XenForo 2.2 and beyond

[Andro]

Just like we had XenForo 2.1 and beyond thread two years back. Now its time to do the same for XenForo 2.2, as it must be around the corner so all discussions can go here.

2.1 meant to be a feature release than minor enhancement release, many expected new 1st party add-ons (even above linked thread by The Sandman has wishes of it). But unfortunately they didn't came. Hopefully 2.2 has a more goodies to provide than 2.1 has.

This time XenForo software developer Chris D has hinted of some big plans which increases the excitement level further.

We have a number of projects in the pipeline and we will have more to show you when they are nearly complete.

Core features i wish to see with XenForo 2.2:

• Improved ignore system which can ignore threads/posts & categories/forums
• AMP Project Framework implementation
• Lazy loading (now that it is even going to be Chrome 76's built in feature)
• Conversation system major overhaul - Read recipts, Conversation search & labels, Organized inbox, Usergroup based conversation quota
• One-click install and upgrade for styles just like add-ons
• Provide users option for account deactivation which admins can later reactivate
• Return of quick navigation menu
• CMS/AMS System - may be as a 1st party add-on
• Sessions manager under account security showing Recently used devices, controls to logout them and showing their IP, OS, Browser & location
• Reaction statistics/summary under user profiles

So, share what suggestions you wish to be included in this thread...

Guessing game!

When do you expect the first XF 2.2 "Have you seen" thread to be posted (date/month)? Do share below and make sure you vote in the poll above as well.

 

[R0binHood]

Can an admin check the poll to see which month Chris voted for? I reckon his vote might hold a bit of weight

 

[doubt]

which month Chris voted for?

Would he vote without the year missing from the poll?

 

[deslocotoco]

- A real ignore/blocking system for users against users, like in the big social networks. The ignore tool is not very effective. I have users who don't want to interact in any way with another users and I'm fine with that, is their option to choose. The actual Ignore system is more like a "mute" button. This is a very requested feature in my Forum, and yeah, the possibility to ignore some of the content/threads/sections;

- I'm not needing a CMS anymore, Bob's Add-on really did a great job;

- Maybe a new look for the profile pages, giving a more modern look;

- AMP is a must have in these days, like a real priority;

- A official solution for account deactivation/deletion. BUT... The Liam W add-on works fine.

- Session Manager is a must too, totally agree on that. Give a professional "look";

- Improvements in Admin Page. MyBB did a great job on this;

- Better Statistics is a good thing too, specially to admin purposes;

- More option for Widgets, specially in placement, but i think this is already implemented for the next version;

- Better options for detecting secondary accounts, fakes profiles and bots;

 

[Andro]

- I'm not needing a CMS anymore, Bob's Add-on really did a great job;

- A official solution for account deactivation/deletion. BUT... The Liam W add-on works fine.

Yeah, there are add-ons to achieve this currently. They do the job just like core features, at least Bob's AMS add-on do it the same way as any core feature but official solutions are better anyday. It will be developed for much longer with regular bug fixes (Bob has been fixing all the bugs on his add-ons regularly too, being his customer i am aware of that, so this is no comparison but in general as many devs abandon their add-ons be how popular they are after a while if they don't make enough cash or lost interest) than any third party developer's add-on. It may not happen with AMS though as Bob has been developing add-ons from very long and yet not gave up but if someday he does because of some unforeseen circumstances, all your AMS content will be at stake.

- AMP is a must have in these days, like a real priority;

Now linking to my above words, there was an AMP add-on for XF 1. People even purchased and used it but it was never ported to XF 2, now its 2 years since XF 2 is out so i don't think same developer has planned it ever.

An official solution is above all. If we don't get, we rely on third party. They can't be full-fledged replacements forever.

Apart from what i suggested on first post, a Latest activity feed widget showing recent posts, threads and trending topics will be icing to the cake. Content discoverability is not so easy with XenForo.

