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

[Alpha1]

I think that XF2.4 is going to be a very nice release. I also like that they are implementing third party features so we need a little less add-ons.

Everything in xf2.4 would pale in comparison to better content discovery functionality and mixed content pages. Those would be be the game changers. I hope that xf2.5 will have that as as the main objective.

 

[Alvin63]

I like it how it is Maybe a bit of a facelift with two alternative light default themes. A more up to date one and the traditional one. But there are plenty of themes available.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

And third, as classical forums have become a little bit old fashioned, there are the two main cohorts of customers: The one that wants to stick with a classical approach and the one that want a modern reinvention of the forum concept (targeting towards AI, Reddit, Instagram and alike) - and those two directions are hardly compatible, achievable at the same time if at all.

An optional What’s New page in a new age format with the viewer scrolling through discussions and interacting with them would do a lot for the newer generations of users who prefer new social media.

 

[Arnox]

Honestly, I think the biggest issue by far here is simply the lack of communication. Because of that, and also due to delays, people are getting spooked. Forums are already in a precarious position, so people are, needless to say, worried. More communication with XF would massively help that.

What might be going on (I really hope not) is internal issues within the XF team. It could just be that we don't know what's going on because they don't know what's going on right now. Alternatively, it could just be XF 3.0 sucking up resources big time. We haven't had a major version update in, like... Almost a decade.

 

[Alvin63]

Well Microsoft (which is huge) only pushes out a new major version once a year (Too often IMO if the previous version is working fine!)

 

[Alvin63]

An optional What’s New page in a new age format with the viewer scrolling through discussions and interacting with them would do a lot for the newer generations of users who prefer new social media.

I know what you mean. The odd younger member of mine prefers social media. And a couple probably only joined to link their social media. But then many of my members join because they don't like social media. Admittedly they are the older ones (30s upwards). But some young ones are fickle! Personally I really dislike ever scrolling things. If using a phone though, they can still scroll through "What's new".

I think one of the pros of the traditional forum format is people can have their own thread and other people reply to them - it's more personal. On social media you're just part of a mass and things can be disintegrated.

It maybe depends what kind of forum it is as well (topic).

 

[Recep Baltaş]

Well Microsoft (which is huge) only pushes out a new major version once a year (Too often IMO if the previous version is working fine!)

Microsoft is releasing a new (Dev) version of Windows every single week and I use it on my production machine for 10 years

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I know what you mean. The odd younger member of mine prefers social media. And a couple probably only joined to link their social media. But then many of my members join because they don't like social media. Admittedly they are the older ones (30s upwards). But some young ones are fickle! Personally I really dislike ever scrolling things. If using a phone though, they can still scroll through "What's new".

I think one of the pros of the traditional forum format is people can have their own thread and other people reply to them - it's more personal. On social media you're just part of a mass and things can be disintegrated.

It maybe depends what kind of forum it is as well (topic).

“Optional” means both types of users would be catered to. New age users don’t want to scroll through topic titles - they want to scroll through discussions. Offer the first time visitor an option for old school or new school layout. If one of the reasons that forums are dying is because they’re out dated, update them.

 

[Sebastiaan]

I think that XF2.4 is going to be a very nice release. I also like that they are implementing third party features so we need a little less add-ons.

I hope they are a lot further along your username by now

 

[Mr Lucky]

New age users don’t want to scroll through topic titles - they want to scroll through discussions.

I'm sure that I am old age rather than new age, but I do both by scrolling through titles whilst also reading the first bit of the discussion via the tooltip. You can do this with xenForo.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

I'm sure that I am old age rather than new age, but I do both by scrolling through titles whilst also reading the first bit of the discussion via the tooltip. You can do this with xenForo.

I prefer old school but what you’re suggesting is not good enough. The new school user cannot engage, react, comment, share to their followers, etcetera.

