousands of plugins and themes.

But IkonBoard have 11 years ...oh wait... Point is, length of time does not automagically equate to good software. But instead tied to some level of passion and time allowance.

I agree, XF isn't the end-all-and-be-all software, because nothing is that, but we shouldn't dictate what they should or should not do simply because there are other "better" softwares out there already. Given Kier and Mike's experience, I am sure they know where they should invest their time best

 

[Been Told]

I think comparing addons with Wordpress or a CMS with Joomla is a bit wrong. I think the blogs for IP.Board are done very well and very user friendly.
If we're gonna have a blogs addon for xenForo it doesn't need to beat Wordpress. It just needs to be in the spirit of xenForo.
The same goes for the CMS and any other addons.
To me, the spirit of xenForo is ease of use, intuitive UI and just common sense (which is really lacking in many other scripts). As long as those principles are used while creating any addons like a CMS or blogs or a gallery, all will be well.

And again, I absolutely agree that those addons should be just addons. With a good plugin system, the sky is the limit as far as integration goes. You certainly don't have to make a Suite like vBulletin did.

 

[Shamil]

Joomla and Wordpress have a CMS component, but, they ARE NOT content management systems, they are SMS (site management systems).

This is an example of a CMS. ->
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/is-there-a-cms-planned.191/page-8#post-32320

 

[darkon]

@Feldon: Are you beeing paid by wordpress?

Yes WP is good. But even if you bridge it, it´s still not fully part of the site. You have two logins for administrations, two softwares to update and so on. Add a Gallery (coppermine, Menalto, 4images...) and you have three administrationpanels and three softwares to update etc. etc.

You don´t have a chance to really put Forum, CMS, Blogs and Gallerys together with one UI, one Style. That´s just not possible.

Sorry, thats not a good solution if you want your site to have ONE look and feel, one UI etc for all parts of it. It may be okay for a small hobbysite, but if you want to build a commercial site (and i think THESE are the customers of paid software) you have to have a unified look and feel and UI.

 

[feldon30]

Joomla and Wordpress have a CMS component, but, they ARE NOT content management systems, they are SMS (site management systems).

This is an example of a CMS. ->
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...91/page-8#post-32320

A page you built over a weekend that does include('templates/'.$_GET['do']); is a CMS but Joomla is not?

 

[feldon30]

@Feldon: Are you beeing paid by wordpress?

Yes WP is good. But even if you bridge it, it´s still not fully part of the site. You have two logins for administrations, two softwares to update and so on. Add a Gallery (coppermine, Menalto, 4images...) and you have three administrationpanels and three softwares to update etc. etc.

You don´t have a chance to really put Forum, CMS, Blogs and Gallerys together with one UI, one Style. That´s just not possible.

2 years writing a CMS and Blogs? Or 3-6 months....

• building a XenForo-compatible theme from the ground up for Wordpress and Joomla using the same CSS classes so style changes you make on XenForo also roll into your Wordpress and Joomla sites. This would actually be pretty easy. I built a Joomla theme from scratch in a weekend.
• building a Wordpress-compatible content posting panel into the XenForo AdminCP
• building user integration for WP, Joomla, and Menalto.

People have been "making do" with separate forum, CMS, blogs, gallery for years. Everyone waited with bated breath for vBulletin Blog and CMS and the reality is, they have been huge compromises. People are staying put with separate solutions "glued" together. If XenForo makes an integration with unified login, and I can tackle most basic tasks on my site in one control panel, I will be very happy. For more advanced issues, I can jump over to the full WP or Joomla or Menalto control panels (without having to re-login).

It doesn't have to be perfect. Just make things a lot easier. The Apple iPhone isn't really a revolutionary product. It just makes every task just a little bit better, putting a pretty face and nice experience on top of an antiquated system.

 

[Walter]

If we're gonna have a blogs addon for xenForo it doesn't need to beat Wordpress. It just needs to be in the spirit of xenForo.
The same goes for the CMS and any other addons.

Fully agreed.

 

[Walter]

There will come a point when XenForo will consider how to address creating or offering a gallery or CMS or Blog.

Many will need a roadmap or a rough timeframe before they buy, otherwise they can't decide if XenForo is the solution to their problems or not.

If I take me as an example, out of 25 sites only 5 need a CMS, only 10 need a gallery. But it makes no sense to convert with only half the forums to XenForo, for me it's a 100% deal. I don't want to maintain two different forum systems in the long run.

 

[Shamil]

A page you built over a weekend that does include('templates/'.$_GET['do']); is a CMS but Joomla is not?

Correct. Joomla is a Site Management System. It goes beyond a CMS: providing support, editing, hooks etc, for themes and various other things.

FYI, it wasn't built over the weekend. That script is being built into an SMS solution of mine.

 

[Ashley]

Many will need a roadmap or a rough timeframe before they buy, otherwise they can't decide if XenForo is the solution to their problems or not.

If I take me as an example, out of 25 sites only 5 need a CMS, only 10 need a gallery. But it makes no sense to convert with only half the forums to XenForo, for me it's a 100% deal. I don't want to maintain two different forum systems in the long run.

I agree, it makes little sense to run different platforms - how frustrating will it be to have to use anything else after using XenForo It would be misleading at this point to start putting down time frames relating to decisions that we are yet to make. I suppose the only decision to make is whether you can resist using XenForo where you can...otherwise the case you have made is fairly clear cut I hope you choose to use XenForo where you are able to do so.

 

[Markos]

Kier and Mike are humans. You can't ask the impossible (2 programmers coding well forum, cms, blog, etc. in short time...)

 

[Shamil]

Kier and Mike are humans. You can't ask the impossible (2 programmers coding well forum, cms, blog, etc. in short time...)

Which is why it is unreasonable for us to request them to build extra components at this time.

 

[Walter]

Nobody has asked for that
Neither immediately nor in short time.

 

[Onimua]

Nobody has asked for that
Neither immediately nor in short time.

Unfortunately there are some here who seem to want just that.

 

[feldon30]

...and feel that XenForo is paralysed or unmarketable until said add-ons are available.

I do think including a quick front-page/portal that aggregates latest members, calendar events, recent posts, etc. like vBAdvanced would be pretty cool to ship with XenForo. If they don't, someone will always step in, and I think retrieving this information will be a LOT easier than vBAdvanced was to program.

As for anything more complex on the calibre of a CMS, excuse me, a SMS (?), etc., that is off in the distance.

 

[Shelby]

Good posts all around Feldon.