Xenforo 2.2 release

[xsacha]

Dear developers, tell me when the release of this version will take place?

 

[DigNap15]

Things new or improved in IPS4 which I would love to see or see improved upon in XF:

1. Social groups
2. Go back to 1
3. Multi-Language support (Burning Board does this much better)
4. Moderation enhancements including workflows & crowd moderation.
5. Commerce (donations, subscriptions, monetizing)
6. Better Search. (XFES is too basic for a paid addon. IPS search is not perfect either though)
7. SSO
8. Social Media Marketing
9. SEO improvements including site speed improvements.
10. Documents / Downloads Manager

I dont need or want any of those, except better handleing of Reports (moderation?)

 

[Frode789]

If you have a suggestion for specific features you'd like us to consider then you'd be better to post them in the Suggestions forum. Telling us to "look at some other software" is really not helpful and really not something that we want to do as we have our own ideas for our own software just like I'm sure IPS do for theirs.

Thanks for your response Chris. Though that wasn't really my point, but I'll try to explain.
Also do note that many of the suggestions are already there, it's been sitting in that Suggestion forum for years.

Groups is literally one of the top suggestions (posted in 2010). Clubs has been a first-party addon on IPS for a while now, and it's very popular, which is also why its receiving a huge update in 4.5.
But you also have other things, such as:
Better tools to show trending content and ability to promote content for better visibility out of the box. Then you have blog tools, ability to create a Q&A section on the forum (mark best answer etc), proper commerce/marketplace tools and so on.

This is why one of my primary requests for XF, is more first-party developed addons. This solved the main issue of people being afraid of new content bloating their core and so on. You only pay for what you need. Only need XF forum? Then you only buy that. But many others, who want a broader range of tools, will have the option to do so..

Here's the thing. Forums are not just forums anymore. That was enough in 2005. Today, it's not. To compete with all the social media (Discord, Reddit, Facebook and many many more, depending on your niche), and already established communities out there today, just setting up a forum and calling it a day isn't enough.
You need unique content, you need special features AROUND the forum to allow the community to prosper.
I myself use Reddit a lot. It's convenient, finding various subreddits (sort of different "forums"), by a few quick clicks, millions of followers engaging in discussions etc... It's fast, it's accessible on all devices, I can find a broad range of new content etc.
Before I was part of many forums for all sorts of topics and interests, but now, unless they offer something really unique, I just didn't bother to check back.

Forum software's need to evolve, as the internet has also done in the last 15 years. Forums can still work, no doubt about it. A forum is still a fantastic platform for discussion and community-building. That said, if you are a potential customer looking to get into the forum business with your own website.. You look at the various options of paid software for giving you the best software for the job. You need a larger range of TOOLS to take up the fight towards the existing platforms and social media. So for the customer, he can instantly see that software X has a full range of tools available for the job, first-party content and thus he's guaranteed that it will function for years to come and the safety of proper support.

Blog?
Groups?
Calendar?
A proper download addon, with e-commerce options built in?
Powerful custom page builder, so you can easily make a full website around your forum?
Easy cross-promotion of content to external site? (in case you are running forum alongside a conventional website/another platform)
Powerful built-in moderation tools?
Built in support-desk?

It just makes sense from a business stand-point as well. You want your customers to succeed. Providing a decent-sized toolbox to chose from to provide a good base. Then of course you'll still need to utilize the wonderfully skilled community (and 3rd party content) to complete the site, but you are not depending on them entirely.

So to close off..

Telling us to "look at some other software" is really not helpful

Of course you have your own ideas, and I have no doubt that they are going to be excellent. But sometimes it can be useful to see at your competition as well. If you are Intel, you are not ignoring AMD and saying "yeah we don't look at them, we just do our own thing". (or, they did that for years, and look where that brought them).
It's the exact opposite, it's a relation that is always swinging back and fourth, and responding to the competition accordingly.

 

[ShikiSuen]

To compete with all the social media (Discord, Reddit, Facebook and many many more, depending on your niche), and already established communities out there today, just setting up a forum and calling it a day isn't enough.

We don't compete, because it is a must-lose war.
Seeing thousands of forums in Mainland China died one after another in these 10 years, simply because users really prefer to use SNS like WeChat, Weibo, etc.
In such case, a forum has no necessity to copy SNS-specific functions.

 

[Frode789]

We don't compete, because it is a must-lose war.
Seeing thousands of forums in Mainland China died one after another in these 10 years, simply because users really prefer to use SNS like WeChat, Weibo, etc.
In such case, a forum has no necessity to copy SNS-specific functions.

It's not about copying reddit or discord.. It's about providing a unique platform so that you can attract users in this decade.
You think there are as many forum users as it was in 2010? It's not. Even though social media isn't a direct substitute for a forum (it isn't!), but for many it "does the job" in a similar manner, sadly. So you lose members because of it.

