XenForo 2.0 Discussion

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dethfire said:
I don't have any idea. Some of the innovation will come from phone developers. Do you enjoy using forums on your phone? Imagine if only mobile phones existed. How would forums do? I think not well, if they are as they are.
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You talk as if computers will die out and replaced by phones, which is a bit silly to think if you ask me.
 
Luxus said:
You talk as if computers will die out and replaced by phones, which is a bit silly to think if you ask me.
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For the average user they will. Desktop and laptop sales are dropping like flys. Mobile usage is surging. The next generation will only want/need a phone. Only certain professionals will truly need a desktop solution.
 
XenForo is ready for mobile devices coz it has a responsive skin and no effort is needed on that front? Don't think so. Maybe those forum admins are serving a userbase which has access to superlative bandwidth, high end tablets/phones and the users are happy clicking on tiny links. Its understandable to not be able to appreciate the issues which you have never faced before.

A mobile user however wants to use swipe, large menus and conveniently large touch areas. Rarely does he want to go to a mobile browser and use pinch and zoom. The usability of a mobile app cannot be matched by the current responsive skins.

Besides usability, with the proliferation of 4" mobile phones in as low as $100, people prefer to buy a mobile phone than a laptop. They want to access content on the move on a mobile phone. They also may not have that high speed HSDPA network. They are still on EDGE networks. A responsive skin will take ages for them.

The problem with a mobile app, tapatalk, is that it supports features what it wants to support and in a way that it wants to support. They even get to monetize my content. Even features which are native to xenforo are not supported as is, e.g. login. So I have no hope of getting custom fields add-on to show up on a mobile app. Other more critical issues with a third party app have been discussed earlier.

So if xenforo can address these issues through a responsive skin then it would be great. And while addressing these issues if it can provide me a way to package this web skin into a container which I can distribute as an app then it would be even better. After all a hybrid app is just that.
 
dethfire said:
For the average user they will. Desktop and laptop sales are dropping like flys. Mobile usage is surging. The next generation will only want/need a phone. Only certain professionals will truly need a desktop solution.
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I highly doubt that, at least for the next 10-15 years. Writing test of any length above 500-1000 characters will always be cumbersome without a keyboard. And not only "certain professionals" write texts of that length. People will buy more tablets, yes - but they'll connect keyboards to them. Tablets with ultralight, connectible keyboards and touchscreens - that's what I see for the future. I'm actually writing this on such a device (a Surface Pro 2), and I have no issue whatsoever using this software with it. Of course it's more cumbersome on my phone, but, as I said, writing text of any considerable length will always be harder to input on small screens than on a keyboard. Unless we make really great progress on voice recognition.
 
dethfire said:
I don't have any idea. Some of the innovation will come from phone developers. Do you enjoy using forums on your phone? Imagine if only mobile phones existed. How would forums do? I think not well, if they are as they are.
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It's all opinion.. I personally detest apps for browsing the web on my phone if the site is properly optimized for mobile browsing.

Sent from iPhone using native responsive design.
 
FredC said:
It's all opinion.. I personally detest apps for browsing the web on my phone if the site is properly optimized for mobile browsing.
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I agree. IMO, for the IPad mini, apps designed for websites are poorly designed. It's like the developers ignored user experience.
 
Alfa1 said:
it fails to show up on home screen, doesn't send push out of the box, doesn't show up in the media sharing options, no speech to text, doesn't work great on game console or smart TV.
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You can bookmark a forum and add it to your home screen (or any webpage for that matter).
I can use speech to text just fine on my Galaxy. There's a button for it on the keyboard.
Browsing the web in general is a nightmare on game consoles and smart TVs. For me at least, those users amount to something like 1% of my visitors.
 
mistypants said:
You can bookmark a forum and add it to your home screen (or any webpage for that matter).
I can use speech to text just fine on my Galaxy. There's a button for it on the keyboard.
Browsing the web in general is a nightmare on game consoles and smart TVs. For me at least, those users amount to something like 1% of my visitors.
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The average mobile user has no website bookmarks on their homescreen. While it is theoretically possible, practically no one takes this effort in a day and age where apps do this automatically.
The same goes for speech to text. Very few users are aware of the possibility to use the function on forums. An app or maybe even a function in the editor could improve that.
Browsing the web on game consoles, TV's and various other devices are a nightmare indeed. I have seen an increase of game console users on my site. I dont understand why people do this, but its a significant number of (mostly young) people.
 
Alfa1 said:
The average mobile user has no website bookmarks on their homescreen. While it is theoretically possible, practically no one takes this effort in a day and age where apps do this automatically.
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That is true, I do give you that, but the goal truly should be to have on universal experience, i.e. responsive design. If a major criticism of your users is that it's easier to hit the button for an app then I don't find it too difficult to show them how to create bookmarks on their homescreens.
Alfa1 said:
The same goes for speech to text. Very few users are aware of the possibility to use the function on forums. An app or maybe even a function in the editor could improve that.
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It varies depending on your device, OS, and even what keyboard you're using. On the Google Keyboard it's pretty prominent... and frankly if my 70-year-old grandma can figure it out, I have faith that my users can.
Alfa1 said:
Browsing the web on game consoles, TV's and various other devices are a nightmare indeed. I have seen an increase of game console users on my site. I dont understand why people do this, but its a significant number of (mostly young) people.
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I run a gaming website so I would assume that my stats for people browsing on game consoles would be higher than most. Even so, for the last year:
  • PlayStation 3 - 0.47%
  • Nintendo Browser - 0.17%
  • PlayStation Vita Browser - 0.13%
  • Nintendo 3DS Browser - 0.06%
Not sure about Smart TVs, but for under 1% of my users, I don't think it's really a platform worth catering towards. These stats could vary site-to-site of course, but for a gaming site whose focused series has had entries on the PS3, the 3DS, and the PSP (so I would assume most of my users have at least one of them), it's an extremely miniscule amount of users.
 
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mistypants said:
That is true, I do give you that, but the goal truly should be to have on universal experience, i.e. responsive design. If a major criticism of your users is that it's easier to hit the button for an app then I don't find it too difficult to show them how to create bookmarks on their homescreens.
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My site attracts millions of monthly readers. Explaining functionality to some users makes little difference on this scale. They just use the site the way its provided to them and the way it feels intuitive to them. They will install an app. Some will create browser bookmarks. Virtually no one will create home screen bookmarks.

mistypants said:
It varies depending on your device, OS, and even what keyboard you're using. On the Google Keyboard it's pretty prominent... and frankly if my 70-year-old grandma can figure it out, I have faith that my users can.
Click to expand...
True for those who do not run swiftkey. But consider that mobile use is massive nowadays and practically no one uses speech to text. Its a missed opportunity.

mistypants said:
I run a gaming website so I would assume that my stats for people browsing on game consoles would be higher than most. Even so, for the last year:
  • PlayStation 3 - 0.47%
  • Nintendo Browser - 0.17%
  • PlayStation Vita Browser - 0.13%
  • Nintendo 3DS Browser - 0.06%
Not sure about Smart TVs, but for under 1% of my users, I don't think it's really a platform worth catering towards. These stats could vary site-to-site of course, but for a gaming site whose focused series has had entries on the PS3, the 3DS, and the PSP (so I would assume most of my users have at least one of them), it's an extremely miniscule amount of users.
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My stats in google analytics also indicate insignificant use of game consoles. Though slightly higher. Yet, polls and support requests show a much higher use of game consoles. I doubt GA's stats.
 
I don't see why they would change much of that and make more work for themselves as far as importers go for virtually no reason.
 
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