What do you think of this? New forum software - xenForo

I ran a quick test last night to try something out:

Getting anxious with vBulletin and a stable vB4 and I just ran a test import of our forum data into a new forum package called xenForo. It's created by the guys who used to design vB before they were bought out and the problems began.

-Link removed- old

user: monkey
passwd: forum

I have the Test directory locked so that Google (who slurps our posts up within minutes) doesn't start to index duplicate content.

Once you get in, you'll be able to log in with your regular username and password. There may have been problems in the import as I've noticed that not all avatars are present.

We are not migrating to xF, I just wanted to get some feedback on it's layout and what you think of it. I bought a license and may use it for another project.

It's very 'web 2.0' and has a heavy emphasis on the social aspect of forums and communities. Private Messages are called Conversations...

Play with it and click and hover on things (clicking an avatar is pretty cool) just realize that anything you post will never make it into this current forums database. We usually test this kind of thing internally but I thought we might as well open it up!!

let me know what you think.

edit: I noticed that the user titles are a little screwy. Don't worry if it says your a probationary member yet you've been here for 2 years and have 850 posts. I'm looking at the functionality right now and am not too worried about learning a new system to tweak.

 

Nice clean look

 

Comments from everyone are welcome. To keep melbo's conversation box from overloading, put your comments in this thread instead so everything is in one place.

 

If anyone is interested in xenForo, you can check them out here: XenForo - Compelling community forum software forum: XenForo Community

xenForo is also being sued by Internet Brands, owners of vBulletin and also of a few hundred of the largest forums on the internet. I'm interested in xF for many of the reasons

 

I like the underdog aspect. But as for the layout I had to vote no. I don't like change. And representing the older not so internet savvy crowd once I get used to something It's hard to change to something new. Plus I just don't think it has as professional a look as this one. Just my 2 cents.

 

Not sure how that will pan out. xF has counter sued for defamation... If IB won the suit, they would become the defacto owners of xF and would assume the licenses. We'd just pay a different company for upgrades.

 

Point taken.

As I've said to a few in PMs, I'm just playing but liked what I saw and wanted to get some feedback from others. You've been gone and we are (have been for a year) planning a major upgrade to vBulletin 4 which is also different in some aspects. I've held off on the upgrade because vB4 just doesn't seem to function as smoothly as our current version which will reach EOL (end of life) in a few months. What that means is that our current version of the forum software will not be supported or upgraded with security patches and I that requires us to either upgrade to vB 4 or find another solution.

 

I had never used VB before either, so I can get used to anything. Just a creature of habit. Whatever works best for the site is my vote.

 

I'm always looking far ahead for the site. This new software is in beta still and won't reach 'Gold' for at least another 6 months.

Migration and changes are very hard on a community and my big picture thoughts are that I don't want to have to do it twice. I'll get another test vB4 install up and let people check that out as well. Might be a better poll too. "What change do you like best?"

 

Quigley_Sharps will appreciate the XenBlack pro style option in the lower lefthand corner... I think he likes dark styles.

 

I love the clean look. I also like the avatar mini icons in threads on list mode, and the popup box with the first bit of text of the first post. I like the layout and design, its simple and not too distracting. Not too many links either -but I would like to see a "mark forums as read" feature...it's my favorite of all.

It seems pretty secure, but who knows what types of hiccups can develop in its infancy?

 

Yeah, the popups for members are great.

As for Mark Forums read, you must have missed it: Maybe you need to log in?

 

That's cool, I am glad it's there for you, but I only see "search" and "what's new"...my screen looked not like yours. But, that's ok...as long as YOU have it, then I know it's just a user-level access issue, which is no big deal at this stage.

DOH CRAP! Just logged in with my normal Uname and PASS. I see the light! All good. ok, I see the stuff you see Melbo.

I LOVE the popups. Especially the username one.

Edit: It appears YouTube vids don't link properly, but that's for later I suppose. Just a heads up in case you didn't know.

 

I've been exploring around it a little more and it has some really cool features that I like. I think my first negative impression was the dark color. Can you change that like you can with VB? Also the pink and blue thought ballons look cheap and immature to me.
One other drawback I found is that the log in button is very small and hard to find. But I really like the alerts when someone quotes your post and the pop ups are cool.

 

Interesting. My first glance was unimpressed. Digging around a little made it more like-able for me.

 

Can't really control which search engines pick up our content. If it's open to the public, it's available to Google, Yahoo, Ask, Bing, Startpage, etc.