Wordpress now powers 18.9% of the web, can Xenforo afford to ignore it?

[faeronsayn]

The Wordpress plugin thread is full of questions. I guess if you publish the add-on here, you should answer questions/provide support as well.

Well that's awkward. I never got alerts for those posts. I will reply to them as soon as possible sorry for the delay.

 

[TheBigK]

Hi, thanks for this. It's very interesting take on things. I was just curious why your superblog is not on xenforo as well? Aren't there blogging addons? Why not use those?

SuperBlog is totally different from what the focus of the site is. It's meant to have very different content than what the site is about. That's why I host it on a sub-domain. I just kept it because it's been there for years.

 

[Deepmartini]

Even if we could just categorize threads and be able to sort them into "categories" and restyle them to look like an article, that would basically do it. I'm wondering if the thread prefixes could serve this role and just dump all the articles into an "article" forum node, then provide a way for people to sift and sort via the prefixes and restyle the first post in the thread to remove the avatar and make it look like an article. Also would need the ability to put threads into more than one category "prefix". This would give a pretty basic CMS. What do you think?

 

[Rob]

I think xenporta is your new friend

 

[craigiri]

Lots of article and blogging setups in XF. There is no reason that even the Xencarta wiki can't be one, let alone the blogging add-ons.

WP can be customized - but that requires time and/or expense. As it stands (stock), it's more of a blogging platform.

I have to somewhat agree with DRE. Unless we had a perfect and constantly upgraded add-on (from XF themselves, open source with multiple authors, etc.) a XF-only setup would be best for most IMHO. That way your system is better integrated and secured.

The main thing I see missing from the XF solutions is reasonable placement of images - captions, word wrap, etc.

Give me that and maybe simple pagination for up to 3 pages and I'll bite!

 

[Deepmartini]

Lots of article and blogging setups in XF. There is no reason that even the Xencarta wiki can't be one, let alone the blogging add-ons.

WP can be customized - but that requires time and/or expense. As it stands (stock), it's more of a blogging platform.

I have to somewhat agree with DRE. Unless we had a perfect and constantly upgraded add-on (from XF themselves, open source with multiple authors, etc.) a XF-only setup would be best for most IMHO. That way your system is better integrated and secured.

The main thing I see missing from the XF solutions is reasonable placement of images - captions, word wrap, etc.

Give me that and maybe simple pagination for up to 3 pages and I'll bite!

Your droneflyers site looks pretty good. What are you using for that? Were you using wordpress before?

 

[craigiri]

It was already WP only when I took it over - so I just used the existing template and then added the XF forum....

It works out well for the format now - which is most me creating articles, and then I add a discussion thread for each. Since I post one or less blog entries per week, it's no problem to manually create threads.

 

[silence]

lolwut. I didn't know XenForo was supposed to be competing with a free online journal software (to WP's credit, it's straying away from that and becoming more of a CMS) but seriously?
That's like saying XF needs to do something about PHPBB.
The free market and the commercial market are usually far apart from each other since the level of quality for each differs. (Google broke that but I digress).

 

[Moshe1010]

THIS!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-blogging-platform

 

[RickM]

It is cool it isn't up to your standard of coding. Maybe you could create your own and make it the Wordpress killer? Until then, it is simply the best blogging platform available to easily get started.

Why would I write my own when there are other options out there, a lot of them in fact. That's like saying you don't like your local supermarket so you're going to start your own.

My point stil stands though. The Wordpress code base is terrible, messy and violates every single php coding standard. Hence why projects like ghost have shown to be a massive hit with people like woo themes.

 

[Robby]

It is cool it isn't up to your standard of coding. Maybe you could create your own and make it the Wordpress killer? Until then, it is simply the best blogging platform available to easily get started.

I totally agree, there is nothing better out there.
And the standard of wordpress isn't poorly.

 

[Rob]

Word press has its uses and if a stable, two way, seemless,trouble-free bridge existed then I'm sure xf users would adopt it well. I mean zero offence to the two bridge authors but the downsides of both bridges are already out there.

** runs.... Hides

 

[LPH]

This post is a general statement and not directed toward any particular individual.

First, there is no need to hide. Second, let's put it out there and keep it real.

I can tell you from first hand experience that 99.9% of the issues with XenScripts is the purchaser not knowing how to use the script, the WP theme, the WordPress installation, or other plugins. There was a nasty issue which appeared after WP 3.5 - but it was due to the way WordPress devs changed a function in pluggable.php.

The issue was fixed - because I fixed it. I am not the author but have freely given help to others, freely shared changes to improve the script, and have other script changes on my site which were to be incorporated into a new release.

To quote the XenForo terms page:

Please respect third-party resource authors and their contributions. Many resource authors release things for no charge and don’t owe you anything. Attacking them will simply lead to them not releasing things in the future to the detriment of everyone. Understand that resources are not made specifically to your specifications. If you are unhappy with a resource, we recommend you pay to commission a custom-developed resource to your specifications.

Stating a real bridge is needed - well now - that's just insulting and an attack. Thinking otherwise is naive and silly. So step forward: write code, share code, or make suggestions on how to improve things but please stop being unhelpful.

Bluntly, there are technical reasons why certain features cannot be added. These have been explained numerous times in numerous threads. If someone can figure out ways around them then they should share the code.

Unhelpful statements:

• I could code it but just don't have time
• I don't have the money but ...
  
• I'd buy it if ...
• Lots of people would buy it if ...
  
• Problems are well known ...
• Lots of people want a real bridge

Helpful statements:

• I can code and am willing to help when I have time
• Money is tight but am willing to share ideas or help test the script
  
• I'm watching this add-on
• Let's roll up our sleeves, I bet people are interested in this add-on
  
• This specific problem is unresolved (include link)
  
• Here are some ideas for improving this bridge

 

[Rob]

I'm sure that wasnt aimed at me because I would never refer to the bridges as anything other than real.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Many people are using WP as a CMS platform for an article(s) website. You can call it a blog, or whatever, but this is the most powerful CMS currently available.

That is how I need to use it on many of my sites. In fact, the add-on I'm interested in (linked above by @LPH ) only has one or two features missing that would tip it over the edge for me.

I can do so much more with WordPress as a CMS than anything else I've used, and with the right plugins and/or widgets, I can create just about any type of site I need easily. It is IMHO a nicer front end to a forum than a portal. I have some custom applications on my "big board" site that I can run within the WordPress "loop" to share the style, yet let my application still function as I wrote it.

My time at a computer is limited now, so if I need to put up a site fast for myself or a client, I can have a basic WP install running in three minutes. My days of hand coding anything are done. Been there, done that for way too long. My biggest hurdle with a WP site is graphics--I try to make them as unique as I can, so they don't look like cookie-cutter WP installs.

Having XF be the forum component of any of my WP sites is a dream situation for me. Best of both worlds. YMMV of course.

 

[TPerry]

That has two major reasons. 1> Updating is remarkably easy (single click only)

Not on either one of my blogs I have set up. Of course, there are also no FTP server set up - so I use SFTP to transfer the files manually and then perform the upgrade/update.