XenForo 2.0 Discussion

[mauzao9]

Because its a forum software. Make it easier to find content but look elsewhere if you want to compete in a Q/A niche. I don't want this software to turn into bloatware just because someone wants to use it as a Stackoverflow or Facebook.

When it comes to technology, Xenforo is still stuck on ajax calls to "emulate" live-updates, and limited because of the performance impact. gg PHP.

The last thing I want is to "social media-ize" a forum. Keep that crap out of our forums please.

Crap? One of the things Xenforo was sold on when it came around now is crap?

The social features of XF came from one selling point for the software that IPB and vBulletin didn't had yet, to pretty much the most neglected features...

 

[Wildcat Media]

Because it is a forum software. Make it easier to find content but look elsewhere if you want to compete in a Q/A niche. I don't want this software to turn into bloatware just because someone wants to use it as a Stackoverflow or Facebook.

Well spoken.

A forum is like Stackoverflow but without the snotty, elitist attitudes of longtime members...

 

[Gladius]

Please let's not get into "I don't want XF to be X because I need it just to be Y and everyone should run their community the same way I do". That's beyond silly reasoning.

 

[Brent W]

Forums are still useful, but mainly in the support arena.

Disagree 100%.

Forums, in general, are dying in as much as anyone attempting to launch a new forum is batting against the wind, 10 years ago a new forum would attract attention, now they mostly attract dust.

Disagree 100%. The problem is people either try to start a forum to get rich or they do it with no patience. In 2003 when I started my Ford Mustang forum the forum market was completely saturated and I had to fight and fight for every bit of traffic I got. But I was passionate about the subject and eventually it became one of the largest Ford Mustang websites on the internet.

Forums being hard to start in general saturated niches existed 15 years ago.

Long established forums and specialist niche forums with little or no competition are not the future for new admins looking at mainstream niches. There may be many new forums springing up and software sales may be stable or increasing somewhat, but the majority of those new forums will probably all become dead ducks in a big pond.

Most of them will because people have short attention spans these days and expect instant gratification. It took me 3-4 years to even begin to get any kind of legitimate momentum going with my first forum.

 

[Brent W]

Please let's not get into "I don't want XF to be X because I need it just to be Y and everyone should run their community the same way I do". That's beyond silly reasoning.

No it isn't. There are people that want to completely take XF and turn it into something else and it is a valid discussion to be had on whether or not that is a good idea.

 

[Brent W]

When it comes to technology, Xenforo is still stuck on ajax calls to "emulate" live-updates, and limited because of the performance impact. gg PHP.

That has nothing to do with changing the entire scope of the software from Forums to something else, which is what I am referring to.

 

[Davyc]

Most of them will because people have short attention spans these days and expect instant gratification. It took me 3-4 years to even begin to get any kind of legitimate momentum going with my first forum.

And therein lies the problem, hence the change in people's attitudes. It's highly unlikely that anyone today will invest several years to, hopefully, gain ground. So with that in mind we will just agree to disagree because you will not convince me and I will not convince you.

 

[Brent W]

And therein lies the problem, hence the change in people's attitudes. It's highly unlikely that anyone today will invest several years to, hopefully, gain ground. So with that in mind we will just agree to disagree because you will not convince me and I will not convince you.

I guess so. I don't want good forum software to be dumbed down or changed to something else because people are lazy. I recommend they look elsewhere for software that gives them a pat on the back sooner rather than later.

 

[feldon30]

Forums are dying because they are mismanaged by dictators who think THEY are responsible for the success of the forum and not the membership they attracted. Facebook is successful because they realize the people are the content, give us stupidly easy tools to share stuff, a clunky but universal app, and then they sell that content back to us as hard as they can.

Show me a forum that puts posters first and makes it easy for them to share and make connections between people, share photos and video, and just GET OUT OF THE WAY of your posters, and I'll show you a forum that is thriving.