 

[ShikiSuen]

It's not about copying reddit or discord.. It's about providing a unique platform so that you can attract users in this decade.
You think there are as many forum users as it was in 2010? It's not. Even though social media isn't a direct substitute for a forum (it isn't!), but for many it "does the job" in a similar manner, sadly. So you lose members because of it.

I didn't loose members. I stopped running forums since late-2010 till December 2019.
It just made me feel that the era trend is really powerful and cruel.

 

[kick]

Personally, the only feature missing from the core is social groups, and maybe an integrated calendar. Everything else should be left as add-ons to keep the core software from becoming unnecessarily bloated with features most may never use. Just my opinion.

Stay safe,
Lawrence

And what's the point of them? Especially from the calendar, it would be quite logical to make a separate addition as a gallery and resource. That's how it said

core software from becoming unnecessarily

Thus, it becomes a useless function for some people. And it would be better to be a separate addition
Why pester developers with a calendar? Here the calendar is not an important function at all, and not even secondary. When 2.1 was released, it was a big step forward with very useful functions, why would they advertise any functions or something else? Development is underway and that means when the time comes, they will be informed about it, because they have certain ideas and plans, and if they announce earlier than the upcoming beta, then competitors can take ideas and make them at home. Everything will have its time and all the cards they will reveal about 2.2.

 

[DigNap15]

What is this fascination with a Calendar.
I have one on my wall, one in my phone and on my Windows desktop, and some peoepl use the one in Outlook.
Why do forums "need" one?

 

[DigNap15]

Why do forums need a shopping cart?
Can't peope use Shoppfiy or one of the other hundred online shopping platforms.
Why not add a word proeccser
And a video player?
And a spreadsheet?

 

[kolakube]

We have all joined this forum to talk about something we care about and have stayed entertained enough over the years to go back about what features we want, how we want them, and how they should be delivered, all the while proving that forums do still work in 2020 and can stand on their own so long as there is a genuine reason for the forum to exist.

A lot of frustration is caused because so many of us like running forums, but the sad truth is many forums are just plain unimportant and will not succeed no matter how much cool stuff we do with them.

Do you have a fierce personality with a lot to share? Are you extremely knowledgeable about something and want to open the world up to picking your brain? Have you found a popular topic on social media you think would be better to talk about on a forum? These are better premises to build a forum upon, and once realized it will be clear that XenForo has everything we already need to make a forum succeed.

It makes perfect sense that forums get stale over time, but that sounds more like a content problem than a feature problem, although the shiny stuff we've been talking can help. I personally don't hold XenForo responsible for delivering them (but am excited by any prospect), I just expect them to keep providing the most stable and adaptable version of the forum software as promised, which everybody here would absolutely agree they do.

The responsibility falls more upon 3rd party developers to create the features outside the scope of what XF offers, and any developer with a sense of where the Internet is headed and can see the high level of quality that XenForo has been shaped into over the years, plus all of the ideas we as a community have and are willing to pay for should be jumping at the chance to start their own addons and style shop to meet the demand.

That is why I think the focus of the XenForo team to update the main website and user account system (maybe docs are next?) is more important than anything else mentioned in this thread because they are all steps to position us for the forum boom that is coming as social media gets more absurd, and also to nurture a higher level of 3rd party developers to not only create amazing new things, but stay with them. XF has given us everything we need, now I think they are showing us just how much we have at our fingertips (the API is just amazing, and that is all I will say about my own addon aspirations for now).

-----

TL;DR: go back to Twitter if you don't want to read long posts.

 

[MesterPerfect]

@Chris D
good morning everybody.
here is what we need to make the xenforo more accessible with the screen readers :
1.in the admin pannel their is full accessibility, contrary to the main interface their are some Difficulties, here is some ideas:

• add some access keys such as open notification pannel and messages and profile info.
• make the select stile and select language more accessible by adding it as comboboxes

2. within forums
we need to move between topics using the headings (h1-6) because now their isn't any way to navigate between them.
3. within threads
we need also to navigate between replies
also in xf 1 it was as blockQuotes
that was able us to navigate between them using the (q)
but here in xf2 it as articles
the screen readrs dosen't provide any HotKey to navigate between articles


3. within creating threads

• we couldn't choose prefix please try to make the prefix list as combobox.
• the editor it haven't any accessibility

where we can't use the toolbar, also we can't go to the editor by pressing the (e), contrary to the xf1 we was able to do all that.
also please make the tags editor more accessible
3. navigation within alerts and messages
we wish you give us the abilityto to navigate between alerts and messages using headings (h1-6)

Everything that we touched upon applies to the resource manager addon
we will very hapy if you can add the headings (h1-6)to BBCode
finally we hope you can help us by take care to this notes.
please accept our greetings and best wishes

 

[RallyFan]

What is this fascination with a Calendar. Why do forums "need" one?