I currently use a custom add-on currently which does the job perfectly. Making it a core feature will benefit every other XenForo software using community.

There is a paid public add-on too available doing similar thing. Such thing existed in vB days too, i guess it was called as AJAX Forum Stats or something like that. It is very useful. People see new content as soon as they visit your community.

 

[LeadCrow]

Forums in general need to shake things out to stay relevant today. Here's some of my wishlist:

- Native integrations with streaming services. So site staff, premium members and featured channels can crosspromote. See who's streaming, check in calendars for whos about to start streaming, promote specific streams or even sell timed promotion as a selfserve paid option.
Integrate streams in the gallery so viewers can watch them live on your website without needing to leave it, with the option to have a screenshot taken at the moment a user posgs a reply in the gallery.

- Promotional discounting of paid subscriptions, memberships and sales of digital goods according to criterias. New users can get a month at 50% off, seniority secures lasting discounts so 'f2p' users eventually contribute financially, or admin could simply run promotional periods for subs once in a while. It's ridiculous for digital goods to have flexible pricing whereas forum subs are priced the same for everyone even though it's clear a price set by an admin might not suit all their audience.

- Rework polls, and make them work and look nicer on mobile. While functional, this content type has barely changed since early 2000's: it's still one question, X potential answers, show results and voters. Polls could instead become their own selfcontained content like threads, blog and RM entries, sorted by categories/sections and more featureful.

- Interfacing with the native sharing features of mobile OSes in browsers that support intents so as to reduce dependance on the implementation of widgets on your site.

- User-selectable option to override a forum's config of loading certain libraries from CDNs as a privacy-boosting move, and load local versions instead. Privacy is a major concern nowadays and an opportunity for forums to win back folks lost to overreaching social networks.

 

[pierce]

Honestly look at how terrible the comments system is on most social networks. YouTube, Instagram? Hardly a good comments system.

Forums are incredibly well featured in terms of creating content and replying.

So it's it features or a completely different look at how to do things?

 

[Jeremy8]

XF's warning system is extremely lacking in multiple ways, so I hope this is something they develop more. Even if you add 10 different Xon mods, it's still not all the way there. Either way, it's missing things that should have been default since XF1.

 

[Xon]

XF's warning system is extremely lacking in multiple ways, so I hope this is something they develop more. Even if you add 10 different Xon mods, it's still not all the way there. Either way, it's missing things that should have been default since XF1.

Warning Improvements & Report Improvements go a long way at improving issues using the warning & report system (there is a lot of overlap). But I'ld hate to have to to-do moderation on an XF site without those.

 

[R0binHood]

I'd like to be able to see the thread navigation controls at the top of threads again on mobile, as well as tap to react

 

[Jeremy8]

Warning Improvements & Report Improvements go a long way at improving issues using the warning & report system (there is a lot of overlap). But I'ld hate to have to to-do moderation on an XF site without those.

Exactly. It's kind of crazy those things didn't exist to begin with and still don't this many years later.

 

[Alpha1]

Warning Improvements & Report Improvements go a long way at improving issues using the warning & report system (there is a lot of overlap). But I'ld hate to have to to-do moderation on an XF site without those.

Absolutely. But just like your addons greatly reduce warning & report handling time and is just much more efficient, there are various features that would cut even that time in half and would make it so much more automatized, efficient and intuitive.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I'll bore the pants off everyone yet again by rehashing my 10 year old wish list

• Enhanced search - predictive with a function to list a member's images. The cherry on the search cake would be the ability to pull up similar content based on a member's searches and content already viewed.
• A dedicated app with push notification. One app to rule them all rather than an app per forum which requires the owner to become a developer. I would like that app to have a function to search ALL Xenforo forums that opt in - I assume forums have in general a limit to their potential membership so why not share those members?
• A CMS?... actually no. A forum is a content management system so what is it forum owners are looking for when they ask for a CMS? An article management system? A blog add-on? E-commerce? Personally I think that kind of thing is better served by an add-on but what I would like to see is the ability as a member to dictate what I see when I first hit the forum and a list of forum categories is not it. Unread content, replies to my posted pearls of wisdom, similar content (see enhanced search above), featured threads, members on line etc, etc, etc. A page of user managed content, as simple as that.
• The moon on a stick - likely to be developed and delivered long before any of the above

 

[Bionic Rooster]

The moon on a stick - likely to be developed and delivered long before any of the above

I'm down with that IF it comes Apple Cherry flavored

 

[Karll]

Most of all, I hope XF2.2 has new, innovative, big features, not just improvements and smaller new features.

