XF 2.3 ?

[Sebastiaan]

This is a test of how patient the community is , after all these days not a single HYS or hint towards 2.3 ....

 

[Mendalla]

Zager and Evans already has prognosticated the year... it's "in the year 2525".
And with that I leave you with your ear worm for the week.

 

[Ivancas]

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@Brogan

 

[Faust]

View attachment 281917

Attention all forum administrators, moderators, and members! Get ready to experience the latest and greatest version of the popular forum software, XenForo!

This upcoming release will be packed with exciting new features and improvements that will take your forum to the next level. You'll have access to an array of new tools to help you better manage your community, including advanced moderation capabilities and improved user profile options.

But that's not all! The new version of XenForo will also come with a refreshed design that is sleek, modern, and customizable. You'll be able to tailor your forum to perfectly fit your community's unique style and needs.

Plus, the new release promises to offer enhanced security and performance, ensuring that your forum runs smoothly and is protected against potential threats.

So, whether you're a long-time user of XenForo or just discovering it for the first time, get ready for an amazing upgrade that will take your forum to the next level! Stay tuned for more information and get ready to take advantage of all that the new version has to offer.

@Brogan
View attachment 281922

Yes we heard that last year .

 

[Mr Lucky]

What happened to innovation?

So we want to see new things that we didn't know we wanted.

Everyone expects new features so wouldn't it be really nice and unexpected if 2.3 was so innovative that it removed features instead of adding them.

So

• Innovation #1 - no more trophy points
• Innovation #2 - no more user ladders or whatever they are called
• Innovation #3 - no more profile posts (what are they anyway?)
• Innovation #4 - no more tags.
• Innovation#5 - no more any of the things that most users don't want or care about.

Less is more, this is true innovation!

 

[Forsaken]

Everyone expects new features so wouldn't it be really nice and unexpected the innovations would be if 2.3 removed features instead of adding them.

So

• Innovation #1 - no more trophy points
• Innovation #2 - no more user ladders or whatever they are called
• Innovation #3 - no more profile posts (what are they anyway?)
• Innovation #4 - no more tags.
• Innovation#5 - no more any of the things that most users don't want or care about.

Less is more, this is true innovation!

I removed trophies, replaced with @Ozzy47 badge add-on. Have seen a noticeable uptick in activity.

I removed the user ladder titles, and replaced with a custom add-on (https://xenforo.com/community/threads/ozzmodz-user-title-unlock-paid.211095/) that unlocks user titles. This has also made a noticeable uptick in activity for me, as I've linked it with badges, and many people are actively changing their titles now.

Tags just need a lot of work... Taxonomy in general is almost always good, the issue is that tags are usually treated as an afterthought. I've only seen 1-2 platforms that made tags a major part of their organizational structure, and the results were impressive (I will have to find what those platforms are, because it was several years ago when I was looking at them).

 

[Gencaslan]

Coming soonn

 

[Mendalla]

• Innovation #1 - no more trophy points
• Innovation #2 - no more user ladders or whatever they are called
• Innovation #3 - no more profile posts (what are they anyway?)
• Innovation #4 - no more tags.
• Innovation#5 - no more any of the things that most users don't want or care about.

I think you're joking around a bit, but I would not miss any of those except maybe tags. I am one of the few people on my site who bothers with them and even I have largely given up. I use profile posts but just to post things like favorite videos on my profile. My site wouldn't necessarily miss them if they were gone though I do know sites where similar features are heavily used (not on Xenforo, though) so I suspect some would miss them.

All that said, I hope that they don't spend a lot of time on removing stuff unless it is to replace it with something better.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Less is more, this is true innovation!

Discourse appears to prove that to be true to some extent because there are a lot of communities thriving on it, bucking the 'forums are dead' trend and it's easy to see why. The software caters well for the way people communicate on mobile devices.

If you look at the overwhelming majority of posts here or anywhere else for that matter, people type, perhaps insert an image and hit 'post'. They don't use even a tiny subsection of functions this or any other traditional forum product provides so I'm not convinced that simply adding more features and functions is going to help grow our forums.

Personally I hope the next release of Xenforo does prove to be innovative and a perhaps little radical because I don't see much mileage left in the current structure.

