I don't have anything personal against him...I don't know him. I was using him as an example because that's what he was originally brought in to be (I thought) and that was his background with IB. I used him as an example also because I don't think he has been all that successful at vB as a one stop shop for information. He is a corporate mouthpiece and that's not what XF needs. If they need anyone in a role like that, they already have the best they could probably get in Paul Brogan.What do you have against Adrian ? (who btw is not a Community Manager).
I don't have anything personal against him...I don't know him. I was using him as an example because that's what he was originally brought in to be (I thought) and that was his background with IB. I used him as an example also because I don't think he has been all that successful at vB as a one stop shop for information. He is a corporate mouthpiece and that's not what XF needs. If they need anyone in a role like that, they already have the best they could probably get in Paul Brogan.
I think Kier explained XF's position best in his post above. I doubt very seriously he and Mike are oblivious to or don't care about the topic raised by the OP. They started this thing with their own vision based on years of success in the field and I, for one, would be disappointed if they allowed themselves to be diverted from that because of "group think". I, personally, don't want a "roadmap" - I want them to do what they do best and do it their way...that is what has brought us this far quite successfully I think.
This thread has gone way out of control and were it not for the important points some have raised I would be closing it for the benefit of community harmony.
We have said from the very outset that people should make their decision to buy XenForo based upon what they can see, what we have already delivered, rather than some promise of future functionality. The marketplace in which XenForo resides is extremely fluid and a plan to develop one feature may be shelved at a moment's notice in favour of a feature that we decide is more beneficial. That is a major strength of XenForo - the genuine agility with which it is developed.
With 1.0.0 we have delivered what we consider to be a world class forum system with an extremely robust and flexible add-on system, with the express intention that our limited development resources would be complimented by the development skills of third parties who can develop add-ons that have exactly the same level of access to the system as core code. There is no reason that third party add-ons may not be of equal quality to code released by XenForo Ltd., and in order to foster this third party development we make no limitations on third parties to only advertise free-of-charge add-ons here. We want people to develop high quality commercial add-ons for XenForo.
The issue of effort duplication has been raised. "I don't want to develop Product X because XenForo Ltd. might be working on something similar." This is an occupational hazard, and one shared by XenForo Ltd. themselves. We don't know that certain features we may have planned for the future are not already in development by third parties, and the XenForo add-on system means that we most certainly cannot be sure that the official XenForo version of the feature will be better than the third party version. This is free market competition, and the way to deal with it is to do one's very utmost to ensure that one's own version of a feature is the most desirable.
Like it or not, we are a very small development team doing our best to compete with much larger rivals. Some of that competition is friendly, some distinctly less so. While we develop fast, a great deal of time is spent developing features before any code is written. Often, the amount of time spent writing code is a fraction of the actual development time for a feature. As a result, in order to maintain a competitive edge, it is necessary to keep the development of certain features close to our chest, in order to prevent rivals from benefiting from work we have done before we are able to do so. You only need look at what our competitors have done since the appearance of XenForo to see that this is true.
Is XenForo standing still? Of course not. One need only look around the forums to see that a public request for IPB data has been made, and that the IPB importer is in its final stages of testing. It's possible to look at the bug report forums and see that far from allowing bugs to accumulate, active development work is underway to deal with issues as they are reported. We are at version 1.0.0, and naturally the focus of development is on shoring-up that platform such that work in earnest can begin on our next feature release. To shift focus to 1.1 before fixing issues in 1.0 would be irresponsible and would do a disservice to those already running XenForo in production. When the priority switches, we will make it known in an appropriate way, and we will accompany that announcement with as much information as it is appropriate to release at that time. We have not collected together postings where we have talked about 1.1 features so far, because these posts represent firm intentions rather than a concrete commitment to deliver those features. It is therefore inappropriate to collect them into something approximating an announcement of future development policy.
I'm sorry if some people are unhappy with the speed of development or the information we have released. We have made no secret from the very beginning that we are a very small but extremely dedicated team doing their best to deliver the highest possible quality software. We can't make everybody happy all the time, and all we can say is that you should look to what we have already achieved and ask yourself if there is any reason that our future development would not live up to the same standard.
Since I'm the thread starter and due to the fact that I liked Kier's post, I ask moderators to close this thread in order to prevent further discussions between the members. Thank you.
The issue of effort duplication has been raised. "I don't want to develop Product X because XenForo Ltd. might be working on something similar." This is an occupational hazard, and one shared by XenForo Ltd. themselves. We don't know that certain features we may have planned for the future are not already in development by third parties, and the XenForo add-on system means that we most certainly cannot be sure that the official XenForo version of the feature will be better than the third party version. This is free market competition, and the way to deal with it is to do one's very utmost to ensure that one's own version of a feature is the most desirable.
On the contrary! http://xenforo.com/community/threads/dragonflys-delectable-discussion.3057/page-92#post-190617I must say I find Kiers lack of information on what he had to eat today most distasteful.
Frankly I would've preferred it if Kier used the time it took to write that post to code some more features for XF!!!And an excellent reply from Kier, as usual. I know how long it can take to craft that comprehensive and tactful a reply, nice job.
Frankly I would've preferred it if Kier used the time it took to write that post to code some more features for XF!!!
Just kidding...
Many thanks for the useful post Kier, it sure clarified many of the important points raised and maybe now we can be harmonious again.
I don't have any information on notices but Mike did post this about custom profile fields: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/suggestion-custom-profile-fields.3806/page-6#post-159124After re-ordering the posts by most liked I can see the features I want are amongst the most liked - custom fields and notices as examples.
This is a discussion forum, thats what members doI ask moderators to close this thread in order to prevent further discussions between the members. Thank you.
Big difference is that when you buy a new car you buy it as is, you get the finished product and ford are not going to send you new bits of the car that have been updated. Their future plans don't have any effect on what you've bought.
If you bought a car on the premise that when they brought out a new model your car would be updated as well then I think that you'd want to know what's planned or being worked on as it has a material effect on you.
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