Struggling really hard to find a reason to go XF2

[CarlosX360]

I've not seen any roadmap or list of features for XF2.1. Why do we think that?

Because with the original xenForo 1.1 we saw a few new features. 1.2 we saw a few more new features.

It's always been the pattern since vB3 for Team KMA. End of story.

New features, yes. It was mainly my query on the usage of massive, and yours too now for major. Is massive/major just a hopeful expectation, or have we been given some sort of indication to quantify/relate what massive/major is? The only thing I've seen is XF staff (Chris I think it was?) saying that php7.2 will be required for a new optional function.

XF2.0 was never designed to bring new features in the scale of 1.2. As for PHP7.2, they said not only "optional" features, they also said speed improvements. I recently moved my PHP level from 5.6, all the way up to 7.2, so I am completely ready for this "option" or "optional" features. However, as of right now, I see some speed improvements where I never saw before with XF1 or PHP5.x.

Now, onto the topic of this thread: I can tell you new features off the bat from upgrading to XF2.

- More embed options. In fact, Twitter/Facebook/Instagram embeds ships with XF2 right out of the box.
- Better moderation options.
- "Quick" Box? (Don't know what to call it.)

- "Quick" Threads (It's right there on main forum view), quick thread start on forum view.

That's just user-facing. Everything else is under the ACP hood.

- The ability to add navigation (breadcrumb) links or items. <- Most requested feature in XF1.
- The ability to add widgets anywhere, including sidebars. <- Another requested feature in XF1.

But both of these would have required re-write of the software itself. In XF1 it required either a plugin, or template update - however, upgrading xenForo was a pain in some aspects, like re-adding the template over and over again for the same code. For EACH upgrade. *sigh* I can't begin to tell you how much adding widgets saved me time.

In fact, I find the styling system to be sooooo robust. Seriously. In the past, with XF1, to get something done, I'd have to find the style property to do exactly what I want. And if it's not there, the coder or the designer would have to make a new style property to make it happen. Or template update, however it used it work. Now? I could just go into style property, and click some options, and get it done.

To get opacity for example, you had to edit your CSS "area" (looks like a box, okay?) Now, to get opacity, you would have to go to the particular container, find the color, and scroll the hue. Simple. I was mindblown when I did it. Mind. blown.

 

[Pete]

- "Quick" replies (my opinion, Pete is free to disagree).

What does it do differently to this forum, for example? I just tried it on my test site and I can't see what it does that's any quicker than here. It is a step up from the clunky 'hit post, be redirected' quick reply on lesser platforms for sure.

 

[CarlosX360]

What does it do differently to this forum, for example? I just tried it on my test site and I can't see what it does that's any quicker than here. It is a step up from the clunky 'hit post, be redirected' quick reply on lesser platforms for sure.

That's a plugin. Quick thread on this board is a plugin. Plugin. In xenForo 2 it's part of the package. No plugin required. When you click a forum, the thread start is staring at you in two places.



If you installed XF1, you can't get quick thread until you make a plugin, or find a plugin to do the same behavior.

 

[Pete]

Uh... quick reply isn't a new thing in 2.0, seeing how my 1.x unmodded test site has it.

Quick *thread* I'll give you, though.

 

[CarlosX360]

Uh... quick reply isn't a new thing in 2.0, seeing how my 1.x unmodded test site has it.

*sighs really hard* You know what. Go ahead, disagree. Just keep disagreeing. *hands up* I give up with this guy.

EDIT: I wasn't talking about quick replies as in the box below posts. I was talking about that lil box that shows up on forum view. I don't really know what to call it. There's two different kinds of "Quick Threads."

But, I digress, keep disagreeing.

 

[Pete]

What's to disagree? You make two points, I call you on the first one because I don't understand what you mean, and you seem to be under the impression I'm talking about the second... you even give me screenshots of the second one, which I explicitly said I agreed with as a new thing in XF2...

If you're going to say "quick reply" I assume you're talking about a box where one can reply to a topic! If you mean something else, say so!

 

[sbjsbj]

If you are struggling, then wait for 2.1 and decide.

Honestly, all my hope is that they blow our minds off with 2.1 but my mind says it will be a disappointment. We'll see. Benefit of the doubt is with them but I can't be too optimistic.

 

[CarlosX360]

What's to disagree? You make two points, I call you on the first one because I don't understand what you mean, and you seem to be under the impression I'm talking about the second... you even give me screenshots of the second one, which I explicitly said I agreed with as a new thing in XF2...

If you're going to say "quick reply" I assume you're talking about a box where one can reply to a topic! If you mean something else, say so!