 

[Mendalla]

Most of the sites I am now have a barebones post editor. My writing sites have Bold, Italic, Underline, Bullets, emoji insert, media insert (which covers images and videos) and that's about it. No BBCode, either. Initially I was a bit perturbed but now I barely notice because, in reality, I don't use most of those buttons regularly. The only one I miss is the GIF button since it means I have to actually go Giphy (or other GIF site), get the share URL, and use the media insert button to add it to the post.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Discourse appears to prove that to be true to some extent because there are a lot of communities thriving on it,

Not for me. I was quite involved in a forum that used that and just had to leave in the end as it was a real disaster to interact with. Horrible.

Most of the sites I am now have a barebones post editor.

Same here, Bold and italic are useful, the other stuff barely gets used. And if it does it's by annoying people who think it's cool to post in different colours.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I removed trophies, replaced with @Ozzy47 badge add-on. Have seen a noticeable uptick in activity.

Great addon, super pleased I helped fund a feature for it.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Not for me.

It's not for a lot of people that prefer more traditional forum structures. I've been using it for quite a while because a number of forums I'm a longstanding member of have switched to it but I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with it. What I can say for sure is the majority of people that do use it prefer it to other forum platforms.

 

[Forsaken]

Great addon, super pleased I helped fund a feature for it.

The title add-on works similar, and because my users are conditioned to collect things a lot of them are a lot more active because of it .

One person is in the process of writing about 100+ guides for various things just so he can get a badge and a title he wants.

 

[Mr Lucky]

It's not for a lot of people that prefer more traditional forum structures.

It's not so much about traditional structures. I'm not so concerned about tradition. It's more about intuitiveness and useability.

 

[Forsaken]

It's not so much about traditional structures. I'm not so concerned about tradition. It's more about intuitiveness and useability.

I find Flarum to be a better option than Discourse... But the development is glacial, the tools are disappointing, and I wouldn't run it for a long time.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I find Flarum to be a better option than Discourse...

Yes, that is a good example of something not traditional but (for me) a much more useable interface than discourse. I would actually use it myself for a forum but never understood how you install it!

 

[Forsaken]

Yes, that is a good example of something not traditional but (for me) a much more useable interface than discourse. I would actually use it myself for a forum but never understood how you install it!

You install it with Composer.

The issue is that it has almost no management tools, and the feature set is basically non-existent. There isn't a huge third party community right now (it comes and goes), and the control panel leaves a lot to be desired for expanding functionality.

 

[eL_]

 

[Mouth]

This is a test of how patient the community is , after all these days not a single HYS or hint towards 2.3 ....

Patient, or frustrated and disengaging? The two can be easily confused.

It will be at least 2.5 years, looking increasingly possible it will be 3+ years, between 1st dot point releases for XF. That's not patience, that's borderline negligence and certainly arrogance towards the customer base. The lack of features information and a decent/reasonable release cycle speaks more to XF's value of its customers than it does of customer patience. I've very much tempered my interest in 2.3 new functionality, primarily because I think that I will be largely disappointed and that 2.5+ years of development will not produce the sort of advancement or innovation that I would expect.

And whilst XF makes customers wait, competitor products have innovated and released new functionality that is superbly impressive. Functionality comparison is now at a point where I feel XF is very unlikely to ever reach parity, and only ever able to try to copy and catch-up. Perhaps as a reflection of its slightly cheaper entry level and annual renewal pricing. I want my community to thrive and be at the forefront of what functionality I can provide for their content and engagement, not playing catch-up to other alternative communities and arguably not that far in front of free alternatives.

In the 10+ years I have been a customer of XF, for the first time ever I have let my annual license/support/updates renewal lapse. Partly as a protest against the totally unacceptable long release cycle and lack of upcoming functionality information, and partly because I see no reason or value in renewing at this time. Perhaps XF and I no longer align as to what is a reasonable product release cycle and what sort of functionality and engagement I want for my community, we certainly don't align as to what is arrogance towards the customer base.

For the short-term, I'm waiting to see what 2.3 brings to the table and if I don't feel its adequate for 2.5+ years of development and annual renewals, as well as some sort of commitment to a much more reasonable release cycle, then I'll probably have to give serious consideration of whether XF will help or constrain me to deliver what I want for my community going forward.