You're free to believe what ever you want. I'd consider what Brogan's motive might be for 'badmouthing' XF. In his own words it's because XenForo is lying and deceiving customers, which seems reasonable to me.
I don't recall Brogan ever being that harsh. Also while I'm a Brogan fangrrrl, deeply respect the guy, he's human and he fell out with the team. So what he says cannot be taken without a pinch.
Also please note that while Ashley in a round-about way said development was on hold in the last announcement, that the toll of the lawsuit was causing strain with XenForo Ltd. long before they cared to admit it to customers. Why did they hold off so long?
Because when you're in the leader position you try to protect your people from bad news for as long as possible. In their place I would have kept up a cheerful face for as long as I humanly could. It would seem weak to whinge to us about the strain.
But then when the strain really affects their work they sensibly realise they do need to tell us that's what has happened.
They are brave strong guys and I respect them for it. I've done the same pattern as a leader many times - not admitting the strain I was under. Got THAT T shirt for sure.
There has certainly been news over the course of this year that they still haven't reported officially.
... They are almost certainly keeping some information from customers.
Yes I would expect that. We are not their family, best friends, or core members of their business.
We are an extended panel of supporters and users, and they have undertaken to be surprisingly open with us about what is going on. Compare VB which censors and bans members etc around the same issue.
But KAM have no duty to disclose to us. It's for them to draw the line what they say and don't say.
In all the six years since 2003 I have dealt with them, back on VB and now on XF I have never known them to be underhand in the sense of hiding something that we NEEDED to know for our own self protection. So I don't think they have changed on that.
I think there may be some bits not being made public. I am as certain as I can be that that will be due to strategy to do with the court case. I trust them to give me good code and I trust them on this. (I might add I'm not usually a trusting person!)
To be clear, I am a huge fan of XF. I will sooner write my own solution from scratch than switch to IPB or vB or another platform. I expect that they will overcome this court case and try to recover from the issues it has presented, and I will use XF until I am left with no other choice, and you will not hear me complain once about waiting on the lawsuit
I salute you Jeremy for your strength and loyalty. I love your statement here. Venceremos!
I expect they will win the case and it may very well settle early out of court.
I expect that KAM will need a month to recover - they will really feel the exhaustion once it's concluded.
THEN we can expect some cracking good code, better than they have ever done before. Being liberated from the court case burden will release a whole pile of energy and determination - I've got that T shirt too!