- Joined
- Jun 23, 2016
- Messages
- 210
Hello Admin friends,
This is a sequence of my previous thread, you guys can read about here:
https://theadminzone.com/threads/in...-resource-manager-wordpress-situation.151053/
So, after some weeks using Bob's AMS on my live website, i can share some experiences with you guys and hoping to help others administrators if they are willing to implement a article/news system inside XenForo.
A background story: I run a small news website along with a Forum system for 3 years. My first Forum collapsed (MyBB) after a bad upgrade that i lost everything, mostly because my lack of experience. And if anyone is on the track to open a new Forum and don't have the money to do, i can totally recommend MyBB.
In september/2019 my new XF Forum is making one year of life. About some millions posts, almost 10k registered users and 100k followers on my Twitter page. My site is growing step by step.
My main site was basically all controlled by Wordpress, using a Drudge-like theme. Very basic, objective and functional. The Drudge-like theme was a personal decision considering the huge success that Drudge makes in EUA. This theme have a strong personality.
The problem is: in Brazil people don't like ugly things. For real. They seen to don't understand the proposal of a Drudge-like theme. And that's ok. Market is market, niche is niche and i have to respect my costumer base. This is what looks my ex-main-page:
A typical main page in Drudge-style of my website. Recent news on top, archive after the menu.
Works great. Functional, effective, without any shenanigans. The planning to release my website dates from 2014. In 2016 i was able (financially) to make it happen.
I receive a lot of advice from different people (including my friendly competitors) to seek a new theme:
- "If you want to be credible, you need a new website"
Well, he had a point. Brazilian people loves colorful things. For the six months i was looking for a new theme because of this but bumped in a wall every time.
...and every point of the way, every theme that i looked for my purpose (news/magazine), every single one have the same old problem: they all look the same old boring thing. Just go for ThemeForest and see with your own eyes. Total lack of personality. I can't explain this on a objective way, but you get a theme like this and is gonna look almost exactly with your competitor. I cannot find (or afford a professional) a premium customized design.
Mostly because i don't like Wordpress. Yes, is the biggest, most used and more powerful CMS system in the world, sharing more than 75% of the market. But, so what? I don't use mostly of the functions. I have a lot of plugins to make things work the way i want. I want a system just to post my articles, with some categories, with SEO integration and that's it.
So, I decided to go full XenForo, even for my daily news articles. Well, is a great system, easy for specialists to modify when i need it and in that way i can converge all my readers from the site to my Forum.
After reading and searching a lot about how this can happen in XF, administrators from TAZ recommended the Bob's Add-on for article management.
Well, was the best thing that i did in the story of my Forum. For real. Look my main page now:
How much better it is right now?
The Bob's AMS Add-on was a perfectly fit for my needs. My user base is loving and saying a lot of good stuff about the new system. The main page looks like a pro thing, specially the article page.
I can create categories, create thread prefixes, give user permissions to publish their own texts and so much more. Now i can convert my readers to my Forum and vice-versa. The ranking is going better in the SEO aspects and even the Ads are a slightly better than previously, where both sites are separate from each other (Main site + Forum). Now my site is THE forum.
So, I'm here just to share my toughs about this. I really can recommend AMS for everyone looking for a solution like this. The add-on is constructed in a very professional way and the support from Bob is impeccable. He replies to you in one day, tops. I don't see any bugs or errors caused by the add-on, is lightweight and my users love it.
Now I'm in the process to buy a new theme (UIX 2 from ThemeHouse) to give my users the choice of a more clean design instead of the actual. I really like this actual theme, but some people prefer a more simplistic view. Ok, is their choice again and i have to respect it.
My next step is to implement a Wiki inside my Forum (with ThemeHouse add-on) to create some kind of "central of information" about some public figures.
In the next days I'm going to publish here in TAZ a big review of every single add-on that i use in my Forum (almost 15~20), in a hope to help every administrator to decide what is essential or not.