But instead you see people who burn out but won't let go and transfer ownership to someone passionate. Or you see the most influential posters driven off or banned because they provide feedback to the owner that the owner doesn't like. You see forum owners who become megalomaniacs who are convinced that they are the core attraction of the forum. That's when people leave.

 

[Gladius]

No it isn't. There are people that want to completely take XF and turn it into something else and it is a valid discussion to be had on whether or not that is a good idea.

Yes, it is. Every community is different. Something that works for yours or your niche has no necessary guarantee of working for another, which might be completely different. If that was not the case, we wouldn't have a few thousand permissions and on/off options in XF that we do. Any kind of absolute claims on what forums need to be just come out as either ignorant or arrogant, sorry.

 

[Brent W]

Yes, it is. Every community is different. Something that works for yours or your niche has no necessary guarantee of working for another, which might be completely different. If that was not the case, we wouldn't have a few thousand permissions and on/off options in XF that we do. Any kind of absolute claims on what forums need to be just come out as either ignorant or arrogant, sorry.

We aren't discussing small differences in forum communities. We are discussing large changes to this software that will attempt to make it something that isn't a forum. So please understand that.

 

[Gladius]

No such major changes will happen, past development history and XF2 direction are obvious clues there. Realistically, you are discussing small differences at best. Anything else is a pipe dream.

 

[mauzao9]

That has nothing to do with changing the entire scope of the software from Forums to something else, which is what I am referring to.

It, however, is the point I am making. When I think of it, I don't see PHP being the future.

By that logic, Xenforo is not the future of forum software as well. I wish it was, and possibly it may be, but as this new technology and frameworks develop and fleshes out allows more as it finds better solutions and improvements, how will xF be able to stay competitive?

 

[Brent W]

No such major changes will happen, past development history and XF2 direction are obvious clues there. Realistically, you are discussing small differences at best. Anything else is a pipe dream.

I am discussing what others are asking XenForo to become. Regardless, I am tired of saying this to you. If you want to continue to follow this conversation and complain about it instead of ignoring the posts, feel free to.

 

[Brent W]

It, however, is the point I am making. When I think of it, I don't see PHP being the future.

By that logic, Xenforo is not the future of forum software as well. I wish it was, and possibly it may be, but as this new technology and frameworks develop and fleshes out allows more as it finds better solutions and improvements, how will xF be able to stay competitive?

That is a valid concern but I don't think its anything to worry about personally.

 

[Kainzo]

I'm waiting patiently

 

[Chris D]

@Chris D the plan is for third party developers to have a solid base to work from, that's great, but what about core features? Third party add-ons can be excellent, but they soon build up a cost that, over time, can outstrip several times over the cost of the first party software very quickly.

Read it again.

A major goal of 2.0 is one that is technical in nature: improve developer efficiency.

Coincidentally, we're also developers! We've very much had in mind, all along, improving our own development efficiency just as much as anyone else's. That's sort of been the point all along.

 

[Gladius]

I am discussing what others are asking XenForo to become. Regardless, I am tired of saying this to you. If you want to continue to follow this conversation and complain about it instead of ignoring the posts, feel free to.

I was actually trying to explain some things to you that you seemed not to realize in your barrage of posts, but I won't bother any more.

 

[Digital Doctor]

What has changed is that some niches found better ways to solve problems, such as the Technology niche. Stackoverflow isn't a forum but it killed a lot of tech forums out there. There isn't anything that XenForo or any other forum software could do to prevent that from happening.

Sure there is and was.

I am all for making content easier to find in forums, especially content that specific users would be interested over other content. I am absolutely opposed to this idea that forums are dying and XenForo needs to reinvent the wheel though.

Forums are an information disaster. Phrases another way, they aren't useful.

My only complaint with XF 2 is their mind boggling hack job of a mobile navigation bar that shows up for desktop users and their insistence on representing new post content twice, under different urls.

Agreed.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Well spoken.

A forum is like Stackoverflow but without the snotty, elitist attitudes of longtime members...

A forum is like Stackoverflow without members and information isn't organized or findable.