XF 2.4 general discussion, feedback, complaints, random off topic posts, etc.

[Suzanne O]

I accept that, but what I don't want to accept is people sitting around acting like "Everything is fine", while the favorite Forum software we all love continues on a downward path. That is stupidity imo.

Just because you want it your way or the highway it doesn't mean it will happen.

Chill out mate.

Everything is actually fine. The only things that need changing are getting changed.

Think of the needs vs wants theory.
You do this often when moving house.

Shower's broken - you get that replaced.

Toilet is broken - get that replaced

Then you get a dishwasher installed

Etc...


All bit by bit your house starts to look better.

Do the same with your forum.

 

[Gemma]

Surely, for most of the things people are talking about in here, the onus is on you (the admin/owner) to provide such features to your member base? One person's modern take is another person's nightmare.

I see forums that have no shiny theme, little in the way of addons, yet they have millions of posts and members and look to be anything but dying - I'm not sure they would appreciate all the changes people are proposing. I, personally, have spent £1000s on my site (and I know it isn't to the majority of people's taste but that's my choice and what my members want), but I don't want, or think, the software needs a complete overhaul to survive. I'll agree it needs some tweaks, and I think everyone agrees the what's new/new feed doesn't work or deliver in its current format. Just lately, I've had talks with different admins about a new what's new/news feed addon and in all honesty, I've pulled out of discussion fairly quickly because everyone has a different vision about what is ideal - most time it is just about what their own sites need - now imagine XF trying to cater for 1000s of admins all with different ideas, they can't just copy and paste in some code and move on to the next feature/idea, that would be a distaster and the possibly the end of XF.

We WILL get new features, but I'm sure it will be a balancing act to provide what is best for the WHOLE XF community and not just the select few who shout the loudest.

Could communication be better for the XF team? Most definitely, I'm sure they will admit this themselves, but there is no doom or gloom; our forums still work. And no, I'm not a fan girl, I can be super critical of the XF team or any developer when I feel it is justified.

Anyway, I've got covid, I'm grumpy, I'm away back to my wine cave.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I think this discussion got destroyed by the impression that people are looking for a complete overhaul. Whoever typed that phrase first, 100 lashes with a wet noodle on you.

 

[Wing]

Surely, for most of the things people are talking about in here, the onus is on you (the admin/owner) to provide such features to your member base? One person's modern take is another person's nightmare.

I see forums that have no shiny theme, little in the way of addons, yet they have millions of posts and members and look to be anything but dying - I'm not sure they would appreciate all the changes people are proposing. I, personally, have spent £1000s on my site (and I know it isn't to the majority of people's taste but that's my choice and what my members want), but I don't want, or think, the software needs a complete overhaul to survive. I'll agree it needs some tweaks, and I think everyone agrees the what's new/new feed doesn't work or deliver in its current format. Just lately, I've had talks with different admins about a new what's new/news feed addon and in all honesty, I've pulled out of discussion fairly quickly because everyone has a different vision about what is ideal - most time it is just about what their own sites need - now imagine XF trying to cater for 1000s of admins all with different ideas, they can't just copy and paste in some code and move on to the next feature/idea, that would be a distaster and the possibly the end of XF.

We WILL get new features, but I'm sure it will be a balancing act to provide what is best for the WHOLE XF community and not just the select few who shout the loudest.

Could communication be better for the XF team? Most definitely, I'm sure they will admit this themselves, but there is no doom or gloom; our forums still work. And no, I'm not a fan girl, I can be super critical of the XF team or any developer when I feel it is justified.

Anyway, I've got covid, I'm grumpy, I'm away back to my wine cave.

I sure hope you’re correct, and that the current course we’re on with XF will survive the next 10 years…

(keep in mind, we’re talking about sustainability and competitiveness for the brand itself, not individual site use cases).

 

[Gemma]

I sure hope you’re correct, and that the current course we’re on with XF will survive the next 10 years…

(keep in mind, we’re talking about sustainability and competitiveness for the brand itself, not individual site use cases).

