XenForo needs a blog with regular updates from Kier & Mike

[James]

Things like this:

I think it's safe to assume that features which are common to all forum software but are not yet present in XenForo will be added in short order. Thread prefixes are definitely slated for 1.1.

Should be going somewhere like this:
www.xenforo.com/community/pages/upcoming-features

Information has been revealed about what to expect for 1.1, so why not get all the information together in one location (not Paul's profile) that can be viewed, much like the Random Questions Answered link forum?

 

[User]

As a non-license holder I am very much with Ingenious on this. I don't expect XF to tell me about features they are working on that do not yet exist in competing products. However, coming out and saying that version 1.1 tentatively slated to be released at the end of May will have a Calendar doesn't give the farm away but lets me know whether I should wait for XF or just go ahead with another vendor.

This is somewhat less of an issue for current forums which are already up and running, they can in some sense afford to be in the dark since they already have a working solution. In my case I absolutely need to launch a new for-profit forum before July 1st and as you all well know you can't decide on which product to use the night before. Similarly to Ingenious I feel that while XF has potential it doesn't have the required functionality yet. If I had to make a decision today it wouldn't be XF. If there was some official info on upcoming features which already exist in competing products then that would make a purchasing decision easier.

It's not even about the $140 for the license, the $140 are just the beginning, once the license is purchased countless hours will be sunk into setup, styling, customization, etc. etc., I don't want to go down that path if it's clear that the one thing I need isn't on the list of things that are being looked on to be implemented. At that point I'd rather just buy a competing product that works out of the box.

 

[Peggy]

Things like this:

Should be going somewhere like this:
www.xenforo.com/community/pages/upcoming-features

Information has been revealed about what to expect for 1.1, so why not get all the information together in one location (not Paul's profile) that can be viewed, much like the Random Questions Answered link forum?

While I don't agree with alot of what's been posted in the seemingly never-ending thread, this I do agree with.

However, as Kier stated in his post, they have said from the very beginning, that people should purchase XenForo based on what they see now, not on what might
come down the pike later. And I fully agree with that, as well.

 

[whynot]

We're here because we like the product and are desperate to see it grow into a state we can use.

True.

 

[Deebs]

XenForo competitors are copying the implementation not the actual idea. So a roadmap of common features like gallery, thread prefixes, tagging, cloud, infraction system, <insert here>, are not exactly giving up trade secrets, the initiative is in the implementation of such functionality.

 

[Onimua]

Like I've said before...

 

[Peggy]

Sooner or later, the goodwill and interest dies away, we give up, we move on

You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that sounds like a threat. Of course I know better, I'm just sayin....

It's really a good thing that I am not Kier, because my first impulse would be to say....... "well then, move on".
Again, just sayin'.

 

[Deebs]

You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that sounds like a threat. Of course I know better, I'm just sayin....

It's really a good thing that I am not Kier, because my first impulse would be to say....... "well then, move on".
Again, just sayin'.

No, that is just human action. Goodwill is not infinite along with interest. Else we would never had such a thing as divorce.

 

[Ingenious]

You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that sounds like a threat. Of course I know better, I'm just sayin....

It's really a good thing that I am not Kier, because my first impulse would be to say....... "well then, move on".
Again, just sayin'.

Well, I can only do my best as a non-licence holder to try and help and give feedback from the other side of the fence to you Peggy, about what I feel. And as a potential customer, what I would like to see. I would have hoped that feedback would be useful to someone. If it's not and that time and effort simply results in being told to move on, that's a shame.

 

[Peggy]

Well, I can only do my best as a non-licence holder to try and help and give feedback from the other side of the fence to you Peggy, about what I feel. And as a potential customer, what I would like to see. I would have hoped that feedback would be useful to someone. If it's not and that time and effort simply results in being told to move on, that's a shame.

I haven't seen anyone tell you to move on. I said that if I was in their position, and I am not, that's what I would say.
Now tell me, if someone was constantly pressuring you to do something that you don't feel ready to do, and you came at them with, either do it, or I'm moving on (which is essentially what you said), would you not be sorely tempted to say "well then do it!".

hmmmm??

I mean really. Kier has posted in this thread already, saying that from the very beginning they have stated that y'all should purchase XenForo, or not, according to what you see right here, right now, not by what will be, or what you hope will be, added.

I don't think he could have made it any clearer.

 

[Ingenious]

I haven't seen anyone tell you to move on. I said that if I was in their position, and I am not, that's what I would say.
Now tell me, if someone was constantly pressuring you to do something that you don't feel ready to do, and you came at them with, either do it, or I'm moving on (which is essentially what you said), would you not be sorely tempted to say "well then do it!".

hmmmm??

No I would not. I'd tell them to f**k off

 

[Peggy]

No I would not. I'd tell them to f**k off

LOL, well there ya go.

 

[Rigel Kentaurus]

And WHO cares???Not john doe and i also not ATM...
It can be the worlds best system, but if people

• don't know how to use it because of lacking documentation and need to experiment around for months to see that it can't work and they have to wait for 1.1 which can be months away, OR
• don't want to code add-ons which COULD!!!(only kier,mike and some insiders knows...) be in the core soon (where's the thread prefixe add-on for example? i'm sure if coders would know what it will get it into the core in at least 1 year, somebody would code it, but not, if it's 1-2months away! But as said already, only the insiders know it)

and they don't use it, it's useless.
That's why IMHO IPB3 is ATM the best platform for add-on developers => they have there tutorials, they have already there great mature core, with many usable components...
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, they have there blog where they share the new features, and not implement them "hidden" like the rss feed here (and which is the reason, why i stopped coding big customer add-ons)

My 0.02$

This is a really strange post coming from you, ragtek. I usually sort the add-ons by date descending and lately I have seen a ton of addons from you. My impression was that you were a really hardcore user and a really strong XenForo advocate.

