Xenforo Review by Forum-Software.org

DRE

DRE

Well-known member
Couple things I've noticed in this review of xenforo: http://www.forum-software.org/xenforo/review

Xenforo was rated 5/5 stars, great, but it says Xenforo doesn't have the following:

Topic Tags: Available as an addon called Tinhte Xentag
Related Threads: Available as an addon called: Similar Thread for Xenforo and View More Thread Same Subforum
Detect Duplicate Threads: Available as an addon called: Similar Threads Check (Google)
Spell Checker - Automatically available in most browsers.
Post by Email - Apparently no forum softwares use this. Suggestions on how to make one has been posted in this thread.
Export Private Messages
Abnormal Behavior Detection
Backup Database
Prune Database
Restore Database

Which addons do we have that covers what's missing?

They rated ease of plugin installation very low but Add-On Installer by Chris Deeming solves this.
 
Spell checker? What browser did they test with? Internet Explorer? Firefox and Chrome have a spell check. I don't think it's necessary these days.

Post by Email? Don't they mean Watched Threads?

8thos said:
Also notice that they rated ease of plugin installation very low.
Click to expand...
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/add-on-installer.960/

Should be core IMHO. Not necessarily my implementation, but a XenForo written core feature and that's as a bare minimum. They should also consider an RM API that will allow you to browse and download from your own Admin panel.
 
Chris Deeming said:
Spell checker? What browser did they test with? Internet Explorer? Firefox and Chrome have a spell check. I don't think it's necessary these days.

Post by Email? Don't they mean Watched Threads?

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/add-on-installer.960/

Should be core IMHO. Not necessarily my implementation, but a XenForo written core feature and that's as a bare minimum. They should also consider an RM API that will allow you to browse and download from your own Admin panel.
Click to expand...
I think Spell Check would be cool. That would require Xenforo to update or change TinyMCE and I don't think TinyMCE has a Spell Checker.

Yeah I thought of your addon installer when I saw that but it's not core. Just like you said, it should be.

Post from eMail... that's not Watched Threads. Like your addon installer, Post from eMail is a feature that's also available in Wordpress.
 
Which addons do we have that covers what's missing?

8thos said:
Topic Tags
Click to expand...
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tinhte-xentag.770/

Related Threads
Click to expand...
[link]
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...ore-posting-using-google-custom-search.31866/
maybe this: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/similar-thread-for-xenforo.30646/

Also notice that they rated ease of plugin installation very low.
Click to expand...
Good point.
Addon installation for Xenforo is super retro. FTP isn't the way forward.
 
Jake Bunce said:
Do any forums have this? I have seen this requested many times over the years for both vB and XF. IMO it's not a forum feature. Replying by email is more of a list serve idea. Plus implementing such a feature requires a dedicated server since it involves interaction with the mail server.
Click to expand...
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?
 
About Backup/Restore Database, see those posts:
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/how-to-change-domain-name.1244/
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...han-12-hours-with-xf.40959/page-2#post-444012

SSH command line is the best solution. Even with vBulletin 3.x which had a function to export the database, the official recommendation was to use the command line. It might be long to get used to the first times, but then... nothing can compete with it.

For example:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/maintenance_ssh_backup
 
Chris Deeming said:
We always used to crash our board whenever we exported the database from the vBulletin Admin CP.

I genuinely do not see it as a necessary feature.
Click to expand...
phpBB had a feature where you could select what to export, like posts or members or whatever. You could do that from whatever else tool you use as well, but there was the simplicity factor (I am more often logged in to the ACP than I am in CPanel or similar).
 
Luxus said:
Ever looked at the date? This review has been written before these addons existed.
Click to expand...
Yup, but it makes sense to pause today and see how XF addon environment developped to cover those features.

Also, "Post by email" is a feature that I believed was dedicated to Blogs: an easy way to post a blog entry when you are away from a computer (ie. smartphone friendly) , or behind a firewall that blocks your website. This is applicable to forums, but not really in a conversational context. Plus the other keypoints stated by Kier, I doubt this is really useful.
 
Jake Bunce said:
Do any forums have this? I have seen this requested many times over the years for both vB and XF. IMO it's not a forum feature. Replying by email is more of a list serve idea. Plus implementing such a feature requires a dedicated server since it involves interaction with the mail server.
Click to expand...
Every forum developer has steadfastly refused to provide a Post-by-email solution. I guess the millions of Yahoo Groups listserv customers don't appeal to them. Every listserv has a percentage of users who will NEVER visit a website to participate in the discussion. That percentage keeps the entire listserv from leaving Yahoo Groups. It's a huge untapped market.

One day a smart person will come up with Post-by-Email that works well enough to consider it a serious migration from Yahoo Groups.
 
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