Xenforo needs a CMS.

UPDATE: I’ve posted this link for my forum elsewhere, but I wanted to share what is possible. I believe this should be stock or via official addon (or variations of it).

Default XF is too bland, boring and not in any way user friendly!

Here’s what I created with @Jaxel’s XenPorta 2

https://www.emtbforums.com/

Much better than hitting a wall of text, links and more links with the stock XF.

XF Team, please consider a CMS / Portal or something more to take the look out of the early 2000’s and stay relevant :)
 
Forum and profile posts are user generated content and XenForo allows you to manage and organize that content (by creating forums, categories, threads and by tagging the content).
=> XenForo is already a content management system

XF Team, please consider a CMS / Portal or something more to take the look out of the early 2000’s and stay relevant :)
XF team, please consider keeping XenForo what is right now: The best forum software available.
 
Old thread, but just some observations I have made.

I have ceased with Xenforo for the time being, and the reason I am here is specifically for this purpose, a portal or CMS system. Obviously, no updates yet. When using Xenforo as a standalone forum, (As a new forum), it was near impossible to get people to sign up for the forum. They want Facebook and things of that nature.

I compared XF, with Wordpress, and Invision Community software. I believe Invision used to be IPS?? I dunno, but I had more response from the Invision community than XF and Wordpress, because they have official add-ons for CMS, Commerce, Pages, etc. But the cost is outrageous. After having tested it, I noticed I was getting more google/SEO traffic to that site than XF or WP. And that is with my external linking to both XF and WP.

I too wish XF had an official CMS that was SEO approved as well. Google simply doesn't crawl forums as much anymore for related content. :(
 
UPDATE: I’ve posted this link for my forum elsewhere, but I wanted to share what is possible. I believe this should be stock or via official addon (or variations of it).

Default XF is too bland, boring and not in any way user friendly!

Here’s what I created with @Jaxel’s XenPorta 2

https://www.emtbforums.com/

Much better than hitting a wall of text, links and more links with the stock XF.

XF Team, please consider a CMS / Portal or something more to take the look out of the early 2000’s and stay relevant :)
Sweet looking site, what skin is that?
 
My take in brief: We chose XF because it is excellent forum software. If it had been marketed as a CMS, we would have looked elsewhere. The forum we replaced ran in Drupal and it was terrible compared to purpose-built forum software like XF or VB so we wouldn't have had the stomach to go that route. We are run by part-time volunteer admins, mostly me right now, who don't have time to mess around with something like that.
 
how users consume content.
Users no longer have time or ability to process this block of heavy text content.
It’s just not how we consume content anymore.
Whoa, what do you mean we?

You're making a lot of assumptions about what "everyone" needs, but what you're talking about - who you're talking about - is not everyone's target audience. Many of us serve literate, adult audiences who don't require shiny things to attract or keep their attention. Such people actually exist, and they read and engage in discussions without ever consuming anyone's content. Just saying. It's a big world, brother.

I hear what you're saying, though. I understand that you really want this Mercedes Roadster that we're all speeding around in to be modified so it can pull a train car full of Shetland Ponies, dancing girls, and circus clowns. But that may not be what the rest of us want. We might prefer to use a locomotive for that. You know, the right tool for the job. Again, just saying.


Anyway, this is an old thread, but I'm just amused by the idea that always seems to crop up in threads like this that forums are dying, or forums are already dead. It's laughable, it always has been, and it always will be. It's like saying "pizza is dead" because you and some of your friends stopped eating cheese.
 
Anyway, this is an old thread, but I'm just amused by the idea that always seems to crop up in threads like this that forums are dying, or forums are already dead. It's laughable, it always has been, and it always will be. It's like saying "pizza is dead" because you and some of your friends stopped eating cheese.
Thank you!! My oldest forums date way back. Oldest was 1997, and actually started two years prior using a guestbook script. It's not too busy, but it's a very niche topic. And it's grown slowly but steadily. One of the busiest has been online since 2002, and is about to top 20 million posts, and our number of members and visitors grows steadily 17 years later. There are others like the busy forum, similiar topics but not quite competitors, and most of those have been growing at a very steady pace for well over a decade.

Dying? Eff no.

No offense to anyone, but social media is for dolts. It's dumbed down. It's cat videos and memes. It's your sickeningly happy cousin's family and your ex-coworker ramming religion down your throat every other day. It's the Trump haters and Trump lovers in a cage match where both of them act out like idiots and make asses of themselves. It's mass political stupidity (see Twitter). It's endless selfies sent to people who don't give a flying fig and are tired of seeing your ugly face. Nowhere have I ever seen intelligent discussion where social media is involved. Reddit skews younger and isn't exactly a hotbed of good information either--it's like Usenet prior to the spammers, trolls and flamers ruining it decades ago. There is way, way more trash on Reddit.
Many of us serve literate, adult audiences who don't require shiny things to attract or keep their attention.
That is it exactly. People visit the various forums I administrate, moderate, manage or just partake in as a visitor for the discussion. Sure, we need some visuals now and then, but the mass stupidity of social media is way out of place and most forum members don't tolerate it. They are there for the niche topics they want to discuss. They want something they can skim quickly and keep up to date with, or in-depth threads that have extensive information they are seeking. I would say that in just one broad area I'm an enthusiast of, there are probably about 20 well known forums that cover various facets of my interest--all are popular, and most are growing.

Bottom line is, special interest forums continue to grow, and people don't want flashy things, distractions, or stupidity. They don't want a portal or CMS blocking the way. We use WordPress as a jumping-off point, and it is visited nowhere near as much as the actual forum. Google's search results still bring up our forums as they used to and in many cases our search results have improved; I have yet to see forums take a hit based on some arbitrary and unproven "Google doesn't index forums like they used to" claim.

Forums aren't going anywhere. XenForo wouldn't be around if that weren't the case. :)
 
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