XenForo 2.0 Discussion

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As for IPS4 - it's a brave attempt to do something different, and that may be so in the core, but the front end is a mess. XF rules!

I thought IPS4 looked great but it lacked in other areas. I switched from vb to XF but looked at IPS as my #1 choice but few factors just melted that away.

As I am using XF more and more, it is good in some areas and seriously lacking in others and to make up for that I feel like I am hostage to paying for important features through add-ons and then highway robbery on top of that with removing "branding" fee nonsense. Unless it is an official add-on with support and code integrity to back it, I don't feel comfortable. Some (many) of the add-ons make call back to the server, collect user data without the customer knowing about it. I hope this scam ends soon, especially removing the "branding" part.
 
Some (many) of the add-ons make call back to the server, collect user data without the customer knowing about it. I hope this scam ends soon, especially removing the "branding" part.
Very few add-ons do that and those that do must comply with the terms here: https://xenforo.com/community/help/resource-guidelines/

As for branding, that is entirely up to the add-on developer.
If you don't like it, don't use the add-on, pay for a custom solution or learn to develop your own.
 
I'm at a half-way house with add-ons. There are some really exceptional add-ons that would be priced roughly the same (if not more) were they 'official' XF products. My problem with third party add-ons has always been one of continuity; that is if the developer moves on, loses interest or whatever, that add-on becomes stuck in a time warp and will never again be updated (unless someone else takes up the reins, but we then run the risk of history repeating itself).

On the subject of branding - I feel that the author/developer has the right to say it was they who created the add-on and display a small discrete mention, but I firmly believe that it should be restricted to where the add-on is being used and not on every page and certainly not the home page unless the add-on is functional there. I know there is a separate topic dealing with this, but I can't remember where it is lol.

As for the future of XF and mark 2; there is a lot of water that's gone under the bridge since it was first launched and I'm sure that the team are working to include a lot of features and feature requests into the next version. What I would like to see, and I'm guessing that many others would too, is some kind of list of proposed features so they can be debated allowing the team to hone them to suit most people's requirements; you can never please everyone, but as long as proposed features can be turned on or off then no one should have any axes to grind.

My own site is nearing completion and I've really hacked it about, making substantial changes - when it's done you can go look see and perhaps some (none lol) of those changes can be implemented in any future versions of XF if anyone likes them.
 
I suppose it really depends on what is being proposed for XF2 - if it's changing the core and framework then I agree that it may not include any new features at the release stage. If anything is being considered for stripping out I presume that it's because said feature is no longer of any use.

I know that a menu manager is mentioned in the first post and that is a big plus for everyone, but another big plus would be a more feature rich editor (whatever editor is being used make every option available) with the ability to have control over what functions are available to specific groups. For example as an admin I would want access to more features than say a registered member; I would really like to minimise the features for members so as not to scare them with too many options. In fact I would prefer to have them off by default with the ability for them to turn them on if they want to do a little more than just type a message.
 
It is even possible for a first point release to have less features than the previous release.
That could be sad.(Welcomed by the paid addon developers)
It could be used only with addons which would increase its price significantly.
 
I agree with add-ons having the side effect of hiking the price up. There are a lot of free add-ons (which are greatly and genuinely appreciated) by some very talented individuals, but then there are a lot of really useful and excellent add-ons that are often out of reach of many people simply because of the cost; I'm not implying that the add-on is not worth the asking price, just that it makes it off-putting to many people. There's some add-ons that I would like to experiment with to evaluate whether they would be of benefit, but that's not possible. At the other end of the table we have some developers who charge for everything, even something quite minor and that can really hike the price of your forum up to well over a $1000.

