Xenforo Review by Forum-Software.org

[Bram]

I want a reply feature via Skype, ICQ, MSN, SMS, Twitter, Facebook ... oh and phone call too! j/k

You forgot whatsapp

 

[Digital Doctor]

Vanilla has been impressing me lately.

I clicked what's new and waiting 25 seconds for it to display !
OUCH.

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/121129_NF_B7C/
community.allhiphop.com/

Fully loaded time of 71 seconds for first view.
Worst I have ever seen ever.

206 queries requests ?

No thanks.

There is something odd about that Waterfall.
The site might be misconfigured.
The image in the first view is odd too.
Weird.

 

[MagnusB]

206 queries ?

Requests =/= queries

 

[Digital Doctor]

Requests =/= queries

Interesting. They must be related. Under which circumstances would requests be vastly different queries ?

 

[digitalpoint]

Interesting. They must be related. Under which circumstances would requests be vastly different queries ?

Requests are usually mostly static content... images, JavaScript, CSS, etc. Normally that stuff isn't going to take any queries.

For example the xenforo.js that is loaded on every page on this site: http://xenforo.com/community/js/xenforo/min/xenforo.js

It's 1 request, but zero queries.

 

[DRE]

Don't know if it's just their server or what, but man is it slow.

Yeah but look at all the cool gadgets! I want this one! The lights-off, lights-on switch.

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[digitalpoint]

Yeah but look at all the cool gadgets! I want this one! The lights-off, lights-on switch.

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?

 

[SchmitzIT]

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?

1) Put in a custom profile field, where the user enters a hidden phrase/code. That code will be used in the mail process for authentication. Not bullet-proof, but for those who'd want to use reply by mail, it'd probably do the trick.

2) It's not about replacing one with the other, it's about giving people yet another way to interact with the forums. Basically it means additional ways to add content.

3) Sending you a PC about this. No need to alert other forum providers with ideas if this could possibly be made into a unique selling point for XF.

4) See 2. More ways to interact. If a forum has a very specific topic, and it's contending with other forums for that niche, this might supply the edge that sucks the users in.

Of course, if there were a genuine and sufficiently large demand for email replying, I'd certainly consider adding it to the list of things we would consider developing for a future version.

How much would it take to get this released as a seperate product? As in, not released in a future version, but earlier?

 

[Anthony Parsons]

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.

 

[SchmitzIT]

Well, perhaps that's a moot point, Anthony. I run dozens of add-ons, and hardly notice the increase in queries. Maybe other products are just plain garbage?

;-)

 

[DRE]

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?

People on my site complain whenever I take the dark skin away so I'm pretty sure they'd use the lights-off function. I'd love this instead of them having to switch themes.

 

[whynot]

1) Put in a custom profile field, where the user enters a hidden phrase/code. That code will be used in the mail process for authentication. Not bullet-proof, but for those who'd want to use reply by mail, it'd probably do the trick.

2) It's not about replacing one with the other, it's about giving people yet another way to interact with the forums. Basically it means additional ways to add content.

3) Sending you a PC about this. No need to alert other forum providers with ideas if this could possibly be made into a unique selling point for XF.

4) See 2. More ways to interact. If a forum has a very specific topic, and it's contending with other forums for that niche, this might supply the edge that sucks the users in.



How much would it take to get this released as a seperate product? As in, not released in a future version, but earlier?

Agreed.

Make it an official, supported addon-plugin.
Do the users on this forum download-install all the available not official modifications?
I don't think so.
So they would not need to use this one as well.(Although it's an official product)

Do I use as a user the activity streem here which is built into the core?
No. IMO that is a big-big, useless bloat only...(Repeat: IMO)
Cannot take it off because there is no such option for me.

My forum would lose visits because the members could reply in email?
Let me (as the forum's owner) decide what to do with it.

 

[MagnusB]

People on my site complain whenever I take the dark skin away so I'm pretty sure they'd use the lights-off function. I'd love this instead of them having to switch themes.

It shouldn't be hard to do, just a simple jQuery function to change the class of a div container and you are more or less set.

 

[DRE]

It shouldn't be hard to do, just a simple jQuery function to change the class of a div container and you are more or less set.

I don't know nothing about jquery man can you make one?

 

[simbolo]

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.

Agreed

 

[simbolo]

A bad workman always blames his tools... XenForo is awesome for writing add-ons.

There's a couple of extra steps but they're by no means "complex". Most things can be worked out by inspecting other add-ons or existing XF code.

I think it's a dream to develop for.

XenForo is very nice to develop for. The on boarding process is fairly painless too, look at other add-ons or inspect the core code. A debugger is your friend.

 

[MagnusB]

I don't know nothing about jquery man can you make one?

Writing the function is easy enough, but making it remember the choices takes a bit more effort...

 

[DRE]

Writing the function is easy enough, but making it remember the choices takes a bit more effort...

True but that button made it pretty obvious that it was only to be used as a lights on lights off function.

That means just having two skins for the switch. I could do that with just templates but when you skip the style chooser it screws up my dark theme for some reason.

 

[MagnusB]

True but that button made it pretty obvious that it was only to be used as a lights on lights off function.

That means just having two skins for the switch. I could do that with just templates but when you skip the style chooser it screws up my dark theme for some reason.

http://jsfiddle.net/ubAAt/

There you have a simple proof of concept. It is a simple toggle that changes text and the class of a parent div.

 

[Jarod]

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.

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.