Okay then, I guess I will have to edit my original post. *sigh*

The reason why I called it "Quick" replies - is because mobile users treat making a new thread as a new reply. If you can believe that. *annoyed face* Sooo, that box is great, I like it, but on mobile apps, that little pencil icon on Tapatalk is abused so much its treated like a new reply. *facepalm*

I was more confused than anything, really.

I imagine that "Quick BOX" to be treated the same way once my site starts having that upward trend. *Evil look*

 

[Pete]

Ohhh, now I understand what you mean, a button to make threads from anywhere, and a quick form to make a new topic without having to go to a new page. Thank you for explaining through your shoving images at me rather than using words (unfortunately, when you say words, I understand only the words that are posted because I don't have the mind-reading plugin installed)

 

[CarlosX360]

Ohhh, now I understand what you mean, a button to make threads from anywhere, and a quick form to make a new topic without having to go to a new page. Thank you for explaining through your shoving images at me rather than using words (unfortunately, when you say words, I understand only the words that are posted because I don't have the mind-reading plugin installed)

Now, we're getting somewhere.

So, to reiterate what I said before:

"Post New Thread" on main forum page was never in the original XF... ("Quick" Thread) Also, "New Posts" is made prominent so users don't have to look for new posts buried in nav.


"Quick* Box/Form in Forum View is new.

 

[CarlosX360]

You mean like this (I'm assuming you are referring to opacity for colors)

View attachment 51179

Present in 1.X line and all you do is select the A and give it a decimal designator of .1->.9 (typically) and it will apply opacity to the color.

See, I didn't know that. All I was told, was to add opacity into CSS box in the style property. You were there when Shelly was giving me pointers!

So, now I know there were TWO ways to get opacity in XF1. Thank you! *press like*

Learn what the item is called before you make a statement that it's a "new" feature. Quick Replies has been around for a long time as default in XenForo. In fact it has been around for a long time in most forum scripts of any quality.

Yes, I know.

 

[Alpha1]

Let's get back to the original topic at hand.

I've cleaned up the thread.

 

[Mouth]

Let's get back to the original topic at hand.

I can tell that the prospect of upgrading is highly unappealing. It just doesn't seem that there is something there.

Is there any stats on the number of existing 1.x sites that have upgraded to 2.0?

 

[Kentaurus]

Is there any stats on the number of existing 1.x sites that have upgraded to 2.0?

Digitalpoint has a cookie crawler with stats
https://tools.digitalpoint.com/cookie-search

15% adoption after 6 months I guess. Not too hot.

 

[doubt]

Realize that many have not upgraded due to 2 major add-ons that have not ported to XF 2.X yet. Bob's Showcase and AMS are in use by a lot of sites and are an integral part.

Many didn't even heard about them.

 

[Matthew S]

Some (myself) don't like to jump in at version x.0.

 

[doubt]

Most active participants on XF have heard of them...
And many sites actively utilize one or the other.
Classic example is TAZ.

The example who never heard of them before reading about them on TAZ is me.
I wasn't tempted to buy them because TAZ has them.
Should they be updated to XF2 I still wouldn't be tempted to purchase them.

 

[Alpha1]

Custom addons and styles will incur costs for upgrade.
Then there is the issue of changing the site format and shock to the community.
Of course there is the issue of vital rock solid addons like those from Bob and Xon for example.These need to be updated and this will take time.
Then there is the issue that some addons by other developers took years to become somewhat stable and are now newly released for XF2. It will take years before those reach the same level. I'm not too excited on going through that again.

So there must be something really compelling in XF2.1 for me to start working towards an upgrade.

 

[Kentaurus]

So there must be something really compelling in XF2.1 for me to start working towards an upgrade.

Could you imagine if the update had gone different ?

2.0 New features
1. Infinite scroll optionally enabled in all pages for user engagement, no more pagination
2. Newsfeed auto-refreshes, you can include that as a widget in multiple places, curated to your liked, subscribed and browsed content
3. Canned responses let you welcome your members, and remind them to visit different threads
4. Manage your social in one place, optional syndication of content to multiple destinations
5. Ability to aggregate mailings lists for daily/weekly/monthly distribution, compliant with European law
6. CMS/Blogs/Calendar/Groups/Classified as optional add-ons available for purchase
7. (Beta) ML framework for common tasks, when creating a thread similar threads would be suggested, when you do private messages it will auto-suggest recipients, when you create forums it will suggest permissions based on your behavior .. and more, the algorithm learns as you keep adding more content

I would've updated the next day.

Instead we got ... the BD widget we already had, the Nodes as Tabs we already had, and as I was told in this discussion you can now create a Thread from the homepage.

Maybe I'm wishing for too much and I'm delusional A man can just dream.

 

[Matthew S]

And again, 2.0 was always targeted as a feature parity release with 1.5. Those small extras were a small bonus, not the main game.