What's all this got to do with XF2? Well, as Brogan mentioned a major release doesn't mean that it will be linked with new features, but that would really be a missed opportunity if that were the case. It's great to hone and fine tune what's already there, but not to add anything new would be a waste. I understand that there needs to be a balance between ramping up the feature set and allowing room for third party developers to flex their ideas, but for me the new feature set would be satisfied with the following (apologies for repeating any already mentioned):

Better organisational facilities within the ACP for forum ordering
A menu manager
A fully featured editor with full control over who gets to use what within it
A CMS system based around pages with full editor functionality and the ability to comment and rate (also to have a variety of stock page layouts and the ability to create your own)
A calendar with the ability to have maps and an RSVP feature for events
A customisable sidebar (that can either be fixed or floats as the page is scrolled) with an easy way to order blocks)
Permissions either paged or tabbed into groups eliminating the almost endless long list options
Separate menu buttons for profile and account settings on the user bar (no more drop downs, or make them optional)
A theme editor for basic changes that can be applied to the stock theme
More consistent terminology through the forum - for example we have messages, threads, posts, replies, discussions which for a newbie can be confusing; discussions and replies would be more than enough

These are major additions and would go a long way to solidifying XF position in reference to the competition and giving customers more control over content and how it is added.

There's other ideas floating around in my head, but as I've not long wakened my brain feels like a particle of dust floating in my head until I get some coffee and toast lol.
 
It would not be surprising to see a move away from the zend framework but it may be a tad optimistic to expect a complete shift in one go to a fully bespoke framework.
 
A CMS system based around pages with full editor functionality and the ability to comment and rate (also to have a variety of stock page layouts and the ability to create your own)

A customisable sidebar (that can either be fixed or floats as the page is scrolled) with an easy way to order blocks)

Agree, although you would not want to compete in the world of wordpress/joomla/drupal and countless others. It would be convenient to be able to build pages for forums. It will be a useful feature for standalone forums. Having said that, I would not waste too much time and resources on this feature and try to pull IP.Content, etc. CMS wheel has been invented already and your future customers are those who can integrate XF with their CMS, starting with Wordpress. :D

A customizable sidebar would be a Godsend. From vb2.0 to 4.0, sidebar was a pain in the neck... this mod, that mod, this change that change. Some add-ons you can have it sidebar on homepage only but not on sub-forum pages. There should be options to have sidebar on right/left, homepage and/or sub-forum pages and/or thread pages. Be able to turn it off on profiles and turn whole thing off based on permissions.


thanks
 
At present I'm using Showcase (highly modified) to present articles and offer a way to comment and rate said articles; it's a great add-on and well worth the asking price and I'm happy to support the developer. However, the way I've had to hack at it to get it to do what I want took a lot of time and effort and I'm still not quite getting it to where I would like it to be. If the already built-in Pages in XF could be expanded upon that would go a long, long way to meeting the requirements of a basic CMS/Article system. I know the argument stands that forums could be used for this, but the problem with topics is that (unless they're sticky) disappear over time as the list grows. Whereas a menu driven article/pages/CMS system would have them available to anyone at any time. That's the basic concept of the request, pretty much as Showcase add-on presents itself in my adjusted version; you'll be able to see it soon once I've made final tweaks and added more content. It's easier to describe when it's seen.

The sidebar issue is a 'must have' - right now it's far too restrictive and, as mentioned, adding this and that add-on doesn't always achieve what's desired and some may even conflict.

As for the framework - I wouldn't even know what's being used and whether it can be improved upon; that's developer territory. All I know is that the framework is what the software is built upon lol.
 
Crazy idea here, but how about build some dedicated android/iphone apps around xenforo 2.0 then sell me the complete package :D
 
Crazy idea here, but how about build some dedicated android/iphone apps around xenforo 2.0 then sell me the complete package :D
Yeah, the most popular demand by the users on my XenForo sites, they don't want responsive, they want apps!
So many people here will argue with this but whenever it happens everyone will buy and use it.
 
I'll rephrase - I will never use any app on any forum.

I don't use the FB app either - I use the web interface.
 
Until an app can reproduce ALL the functionality present on my site and its add ons nor will I.
 
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