You're full of nonsense, I'm not sure you even know yourself what you are talking about. Back on the ignore list you go. My time on here is better spent without reading unjustified drivel.

 

[Wing]

You're full of nonsense, I'm not sure you even know yourself what you are talking about. Back on the ignore list you go. My time on here is better spent without reading unjustified drivel.

I’m full of nonsense for being concerned about the next 10 years of sustainability and competitiveness of Xenforo?

Maybe look in the mirror. See this is the exact attitude I’ve been trying to call out in this thread folks. People are just in absolute denial about the concerns for the future of XF.

 

[JamesBrown]

I’m full of nonsense for being concerned about the next 10 years of sustainability and competitiveness of Xenforo

I agree.. I knew we’d find some common ground.

 

[Swiftman]

I’m full of nonsense for being concerned about the next 10 years of sustainability and competitiveness of Xenforo?

Maybe look in the mirror. See this is the exact attitude I’ve been trying to call out in this thread folks. People are just in absolute denial about the concerns for the future of XF.

You're full of nonsense for constantly (literally post after post) attempting to equate your opinions to a concern for the long-term health of XenForo. Time and time again you insinuate, suggest, or even just flat out state that only people like you who want to "to breathe new life into the forum scene of social interactions/tap into the new generation of users" care about XenForo's continued success while others, like myself, who have advocated for more iterative change will be "what will allow XF to eventually die out." The reality of the situation is that many of us are having no issues at all "tapping into the new generation of users" with XenForo already, right now. Despite this, you keep repeating this myopic refrain about your supposed monopoly on the concern for the future of the platform.

What I keep seeing from you are suggestions for massive changes like "just adding VOIP channel functionality" and "in house live group chat node streams" to XenForo. You even go on to highlight that these are features "that we see users enjoy greatly on other platforms"—seemingly missing the obvious solution of just using those other platforms for their purposes. If your community needs VOIP chats, great, USE A VOIP SOFTWARE. Why on earth would we want XenForo's devs—experts in online discussion board software—to make a ****ty copy of Discord? Discord is good at what it does and it can coexist beautifully alongside a thriving, traditional forum. If you want Discord, just use Discord. If you want a traditional, structured discussion board, use XenForo.

Again, I just want XenForo to continue playing to its strengths—to continue to iterate upon what IS a CURRENTLY winning formula for many. That doesn't make me any less concerned about the platform's next ten years than you are—so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop suggesting otherwise.

 

[Mr Lucky]

People are just in absolute denial about the concerns for the future of XF.

Maybe people do have concerns but for different reasons. You seem to think only the reasons for your concerns are the valid reasons and everyone else is wrong.

A: I have an idea that means the survival of xenForo
B: I also have a (different) idea that means the survival of xenForo
A: So you don’t care about the survival of xenForo then?

Do you see the logical fallacy here?

 

[Wing]

You're full of nonsense for constantly (literally post after post) attempting to equate your opinions to a concern for the long-term health of XenForo. Time and time again you insinuate, suggest, or even just flat out state that only people like you who want to "to breathe new life into the forum scene of social interactions/tap into the new generation of users" care about XenForo's continued success while others, like myself, who have advocated for more iterative change will be "what will allow XF to eventually die out." The reality of the situation is that many of us are having no issues at all "tapping into the new generation of users" with XenForo already, right now. Despite this, you keep repeating this myopic refrain about your supposed monopoly on the concern for the future of the platform.

What I keep seeing from you are suggestions for massive changes like "just adding VOIP channel functionality" and "in house live group chat node streams" to XenForo. You even go on to highlight that these are features "that we see users enjoy greatly on other platforms"—seemingly missing the obvious solution of just using those other platforms for their purposes. If your community needs VOIP chats, great, USE A VOIP SOFTWARE. Why on earth would we want XenForo's devs—experts in online discussion board software—to make a ****ty copy of Discord? Discord is good at what it does and it can coexist beautifully alongside a thriving, traditional forum. If you want Discord, just use Discord. If you want a traditional, structured discussion board, use XenForo.

