Xenforo Review by Forum-Software.org

Jarod said:
Hello,

My experience shows (12 mllions posts and 350k members) that members don't click on the ads .. that's why i disable ads for members (when they are connected). If we can increase participation, maybe this option can be implemented.
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I think it depends on the niche... I get atleast 1 hit per 400 views...
 
Kier said:
To my knowledge, no current forum software solutions have this, for several reasons, some of which I'll list here:

1) Authentication. It's all too easy to fake an email authentication token and have spam posted to the forum

2) Use of features. What's the point in spending money on a forum solution that's had loads of work on rich user experience, user interface and interactive features when you delegate all of that experience to an email client?

3) Advertising. Lots of forums make money by running AdSense or a similar ad scheme on their pages. With email interaction, there is no need to visit the forum at all, resulting in zero advertising revenue.

4) Choice of medium. Forums are web-based. There is an email-based medium, and it's called listserv (or various other email-based communication methods). If you really want an email-based solution, why opt for a forum?
Click to expand...

A few years ago, there was a forum software called discus (www.discusware.com), which was written in PERL. This software had the reply by email feature. I used it on some of my boards for a few years before I switched to vb. Worked well.

It was done with cronjobs which checked regularly a special inbox and posted then the content of this inbox into the forum at the right spot.

The only problem/difficulty was, that the users had to write their text inbetween specific markings within the email.

here is the text of the last posting you get per email...then the text below appears


------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTIONS FOR POSTING A REPLY BY E-MAIL:

1) Press the "reply button" in your mail program. Be sure to quote the entire message when you reply.

2) Look below. In between the markings (carots), replace the line "[Delete this line...]" incl. the 2 brackets with your own message. Any text outside of the markings will not show up in the forum. Do not change anything else.

3) Send the message.

--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--
[Delete this line and type your message here]
--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--


other text like links to unsubscribe etc...
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But many users loved it nevertheless.

It seems though as this software company (was a one man show) is not existing anymore... That is a pitty... But I have still the files :)
 
Anthony Parsons said:
IMHO, whilst the software review is good, the recommendations aren't the best. Product bloating is a well-known facet of forum software construction. CMS's seem not to be as picked at in this regard, as many are happy to simply download and install an add-on. Yet in forum software, people seem to want every little function as part of the core.

I get sick and tired of reading comments on add-ons that 'this should be core' type nonsense. That is the exact issue that bloats a product and stalls a development community.

For all Xenforo owners... would you want XF having 50+ queries like the competition? Just to perform a single pages functions? I know I don't. I would rather have a choice... which means add-ons and a supporting developer community.

Just my two cents.
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But these could be also addons developed by XF core Team right? And everybody with a valid XF-licence can download them for free.
 
digitalpoint said:
I saw that too... I wonder how many people *actually* use it though other than to see what it does. Like have you ever been on a site and felt like you needed to darken or lighten the site you are on?
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YES.... Yes I have.

There is a big difference from viewing XenForo.com at 3 PM vs 3 AM
 
snoopy5 said:
But these could be also addons developed by XF core Team right? And everybody with a valid XF-licence can download them for free.
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Absolutely... I would love to see XF dev team releasing small features as add-ons instead of in the core.... those functions that are borderline on who would want them, yet are favourable to enough to warrant.
 
sonnb said:
The most in-secure reason of reply email is email is very easy to proof. You could are to make your own mail server with same domain and same email name, for example: billgate@microsoft.com. So if someone know how the code work, they could fake anyone in the reply and XF would not able to verify this since it recognizes you by email and some simple tokens.

If you ever heard cookie hj-hack, so this is the same kind.
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And yet 2 million people use Yahoo groups.

I just think it is ridiculous how for 10 years, people have tried to minimize, marginalize, and ignore a customer base that is holding steady at those numbers. When you are running a business, do you pick and choose which customers you want to serve based on whether they are tall, fat, cute, ugly, male, female, etc.?

The hardest part of Post by Email would be writing/licensing/adapting mail server software to *receive* and parse e-mail. But this would pay dividends in being able to support e-mail bounce management out-of-the-box, which in turn would make XenForo less likely to get blacklisted by mail servers.
 
feldon30 said:
And yet 2 million people use Yahoo groups.

I just think it is ridiculous how for 10 years, people have tried to minimize, marginalize, and ignore a customer base that is holding steady at those numbers. When you are running a business, do you pick and choose which customers you want to serve based on whether they are tall, fat, cute, ugly, male, female, etc.?

The hardest part of Post by Email would be writing/licensing/adapting mail server software to *receive* and parse e-mail. But this would pay dividends in being able to support e-mail bounce management out-of-the-box, which in turn would make XenForo less likely to get blacklisted by mail servers.
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Yes, we always could do it. What I have mentioning is just about another side of this feature, behind the scenes
 
Another example, if you are running a tampon business you wouldn't want to serve male customers, would you?
 
Has anyone mentioned LinkedIn? They now do email replies for their Group Discussions.

It uses some sort of unique identifier for the Reply-To header, eg.

949303_f29a7a31-<obsfucated by me>-9bd9-c68d72cebb6e@reply.linkedin.com
 
Adam Howard said:
YES.... Yes I have.

There is a big difference from viewing XenForo.com at 3 PM vs 3 AM
Click to expand...

regardless of styling I've never understood anything anyone has posted at 3am at our forums. around then I'm usually too drunk to read the essay some stoner wrote on building the ultimate hamburger anyway
 
just catching up - I'd REALLY like ability to import a yahoo group - we have an earlier period on yahoo for my favourite board (pre XF) and I can't bring in all those years of our history as a community.

On emailing in from the user side this would be great. I have copmmunity members who won't use the forum but would if it had this. I also have forumk \memjbers who'd love the OPTION. It's all about user choice./

I would recommend a confirmation email that sai in effect - d Thanks for posting your message to THIS THREAD (link) and here's the link to What's New if you'd like to check some of the latest talks.

Make it easily editable by admin so it can be fresh and new at frequent intervals to keep it interesting.
Could include a notice - a random quote ... fun! like a mini newsletter

Then users would know that any of these would give them easy ways to visit. Plus could reply to thread.
 
This Review is around two years old now. Lots have changed since then. Will any of the stuff they say is missing be added in Xenforo 1.2?

Topic Tags
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