At least the first one, I think I got right. You are pushing XenForo to it's limits and that's the point at which you will have a lot of trouble. The kind of questions you have can only be answered by developers that have faced the same issues, and by the XenForo developers themselves. While I think that Kier/Mike have done a great job with this (I have actually seen them answer coding questions in the forums), they do have their limits themselves, after all, they need to run all the show (sales, support, development, legal, etc).

I think what is seriously needed is some expectations management:

• This is the same management style we had in the old vBulletin, where we begged for a roadmap, and never got one. Years later, IB gave a "roadmap", they have implemented almost nothing from it and it is mostly unaccomplished.
• This is the same style we had in the old vBulletin, where we got almost no documentation, until Floris stepped up and created a huge amazing user and admin manual.
• This is the same style where the developers are left to wonder and realize things alone, without almost any help or any interest from the core team. Where addons are relegated to an .org domain, completely unsupported and developers are asked to go off-site

This is not bad in itself, it could be better. But it is what it is. The faster one learns to accept what the developers are willing to provide and what they are not, the happier one could be and the faster one can move on.

While the development style makes me a little nervous too, I have learnt to live with it. I do not demand a roadmap anymore, I reserve the pleasure to be surprised whenever a new upgrade comes and I conceded the developers the freedom to express their creativity in whichever way they seem appropriate.

If the developers don't feel like having a blog, constant updates, a newsletter, a roadmap and a somehow public development strategy, that is ok. It is not a bad, it is just different. Plenty of companies do closed door development. They do well. It's only the fact that XenForo is community software that it could give the impression that we need to be informed.

I am now taking the product for what it is, a great platform that suits my current needs. Fact is, XenForo is amazing. I am also confident that this is a better platform for the future. But I am no longer taking promises about future features and relying on them.

 

[high1976]

can be deleted

 

[a legacy reborn]

• This is the same management style we had in the old vBulletin, where we begged for a roadmap, and never got one. Years later, IB gave a "roadmap", they have implemented almost nothing from it and it is mostly unaccomplished.
• This is the same style we had in the old vBulletin, where we got almost no documentation, until Floris stepped up and created a huge amazing user and admin manual.
• This is the same style where the developers are left to wonder and realize things alone, without almost any help or any interest from the core team. Where addons are relegated to an .org domain, completely unsupported and developers are asked to go off-site

1. Disagree to a point, I think that they should not tell us exactly what they are doing but should give us an idea for add-on developers.
2.http://xenforo.com/help/manual/ ?
3.Agree, see #1

 

[Peggy]

Im tired of reading all those fanboys-posts (no offense meant Peggy) as no one can seriously think that its going well last weeks. Postcounts dropped rapidly after 1.0, there's nothing really new for plugins (funnily except ragtek) and skins since then. Some complain, a lot just give up and some repeat over and over how great it will be some time if you just have faith...
I've finally lost mine atm and i really don't like the way customers are treated like annoying childs these days. If thats company policy for the next years I better stay with VB.

We sit here on a license on hold for months because of missing essential features (modlog aso, not fancy stuff like cms or blog or gallery) and no clue if we can start our vb3.8 port in a month or in a year. Thats really great when you think about the time thats needed to port a 800k-posts/100k users forum properly and the double work to keep your old software going. So yes, I really think about dropping all preparations and go for something else. Not because I like it but I have to plan the next months. And I know many that are in the same situation with 3.8 nearly dead. Imho its up to XF to keep their customers interested, usually you cant run a company just on 'faith' for a long time.

None taken.

So you think that since the postcount has dropped, rapidly by your estimation, that it's a bad thing?
I guess I'm a glass half-full kind of person (that means I see some things from an optimistic viewpoint). I just assumed that since the forum is not a madhouse of posting crazies at the moment, it must be due to the fact that people are actually busy with their own forums which are using a forum software that, in fact, has a minimum amount of bugs. Thus not much to post about.

I also assumed that there aren't any new plugins because developers are waiting to see what comes out in XF 1.1, which Kier has said they hope to have out by Halloween. I dunno, call me naive.

The forum software is still relatively new, the stable version has been out for less than 2 months, and you are "losing faith"? I'm not sure just how fast you think a new software is supposed to be developed, but it took 10 years for vB to get to where it was (and much less for it to be all but destroyed), and I'm sure that years of development went into IPB, as well. If you want a brand new software to have the features that they have taken years to develop, I'm not sure what to tell ya.

Fanboy? Heh, if the above post makes me a fanboy, well then hell, I guess that's what I am.

 

[Paul B]

Thread tidied in a vain attempt to try and keep it on topic.

 

[Shelley]

This thread gets the thumbsup (take 2) Good modding paul, and rightly so removing those posts.

 

[John]

Thread tidied in a vain attempt to try and keep it on topic.

Awww...my video link was just what this thread needed Paul

 

[Shelley]

Awww...my video link was just what this thread needed Paul

Never mind john, i liked it, it kinda broke (what's the word I'm looking for) Ice? Now we can get back ontopic with the bickering, arguing going around in circles.