For example, maybe something like:

• XF to XF integration - single sign-on for network of forums, ability define forum areas where posts are shared and replicated across the forum network.
• A dedicated app with push notifications, as suggested by zappaDPJ

Many important features currently exist only as third-party add-ons which means a higher total cost for the forum owners and also doesn't give the same peace of mind as a core feature. This is probably an obstacle to XF taking over the world. Some examples:

• Integration with Wordpress and other relevant blog, wiki software etc.
• Suggestions-as-you-type in the search bar for the Enhanced Search and so on as in Xon's ElasticSearch Essentials
• Tag cloud widget (there is fortunately a free add-on for this). It's silly that XF has tags, but no tag cloud.

 

[haqzore]

Most of all, I hope XF2.2 has new, innovative, big features, not just improvements and smaller new features.
..........
Many important features currently exist only as third-party add-ons which means a higher total cost for the forum owners and also doesn't give the same peace of mind as a core feature. This is probably an obstacle to XF taking over the world.
..........

This sums up XF for me.

XF does what it does so very well. But it does comparatively little, so doing it well loses appeal & weight to me.
Many companies could narrow their scope in order to execute on it well. Thankfully for us, some choose to innovate.


Some point to development team size, as if that's outside of XF's hands.

Lindy & team didn't have to expand the IPS development team - they chose to. And they've been innovators with a robust, OPTIONAL first party feature set as a result.

Kier & team could do the same, but have made it clear that's not their strategy. And that's not wrong. But it sucks (to me). It'd be so exciting to see XF crank out more innovative features.

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

Most of all, I hope XF2.2 has new, innovative, big features, not just improvements and smaller new features.

For example, maybe something like:

• XF to XF integration - single sign-on for network of forums, ability define forum areas where posts are shared and replicated across the forum network.
• A dedicated app with push notifications, as suggested by zappaDPJ

Many important features currently exist only as third-party add-ons which means a higher total cost for the forum owners and also doesn't give the same peace of mind as a core feature. This is probably an obstacle to XF taking over the world. Some examples:

• Integration with Wordpress and other relevant blog, wiki software etc.
• Suggestions-as-you-type in the search bar for the Enhanced Search and so on as in Xon's ElasticSearch Essentials
• Tag cloud widget (there is fortunately a free add-on for this). It's silly that XF has tags, but no tag cloud.

Tag cloud widget (there is fortunately a free add-on for this). It's silly that XF has tags, but no tag cloud.

This does baffle me somewhat.

 

[I A 1]

- Sign up using your mobile phone number instead of email.

I think this option is much needed in today's world as most new members are simply smartphone users and many of them don't use email a lot.
Twitter has this feature.

 

[Dubbed Navigator]

- Sign up using your mobile phone number instead of email.

I think this option is much needed in today's world as most new members are simply smartphone users and many of them don't use email a lot.
Twitter has this feature.

Twitter most likely has a system in place where they can send a verification text to mobiles. This must have a cost implication and would be prohibitive to a lot of forums.

 

[Karll]

XF does what it does so very well. But it does comparatively little, so doing it well loses appeal & weight to me.

I don't think they necessarily have to write their own add-ons for blogs, CMS, marketplace and so forth, but I do wish they would at least provide integration tools/features for the most prominent such software, perhaps especially for those that are free/open-source. The goal should be lowering the total cost for their customers.