Again, I just want XenForo to continue playing to its strengths—to continue to iterate upon what IS a CURRENTLY winning formula for many. That doesn't make me any less concerned about the platform's next ten years than you are—so I'd appreciate it if you'd stop suggesting otherwise.

Because you’re simply not getting it. You’re not even getting the original point of what we are talking about, and I’ve had to try and clarify that now multiple times.

For the last time now, We were originally talking about sustainability of the Xenforo brand aka company as a whole for the next 10 years. I could care less about everyone’s unique use cases, as I’ve said some forums are still on XF 1.0. And that’s great!

But that isn’t going to pay the bills for the XF company.

VOIP was just 1 of the tons of ideas I threw out there for future competitiveness on the social platform market. We are simply thinking of new ways to keep Xenforo on the market for the next era. No one said that they want a copy of Discord.

Does this finally make sense to you now? Holy smokes.

 

[Wing]

I agree.. I knew we’d find some common ground.

I guess we will see what happens. Time will tell… I truly hope everything is fine behind the curtains.

 

[Suzanne O]

Because you’re simply not getting it. You’re not even getting the original point of what we are talking about, and I’ve had to try and clarify that now multiple times.

For the last time now, We were originally talking about sustainability of the Xenforo brand aka company as a whole for the next 10 years. I could care less about everyone’s unique use cases, as I’ve said some forums are still on XF 1.0. And that’s great!

But that isn’t going to pay the bills for the XF company.

VOIP was just 1 of the tons of ideas I threw out there for future competitiveness on the social platform market. We are simply thinking of new ways to keep Xenforo on the market for the next era.

Does this finally make sense to you now? Holy smokes.

Neither does your tantrums. They don't pay the bills for xf either.
Do you get why we're all telling you to calm the farm mate?

 

[JamesBrown]

For the last time now,

Promise?

 

[Wing]

Promise?

Yes aslong as people will quit attacking me for going against the hive mind.

 

[🔥Iggy🔥]

i think there is a law somewhere we can petition for a free sandwich if this thread goes to page 50 without an alpha release?

 

[Wing]

i think there is a law somewhere we can petition for a free sandwich if this thread goes to page 50 without an alpha release?

As per tradition now with every development update over the last couple years…

 

[RobinHood]

Still well overdue for a native app, which will likely never happen.

Would have made the core experience and potential engagement so much better, especially for messaging on small communities. Instead people go off to discord, what'sapp, facebook, because they all have native app and push experiences.

Digg is going to relaunch soon. Who do they hire as an advisor? The developer of the smash hit iOS app Apollo that made reddit so enjoyable on a phone for years.

Why? Because they know a native app experience is vital to the potential success of a new community platform.

/my seasonal rant about the lack of native apps any more for forums.

 

[cdub]

Still well overdue for a native app, which will likely never happen.

Yuk. Web app works perfectly. I have so many customizations and features that just would not work and probably break with a native app. I'd rather have people use my site than a native XF app. Burn this suggestion with fire. Make it installable as a Web app and it works perfectly on my phone.

 

[Paul B]

/my seasonal rant about the lack of native apps any more for forums.

It's a false equivalence.

Reddit and Digg are single site services, in the same way Facebook is.

If you were able to install Reddit on your own server and install add-ons, then a native app would never, ever work, for the same reason it would never work for a forum which allows you to customise the content, layout, the schema, extend the core code, etc.

 

[RobinHood]

Doesn't need addons, themes, extentions etc. Only needs to work for core threads, messaging and 1st party addons (gallery)

There have been perfectly good apps in the past that have come and gone, Forum Runner, Tapatalk. For all their flaws and bad business practices, the apps themselves worked very well for the most part and allowed you to connect with multiple forums.

We've gone backwards overall in the mobile space since then as apple has crippled PWAs compared to native apps.