Events!

For example if you have a Motorsports forum, you could have when races are on for various motorsports, and link those events to discussion forums for a live race (or even chatroom for that live race discussion).

Likewise people being able to RSVP that they are going to attend a race nearby in person.
Likewise forum alerts to remind people when events are on.

That's just some example of how powerful a Calendar integration could be.

And a spreadsheet?

Already added via tables to Froala (and you don't know how much joy that brought seeing that added as a feature)!

 

[duderuud]

I hope 2.2 will take speed (even) more serious.
For example, the FA icons (woff2) take way too long to load imo.

The default theme should be as fast as possible but maybe more important, 3rd party themes should be as fast as possible too. I hope there is a way to "force" developers to use certain templates/workflows/whatever to ensure loading times are as fast as possible.

I like the XF approach. The default install is lean and mean and can be extended with add-ons.

The downside of that approach is the dependability on 3rd party developers. That can result in problems during upgrades. Would be nice if that dependability can be reduced somehow.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Events

Anybody remember those?

 

[whitetigergrowl]

I dont need or want any of those, except better handleing of Reports (moderation?)

Just because you don't, doesn't mean others don't either. It's like the people that thought rotary phones were good enough. That we don't need text messaging, cameras in phones, etc etc then eventually start using those things themselves all of the time.

Sure you can stay in the past. But in doing so you really eliminate a potentially great future. Stay in one spot for too long, and you'll be lapped multiple times over before you realize it's now too late.

 

[Luehrsen]

I've been administering boards since the early 2000s and boy am I suprised how little the whole concept of forums has evolved. I've used Ikonboards, early IPBs, vBulletins, bb Boards, and now Xenforos.

And I really have to tell you guys: I am really happy with my Xenforo. It's fast, the functionality is rock-solid, it has very few bugs and considering the underlying code: It's very future proof.

Would 2.2 just be a refactoring of existing code to make it more versatile for extentions and themes: I would be fine with that! Having a thrving extention ecosystem built upon a set of rocksolid apis that don't break with every update is worth so much more than any nieche feature used by 3% of the installation base.

And to be fair: There are already some very hidden gems in the code. The payment system for example. It is abstracted in a way that does not make sense, when you just want to do user upgrades. So theoretically any developer could hook into the existing systems and build some basic ecommerce features themselves. The apis are (mostly) there.

So I'm really excited what the XF team brings to the table in order to make the base software more solid!

 

[Baby Community]

I've been administering boards since the early 2000s and boy am I suprised how little the whole concept of forums has evolved. I've used Ikonboards, early IPBs, vBulletins, bb Boards, and now Xenforos.

And I really have to tell you guys: I am really happy with my Xenforo. It's fast, the functionality is rock-solid, it has very few bugs and considering the underlying code: It's very future proof.

Would 2.2 just be a refactoring of existing code to make it more versatile for extentions and themes: I would be fine with that! Having a thrving extention ecosystem built upon a set of rocksolid apis that don't break with every update is worth so much more than any nieche feature used by 3% of the installation base.

And to be fair: There are already some very hidden gems in the code. The payment system for example. It is abstracted in a way that does not make sense, when you just want to do user upgrades. So theoretically any developer could hook into the existing systems and build some basic ecommerce features themselves. The apis are (mostly) there.

So I'm really excited what the XF team brings to the table in order to make the base software more solid!

I agree with what you say. Above all, I can call it a security monster for xenforo. I just switched to xenforo for the security system.

 

[Baby Community]

@Luehrsen

I had my Xenforo system checked by my hacker friend who entered the bank systems and detected open doors and informed the banks. The answer he gave me is unnecessary code, but there is no vulnerability.

 

[Baby Community]

@Luehrsen
But I can not pass without saying a negative.

We can't give money to seo without spending money on plugins.

 

[RallyFan]

@Luehrsen

I had my Xenforo system checked by my hacker friend who entered the bank systems and detected open doors and informed the banks. The answer he gave me is unnecessary code, but there is no vulnerability.

If you want to be really picky, there are exposed tokens parsed via URLS in plain text, which could be considered a security issue BUT those tokens don't expose any identifying information.

Only thing I'd like to see is a way to lockdown Admin Control Panel, whereby attempts to login, result in a blacklisted / blocked IP address.

I'd also recommend changing the default phrase "incorrect_password" to something like:

<p>Username not found or Incorrect Password.</p>
<p>Please try again. If you believe this is in error, please contact us.</p>
<p>This error has been logged.</p>

This way it never confirms (like it does by default) that a username is correct, but password is not.

 

[xsacha]

In the new version, I would like to see professional statistics, which are made by more than one tingling for XF.