XenForo Roadmap?

[dutchbb]

Actually I believe one of the worst things a tech company can do is have a public roadmap. There aren't many good reasons to have it, but there are plenty to not have one. Having one just puts pressure on developers, because the next question will be "when will it be available? Then they have to come up with a deadline. Then they are forced to get everything done in time, which is generally bad for creative work and quality. If the deadline isn't reached, that makes it even worse. Now the same people that asked for the road map and deadline will be the biggest complainers.

Another problem is that you basically show your competition what your future plans are, now, if they have more capital and people working for them, they can copy your ideas and release their version even before you did. And finally, it's a bad marketing strategy. Keeping future features and products secret creates rumor, which creates attention and anticipation. As an example you can look at Apple, who have practiced this principle to perfection.

So, public roadmaps... IMHO generally a bad idea in this business. The simple fact is that developers are probably working hard, people just have to have patience, post their suggestions and ideas, and regularly check the HYS sub-forum.

 

[Vicki]

I don't agree. As a fairly new XenForo customer, I'd like to know what is being planned and what is working in progress in terms of the core development so that we could plan ahead about our own site accordingly - especially whether to wait for the core new releases, or the core addons, or go ahead buy the needed addons from third-party developers as we move along building our site. I think as XenForo customers, we care about the continuing development of the core features everyday, and we deserve to be told that what is going to happen in the foreseeable future.

 

[Biker]

We all care about the continuing development of the software. However, we don't deserve anything other than the product we purchased. Demanding that the developers provide information about upcoming changes or feature inclusions accomplishes nothing more than a distraction for the company.

Self entitlement issues aside, the fact that development continues and there will not be a road map is sufficient. Demanding that the company provide something that they've already said they will not provide isn't going to change their mind.

 

[Onimua]

I don't agree. As a fairly new XenForo customer, I'd like to know what is being planned and what is working in progress in terms of the core development so that we could plan ahead about our own site accordingly - especially whether to wait for the core new releases, or the core addons, or go ahead buy the needed addons from third-party developers as we move along building our site. I think as XenForo customers, we care about the continuing development of the core features everyday, and we deserve to be told that what is going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Then it bounces right back up to the demands of timelines and pestering of when it will be released, and people very quickly get upset over that kind of thing. Roadmaps just don't work out in the long-term.

We already get updates on what's coming before the release in the HYS videos and the occasional additional announcement or post here and there. Expecting a full list of detailed features doesn't usually end well for the developer.

 

[Alpha1]

The have you seen forum effectively shows us what's cooking for upcoming releases. It's very nice to see.

I would not be against prefixes in the suggestions forum, that would indicate if a suggestion is 'not considered', 'under consideration', 'more feedback wanted', etc.

 

[HWS]

I would not be against prefixes in the suggestions forum, that would indicate if a suggestion is 'not considered', 'under consideration', 'more feedback wanted', etc.

+1

 

[Gladius]

While I'm never going to rule it out completely, it's not something we're considering now. There are still various things to focus on with the core system, as I'm sure various people can attest to. (For reference, the RM mostly came about as it was something that we would've been doing anyway, for xf.com.)

I'd "like" the update if it wasn't a major disappointment to me and probably every other vB admin who'll want to convert their vB to XF soon and uses the in-built gallery. That means we'll have to convert part of our vB content to 3rd party addons and be stuck with them when the official gallery comes up unless we'll be lucky enough to get an importer to the official addon.

I'm guessing your stance on blogs is the same as the gallery?

 

[Grover]

I'd "like" the update if it wasn't a major disappointment to me and probably every other vB admin who'll want to convert their vB to XF soon and uses the in-built gallery. That means we'll have to convert part of our vB content to 3rd party addons and be stuck with them when the official gallery comes up unless we'll be lucky enough to get an importer to the official addon.

I'm guessing your stance on blogs is the same as the gallery?

I/my foundation is exactly in the same situation. I understand the developers firmly have their focus on making the core (the forum) perfect first, before anything else can be even thought of. This has been stated clearly before (inside the FAQ's for example). However, at the same time I am a bit surprised that something so typical for social platforms (in other words: the User Albums/Galleries) apparently is not high on the priority list -to say the least- by reading the statement above.

I am not sure about how many vB owners are in this situation, but I would think that loads of vBulletin owners would switch much quicker/easier to Xenforo if their User Albums could be transferred over.
As it is now, I am unable to switch my board to Xenforo, exactly because of this reason and obviously I am not alone in this.

 

[Alpha1]

I am not sure about how many vB owners are in this situation, but I would think that loads of vBulletin owners would switch much quicker/easier to Xenforo if their User Albums could be transferred over.
As it is now, I am unable to switch my board to Xenforo, exactly because of this reason and obviously I am not alone in this.

