As with any sort of product, invention, software ect...
There is ALWAYS room for improvement as technology evolves and competition changes the market. The mindset of "Xenforo is mature, so there is no ground breaking modernizations required" is a recipe for failure. We are talking about generations now of people using Xenforo, as it was founded back in 2010. New innovation typically is desired after 15 years of a social formula.
You mean software products like Microsoft Word? Social concepts like marriage?
Honestly: The 80ies had mailboxes with Bulletin Boards. The 90ies had the Usenet. The 2000s had forums in the first half and Facebook in the second half. The 2010s had Youtube and Twitter. The late 2010s and 2020s until now have Tiktok, Instagram, Reddit and alike. All these platforms are still alive, typically with the older ones degrading in usage to a degree as people switch over to newer ones and new users aren't even aware of the older platforms. At the same time, a huge load of patforms ended as total shipwrecks - second life, SnapChat or the virtual world that Facebook tried to push in recent years (and is now finally giving up).
As a general trend you can see, that platforms have become more visual over time, more superficial and faster - people do not take the time to sorrowfully create content and they don't take time to sorrowfully consume content either - attention span has come down to a minimum. On many platforms there is a clear switch towards consumers (that may like, share or write a short comment) and creators, who make a living from offering content. This works through centralization - a central platform that aggregates creators and consumers. Switch and gone.
Forums are old fashioned but, as every platform, do offer a unique user experience specific to the platform. You may like it or not - but you probably cannot build a platform that does what forums, tiktok, reddit, instagram and discord do all in one platform.
We have seen this especially the case over the last 5 years with the draws of new crowds of people to Reddit, Discord, ect.
If Reddit and Discord are so much better - why didn't you switch to one of them already years ago? XF is a classical forum software. They never promised to be something different. I'd bet a lot of customers went for XF
because it is a classical forum software. If you want a zebra you shouldn't buy a donkey and then yell at him for not being a zebra.
Innovation is key for this brand, and I dont think people are seeing the same enthusiasm, creativity, and excitement that we once did 10 years ago with XF devs. (Which is fine if that's their scope of work, but they should not be surprise if it eventually kills the brand longterm). IMO
That’s the issue here being explained, in a perfect world, XF 3.0 should have probably came out a couple years ago with a new innovative userface that would keep customers excited and strapped in for the next gen cycle. And of course to try and attract users back to forum platforms instead of Discord.
I just asked Chat GPT and it claimed (true or not) that there were 4.764 forums running on XenForo and there used to be 33.165 webpages that used to run on XenForo. Sound suspiciously overspecific but the general trend is - no surprise - facing downwards for forums for many reasons, lack of development speed at XF being probably the by far most irrelevant reason I would assume. Discord has - according to Chat GPT - 1000 employees (and has fired 170 recently). Reddit had 2.233 full time employees at the end of 2024 (grown from 1.383 at the end of 2021).
XenForo Ltd. has - according to their last public financial statements (up until April 2024) - 2 employees (like before) and is considered a "small entity" in the UK. Whoever else works at XF does this as a contractor, at least that would be the logical conclusion.
They were winning several years ago, especially during the first 5-10 years. And they can easily win again, we just need new breath of fresh air. This whole "keep it how it is, due to reliability" is great for us old heads... but it will eventually kill the brand.
Back then XF competed against other forum software, had the advantage of a fresh code stack and architecture (in oppostie to the legacy others had) and the knowledge the founding team had, having worked on forum software for several years. Today the company is 15 years old, so not exactly a fresh startup, still small and Kier approaches his 50th birthday in not too distant future. To expect innovation from XF in a way a company founded by millions of venture capital and led by a bunch of 28 year olds would just be silly and unrealistic.
This is why platforms like Discord are winning. They continue to bring new innovation for the youngfolk. I see no issue as to why XF cant think outside the box and bring a fresh new competitor again to the social scene of platforms. Heck, even look into adding VOIP nodes to the core of Xenforo forums. Get innovative. Bring users back to forum platforms.
In 2024 Reddit made a turnover of 1.3 billion $ and this way created a loss of 484,3 million $. Discord made a turnover of 879 million $, win/loss is unknown (again according to Chat GPT).
So I'd assume that the possiblities of XF are possibly "slightly" smaller than those of Reddit and Discord regarding what they can achieve im terms of throughput featurewise.
Forums have much more character, customization, and organization than Discord and Reddit does. So much potential.
So stop eagerly and jalously looking at Reddit and Discord, ignoring the downsides and limitations that they have and make the best of your forum. Or draw the consequence and switch over to Discord or Reddit.