These new social media types, most people online right now, don’t want to tooltip over every topic to see the discussion. And since most are using smartphone devices, that’s not even an option.

Why not make both types happy? I mean cover all the bases or don’t and drift away into the dust bin of history.

 

[Wing]

That’s the question, why are people continuing to argue and can’t just admit that it’s not a bad thing to offer new features as options or more modernization flexibility?

Baffling tbh

 

[Alpha1]

I hope they are a lot further along your username by now

Yeah, it would be nice if the release cycle would be much faster, so that we can get 2 releases per year again. Like it was for XF1. XF2 was supposed to make it possible to develop faster. Not slower. Maybe XFCloud maintenance is eating up that gained time.
Hopefully more members will be added to the team in order to regain development speed.

 

[dutchbb]

“Optional” means both types of users would be catered to. New age users don’t want to scroll through topic titles - they want to scroll through discussions. Offer the first time visitor an option for old school or new school layout. If one of the reasons that forums are dying is because they’re out dated, update them.

I'm pretty sure it is mostly google's fault.

My traffic dropped 4 times around 20-30% on a few days after search ranking updates.

Even with changes, and there are been a lot over the years, lower visitors will end every site.

 

[Alvin63]

I prefer old school but what you’re suggesting is not good enough. The new school user cannot engage, react, comment, share to their followers, etcetera.

These new social media types, most people online right now, don’t want to tooltip over every topic to see the discussion. And since most are using smartphone devices, that’s not even an option.

Why not make both types happy? I mean cover all the bases or don’t and drift away into the dust bin of history.

I still think it maybe depends on site topic. If a forum has a topic that can't be easily found or interacted with uniquely in social media, people join it and accept the way it works perhaps and don't particularly think about it. They're there for the topic.

A forum could be seen as a middle ground maybe. I have older users who struggle to even use a forum! And are definitely not up to using social media and find it overwhelming.

That's how I see Xenforo anyway and partly why I chose it - it has a few social media type features, like the "likes". It's easy to upload photos and post videos. Other forum softwares are pretty text based and very clunky with photo adding and manually typing in emojis! Now that would be old fashioned and off putting to young people. Heck they still do hand writing and exams in real life - they're not totally all on social media all the time.

I'm not knocking the idea of new features but I just think - why would a forum want to be the same as social media?

I'm pretty sure it is mostly google's fault.

My traffic dropped 4 times around 20-30% on a few days after search ranking updates.

Even with changes, and there are been a lot over the years, lower visitors will end every site.

I blame that AI snippet at the top of google - it's all you get to see! So much for coming at the top of page 1 of google now!

 

[dutchbb]

I blame that AI snippet at the top of google - it's all you get to see! So much for coming at the top of page 1 of google now!

Was happening before those snippets. Google has been lowering the ranking of many sites over the years, especially forums.

Also the steep drop in visitors over the cource of a few days or weeks after updates of their search rankings confirms this is the cause.

Point is nothing we do will solve that, everything is in google's hands for the moment. And it looks like it is going to get worse.

 

[Alvin63]

Mine does ok! And it's not very big. Within it's topic. But I know what you mean. If you search for pet cages it comes up with shops before forums. But I am really noticing that big AI block at the top. Before that I just used to see my forum at the top.

 

[dutchbb]

Older and larger forums will second this, they have the same data to compare.

 

[Mr Lucky]

why are people continuing to argue

Possibly because they have opinions. Do you think thould they just shut up if they have a different opinion?

and can’t just admit that it’s not a bad thing to offer new features as options or more modernization flexibility?

It all depends on the options though. I am currently trialling a new feature (well new to my users anyway) which is post comments. So far there is very little antipathy, but then neither is there a lot of praise. Sort of meh.

The

 

[Wing]

Possibly because they have opinions. Do you think thould they just shut up if they have a different opinion?

So their opinion is that XF should just stick its head in the dirt, and not look at some exciting new modernizations for the platform?