Many vb board owners are in the same boat in regards to albums, blogs, groups and other vb functionality. vbulletin is in shambles, vb3 is incompatible with PHP, so people must find another solution to migrate to. As much as I love XF, if XF does not provide the essentials that vbulletin suite has, then its not possible to move to XF.
If Shawn releases the functionality that he created, then half of the missing functionality is already there. That would be a major win. Then its mostly albums, blog and groups that are needed.

I know that after all that transpired and the mass of things that lay ahead for XF, its beyond reasonable to ask for. But this is the situation ATM and I really hope that KAM can turn the horrible situation vbulletin is in, to their advantage.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I still think it's weird there is no Xenforo gallery addon.

 

[aculate]

I'm one of those people, stuck with vb 3.8.4... I have close to 3800 images that i can't import into a native addon... i still have hope that soon (maybe version 1.5) a native solution to support images (albums or gallery or something similar to the way facebook handles images...) will be announced...

 

[Chris2]

I still think it's weird there is no Xenforo gallery addon.

In the same boat here. Literally can't wait to move away from Vb4, but need a functional gallery option to be in place. About the only thing I can think of that's holding me back. 8 mill. post forum.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Literally can't wait to move away from Vb4, but need a functional gallery option to be in place.

People expressed that need 2.5 years ago.

 

[Grover]

I'm one of those people, stuck with vb 3.8.4... I have close to 3800 images that i can't import .....

In the same boat here. Literally can't wait to move away from Vb4, but need a functional gallery option to be in place...

If you haven't already done so, do please [Like] this suggestion: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/image-and-media-gallery-must-be-integrated.265/

I am also quite surprised that this is -apparently- not high on the list right now, although Kier's comment is a bit more reassuring then Mike's. However, whatever words you use (or interpret them), it's made perfectly clear at least that it's not on the roadmap.

The only thing I would need is simple User Albums just like it was in vBulletin, so we can finally move our 'big'board (vB 3.8) over to Xenforo. I don't need a sophisticated gallery, no, we are in big need of a switch to our preferred solution (XenForo), but find ourselves stuck. Since there are many more (I assume, but maybe this is not the case in reality?) admins in the same boat, I am a little bit puzzled why Xenforo doesn't make it easier for all these boards who do use those User Albums to finally jump (the sinking vB) ship for good. You would think it will get Xenforo many more customers? But maybe there are other valid reasons (some of it already explained) for them not to do so.

I guess we just have to wait and... hopefully see.

 

[Andy.N]

Can't you just move first, keep a copy of your VB files and database and migrate the photo later when a solution arrives?
You may find that the album is not as critical for your site as you expect.
We did the same thing and in the process, lose the blog, album, etc. Our members don't even notice the missing features since they enjoy using the forum so much more

 

[principia]

Can't you just move first, keep a copy of your VB files and database and migrate the photo later when a solution arrives?
You may find that the album is not as critical for your site as you expect.
We did the same thing and in the process, lose the blog, album, etc. Our members don't even notice the missing features since they enjoy using the forum so much more

Same for me

 

[Grover]

....and migrate the photo later when a solution arrives?

How would that work?

You may find that the album is not as critical for your site as you expect.

It depends on your platform obviously. We use the vB 3.x album feature for members/patients to show photos of their treatment-process and what is also important for monetizing our platform is that clinics also want to use the albums to show/promote their treatments. So it's both for our users and the income of our site important that we can offer more then 'just forums'. Don't get me wrong, I totally love Xenforo and this product already is so much more then 'just a forum' in my eyes. However, in the times we are living now, the needs of many website owners are just bigger then offering only a forum to our members/visitors.

We did the same thing and in the process, lose the blog, album, etc. Our members don't even notice the missing features since they enjoy using the forum so much more

Great . yes, if we ever switch to XF both our users and staff will be truly happy with the outstanding UI/UX experience of Xenforo. We are just in need of extra core functionality in the same Xenforo quality and I guess (assume) many boards admin are (at least that's what I can read in other (admin based) forums), for them to be able to consider Xenforo as their new platform solution.

But, instead of beating the same old drum (where's the drum smiley) we can just make our wishes being heard by supporting suggestions like these: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/image-and-media-gallery-must-be-integrated.265/

 

[shawn]

Just use this:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xfr-user-albums.54/

It imports directly from 3.x, there's a script edit to make it work with 4.x, and it works more or less like the vb albums. Should Robbo or XF or anybody else write a "better/different/more awesome" gallery add-on, it would be fairly trivial to import the data from one system to the other.

 

[RvG]

I have only one or two request: please make an addon like XFAlbums and XFGroups so that I can completely transfer from vBulletin.

 

[TNCclubman]

While I'm never going to rule it out completely, it's not something we're considering now. There are still various things to focus on with the core system, as I'm sure various people can attest to. (For reference, the RM mostly came about as it was something that we would've been doing anyway, for xf.com.)

I really hope you were referring to the CMS and not the Gallery.