See you guys next time and thanks to be here with me until the end of this big thread.
This is a sequence of my previous thread, you guys can read about here:
https://theadminzone.com/threads/in...-resource-manager-wordpress-situation.151053/
So, after some weeks using Bob's AMS on my live website, i can share some experiences with you guys and hoping to help others administrators if they are willing to implement a article/news system inside XenForo.
A background story: I run a small news website along with a Forum system for 3 years. My first Forum collapsed (MyBB) after a bad upgrade that i lost everything, mostly because my lack of experience. And if anyone is on the track to open a new Forum and don't have the money to do, i can totally recommend MyBB.
In september/2019 my new XF Forum is making one year of life. About some millions posts, almost 10k registered users and 100k followers on my Twitter page. My site is growing step by step.
My main site was basically all controlled by Wordpress, using a Drudge-like theme. Very basic, objective and functional. The Drudge-like theme was a personal decision considering the huge success that Drudge makes in EUA. This theme have a strong personality.
The problem is: in Brazil people don't like ugly things. For real. They seen to don't understand the proposal of a Drudge-like theme. And that's ok. Market is market, niche is niche and i have to respect my costumer base. This is what looks my ex-main-page:
A typical main page in Drudge-style of my website. Recent news on top, archive after the menu.
Works great. Functional, effective, without any shenanigans. The planning to release my website dates from 2014. In 2016 i was able (financially) to make it happen.
- "If you want to be credible, you need a new website"
Well, he had a point. Brazilian people loves colorful things. For the six months i was looking for a new theme because of this but bumped in a wall every time.
...and every point of the way, every theme that i looked for my purpose (news/magazine), every single one have the same old problem: they all look the same old boring thing. Just go for ThemeForest and see with your own eyes. Total lack of personality. I can't explain this on a objective way, but you get a theme like this and is gonna look almost exactly with your competitor. I cannot find (or afford a professional) a premium customized design.
Mostly because i don't like Wordpress. Yes, is the biggest, most used and more powerful CMS system in the world, sharing more than 75% of the market. But, so what? I don't use mostly of the functions. I have a lot of plugins to make things work the way i want. I want a system just to post my articles, with some categories, with SEO integration and that's it.
So, I decided to go full XenForo, even for my daily news articles. Well, is a great system, easy for specialists to modify when i need it and in that way i can converge all my readers from the site to my Forum.
After reading and searching a lot about how this can happen in XF, administrators from TAZ recommended the Bob's Add-on for article management.
Well, was the best thing that i did in the story of my Forum. For real. Look my main page now:
How much better it is right now?
The Bob's AMS Add-on was a perfectly fit for my needs. My user base is loving and saying a lot of good stuff about the new system. The main page looks like a pro thing, specially the article page.
I can create categories, create thread prefixes, give user permissions to publish their own texts and so much more. Now i can convert my readers to my Forum and vice-versa. The ranking is going better in the SEO aspects and even the Ads are a slightly better than previously, where both sites are separate from each other (Main site + Forum). Now my site is THE forum.
So, I'm here just to share my toughs about this. I really can recommend AMS for everyone looking for a solution like this. The add-on is constructed in a very professional way and the support from Bob is impeccable. He replies to you in one day, tops. I don't see any bugs or errors caused by the add-on, is lightweight and my users love it.
Now I'm in the process to buy a new theme (UIX 2 from ThemeHouse) to give my users the choice of a more clean design instead of the actual. I really like this actual theme, but some people prefer a more simplistic view. Ok, is their choice again and i have to respect it.
My next step is to implement a Wiki inside my Forum (with ThemeHouse add-on) to create some kind of "central of information" about some public figures.
In the next days I'm going to publish here in TAZ a big review of every single add-on that i use in my Forum (almost 15~20), in a hope to help every administrator to decide what is essential or not.
See you guys next time and thanks to be here with me until the end of this big thread.