XenForo 2.0 Discussion

[RickM]

An app is major overkill and if anything dilutes your user base. Think about it.

A new member comes to your forum and are presented with the current not-so-great responsive design. A big ass popup shows up "DOWNLOAD THE <MYFORUM> APP NOW!" 99% of people will just go "um...how about no" and leave.

Compare that to a user arriving at a forum that LOOKS and FEELS like a native app - they are instantly presented with that they wanted.

In what universe is that second option not the better one? Mobile apps are not faster by any means when you're pulling in a massive quantity of it's content from an api. Sure, the 'feel' is slightly more native. But if your mobile design is done correctly you'd never know the difference.

As an example, a massive number of iOS apps are acutually html, css and javascript with a wrapper. What you're seeing in some of these apps is essentially a full screen web page. You'd never know and that's only down to the design/ux side of things. If it's done right on the main design of your forums, it'll never be an issue.

Put bluntly, an app is an admittance that you suck at getting a decent mobile-first design done that provides a consistent experience across all resolutions be it touch or mouse based.

 

[Lisa]

A new member comes to your forum and are presented with the current not-so-great responsive design. A big ass popup shows up "DOWNLOAD THE <MYFORUM> APP NOW!" 99% of people will just go "um...how about no" and leave.

Heh.. that's exactly what I do

 

[Jim Boy]

I disagree, responsive is the way of the future. You may not like that the default XenForo skin does not do enough to optimize for mobile devices but that isn't the fault of it being responsive.

You're missing my point - which is that the mobile experience has to be thought of in isolation, with the needs of the mobile user addressed, not as an adaption of the desktop site trying to squeeze everything on to a mobile. But that is how it is presented now.

 

[TeflonDon]

Other than push notifications I don't see any reason why I'd prefer an app to a responsive design. Would custom add-ons work with an app? Probably not, yet they work fine with my responsive styles. Speaking of styles, would we be able to customize the look of this app? I'm guessing no.

Maybe I'm missing something but what can you do with an app that you can't do with a responsive style?

 

[RickM]

You're missing my point - which is that the mobile experience has to be thought of in isolation, with the needs of the mobile user addressed, not as an adaption of the desktop site trying to squeeze everything on to a mobile. But that is how it is presented now.

This is something that would be addressed with a mobile-first design.

Media queries would allow certain elements of the design to be moved, resized or in some (rare) cases, hidden completely. A possible example of this would be something like the navigation structure. Instead of a breadcrumb trail, when the viewport gets to a mobile resolution, hide the entire breadcrumb trail, and instead show a fixed floating footer with Home, Current Thread/Forum, etc, basically replicating the functionality, but in a way that makes more sense for mobiles.

Media queries would be put to extremely good use in a mobile-first forum design. The only real hurdle is deciding how from a UX point of view it should re-order the content in a way that feels natural on mobiles and desktops.

 

[cowasaki]

One feature I would like to see is an option for the moderator usergroup to be able to BAN MEMBERS without needing to make them part of the Administrative usergroup.

This was a major issue when the site I am a mod for upgraded!

 

[AzzidReign]

This was a major issue when the site I am a mod for upgraded!

Set infraction ceiling. Set permaban to that point amount. Done. So easy not sure what everyone's hold up is....

 

[Deepmartini]

Am still holding out for a proper CMS, as well the ability to charge users upfront before they can register, that way we can use Xenforo to run paid content membership sites with. The current user upgrade system is clunky and backwards when you're running a paid private forum.

 

[RickM]

Am still holding out for a proper CMS, as well the ability to charge users upfront before they can register, that way we can use Xenforo to run paid content membership sites with. The current user upgrade system is clunky and backwards when you're running a paid private forum.

That's likely because what you're asking for is an extremely specific, niche feature and something you're unlikely to find in any major forum system, free or paid

Calling it clunky is incorrect. It does exactly what it's supposed to do. What you're after is an addon that forces payment before accounts are activated. Not payment to be promoted into another usergroup.

 

[TPerry]

Calling it clunky is incorrect. It does exactly what it's supposed to do. What you're after is an addon that forces payment before accounts are activated. Not payment to be promoted into another usergroup.

I agree with this... if someone is going to go the route of a "paid private forum" then it sounds like it's time to invest in the services of a custom coder to have an add-on coded to extend the forum to their requirements. Expecting a generic software package to offer something that esoteric is stretching it just a "tad".

 

[Hoffi]

I don't thik that there is a need for a complete CMS System inside a forum software. It should be a seperate AddOn as the Ressouce Manager. KAM should be more focus on developing new awesome features for a forum. That's what I do really expect.

Don't add much stuff, that is needed only by a fistful of customers.

Invent the forum new! That's what i really want!

 

[AzzidReign]

Am still holding out for a proper CMS, as well the ability to charge users upfront before they can register, that way we can use Xenforo to run paid content membership sites with. The current user upgrade system is clunky and backwards when you're running a paid private forum.

I have plans for this...but slightly different. Won't explain it here as I want to have the unique feature for some period of time before someone replicates my system (as has been the case with many custom/unique features we have on our site)

 

[Moshe1010]

I would also appreciate if XF 2 would be Retina ready in terms of the default style.

 

[dethfire]

I agree, don't add bloat, but add more power to developers so they can create the addons a few people want

 

[Forsaken]

I would also appreciate if XF 2 would be Retina ready in terms of the default style.

HiDPI* Retina is just a buzzword .

 

[Moshe1010]

HiDPI* Retina is just a buzzword .

They were first, so they have the credit

 

[Forsaken]

They were first, so they have the credit

Yeah... No they weren't. HiDPI displays and devices have been around since the mid-late 90's however they were mostly outside of the consumer market. Samsung, LG and other display companies also have had HiDPI displays technology (which is what Apple is using for their products) for a while as well.

Apple was one of the first to bring it to the consumer market (though I believe there were a few devices with HiDPI before the iPhone) and they made it a major portion of the marketing which as always makes people think to give them credit for something they had no real involvement with.

The use of "Retina" was for marketing purposes because it sounds better than HiDPI (Apple calls their resizing of widgets HiDPI mode for example) and allowed them to throw their spiel that the iPhone provided more pixels than the human eye could possibly see.

 

[Moshe1010]

Apple was one of the first to bring it to the consumer market

This was my intention when I said *first*.

 

[Forsaken]

This was my intention when I said *first*.

Which would still be incorrect; they still weren't the first for adoption, just one of them. They were the first to make it a major marketing point for their product, but giving people credit for a technology when they didn't invent or innovate it merely because they act as if they did...

Leave me a visitor message if you want to continue this, because it's just taking this thread offtopic.

 

[dehness]

Will there be a proper reputation system implemented in Xenforo 2.0, something tantamount to reputation in vB? This is something I've found to be particularly annoying, as I've been substituting it with add-ons, add-ons that become unsupported and are not compatible with new XF versions, etc. As this is a core user statistic it becomes a big problem. Likes and the ratings add-on just don't suffice. I would love to see a native reputation system implemented in XF2.0, even if it's turned off by default.