Are you excited for IPB 4.5?

[ibaker]

I do see the desire to retain the old way...

But I have to be honest... IPSLindy's explanations just make sense to me.

I do prefer the point & click direction IPS is going, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I like participating in my sites much more than tinkering.

But there is absolutely no reason why you can't have both, as it is now, that will make ALL customers happy

 

[haqzore]

But there is absolutely no reason why you can't have both, as it is now, that will make ALL customers happy

I think I agree with you there.



It seems the plug-in developers, at least so far, are ok with it. I wonder what the majority of them think?

 

[Russ]

"You can hack your Android up to pieces if that's your thing, but the beauty of an Apple device lies in its balance between power, simplicity and stability."

So apparently installing plugins from XF is hacking it up to pieces. Interesting take!

 

[ibaker]

I personally have a huge dislike of Apple, not only their products but them as a company...but that is beside the point. If XF had all the own integrated apps that IPS has then I doubt IPS would even get a mention anywhere in this world however XF have made it extremely clear that they ignore many customer's wishes unless you are a techo.

 

[Russ]

I personally have a huge dislike of Apple, not only their products but them as a company...but that is beside the point. If XF had all the own integrated apps that IPS has then I doubt IPS would even get a mention anywhere in this world however XF have made it extremely clear that they ignore many customer's wishes unless you are a techo.

You've mentioned this before. I'd love to see examples of it as I'm genuinely curious. If you wanted to start a new thread about it, it could make for an interesting discussion.

 

[mysiteguy]

Some hold onto Xenforo because some of the developers of it are coders from VB 3. Which is considered the best version of VB by and large. So while XF has a good product, some hold onto them more out of the hope Xenforo can be a re-living of those VB glory days.

That's a great deal of conjecture, and perhaps a bit of projecting what you see onto others, rather than anything factual.

 

[ibaker]

You've mentioned this before. I'd love to see examples of it as I'm genuinely curious. If you wanted to start a new thread about it, it could make for an interesting discussion.

Will do however any time you mention XF in any negative way you get pounced on in a vicious way even though it may be your own personal opinion and it seems you are not allowed a personal opinion when it comes to XF. This has been mentioned many times by many other people who have just simply learnt to say nothing and more or just completely leave both here and in the XF forums. XF has become just a cult similar to the way Apple is...and myself, well I am not blinded by XF or IPS, not blinded by Apple, Android or MS, i just want something that does what I need it to do even if it was developed by an old grannie in her kitchen last sat arvo.

One thing that i do look for though is especially how companies or individuals treat their customers, the tone of their communications, their willingness to help and understand the needs of their customers in a respectful way and in many aspects their product or service is irrelevant, doesn't matter how good or bad their product or service is, if the provider is arrogant and treats their customers with disrespect I won't even go near them.

My own personal opinion

 

[borbole]

Will do however any time you mention XF in any negative way you get pounced on in a vicious way even though it may be your own personal opinion and it seems you are not allowed a personal opinion when it comes to XF.

My own personal opinion

I have seen people get banned here for not being positive about xf. Taz is notorious for being pro xf.

Regarding the topic, I tried out the 4.5. demo a few days ago and I was pleasantly surprised as to how good it was. It is very advanced and powerful imo.

 

[Matt M]

I tried out the 4.5. demo a few days ago and I was pleasantly surprised as to how good it was. It is very advanced and powerful imo.

Thanks 4.5 is a big step up, I'm really proud of it.

With regards to the marketplace changes, it's worth noting we did this in consultation with the marketplace authors, it was not done in isolation.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I have seen people get banned here for not being positive about xf. Taz is notorious for being pro xf.

Regarding the topic, I tried out the 4.5. demo a few days ago and I was pleasantly surprised as to how good it was. It is very advanced and powerful imo.

I don't recall anyone ever being banned here for not being positive about Xenforo. I agree a large proportion of the members are pro Xenforo but that's only natural as the majority use it.

I also agree that 4.5 is a huge step forward which will certainly earn it a larger share of the forum market.

 

[TLChris]

I have seen people get banned here for not being positive about xf. Taz is notorious for being pro xf.

I believe the staff here to be fair, and consistent. Then again, I'm biased being only here since January.

I love reading the differences and how admins are using whatever software, in this case I'm looking forward to seeing how folks are using IPB 4.5.

 

[Tracy Perry]

"You can hack your Android up to pieces if that's your thing, but the beauty of an Apple device lies in its balance between power, simplicity and stability."

So apparently installing plugins from XF is hacking it up to pieces. Interesting take!

IPS add-ons were installed basically the same way that XF is. All IPS is doing is a cash grab to force to maintain your updates so you can "install" add-ons that you have paid for already - which they pretty much do already since I don't think you can download updates from their market place if your license is expired.... but I haven't tried recently.

 

[Tracy Perry]

With regards to the marketplace changes, it's worth noting we did this in consultation with the marketplace authors, it was not done in isolation.

Did you consult your your market place customers?

 

[Matt M]

Yes, absolutely. We have a very broad customer base but almost all wanted a simpler way to install add-ons.
We take for granted our ability to work FTP, upload files and so on but it’s a shrinking group.

 

[mysiteguy]

I have seen people get banned here for not being positive about xf. Taz is notorious for being pro xf.

And I'll wager you can't give a single example of this.

 

[haqzore]

We take for granted our ability to work FTP, upload files and so on but it’s a shrinking group.

Accessibility is a good thing... I think.

I wonder if this will ultimately benefit the ecosystem (years into it), or just produce a flood of abandoned cloud-hosted half-thoughts.

 

[Joel R]

I do see the desire to retain the old way...

But I have to be honest... IPSLindy's explanations just make sense to me.

I do prefer the point & click direction IPS is going, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I like participating in my sites much more than tinkering.

This is a great point. There are different types of forum administrators:

1. There are forum admins who tinker. These are the hobbyists who like to install, create new projects every month, and add-on new plugins and themes. These people are 100% technology-focused. They get their joy from launching new projects.
2. There are forum admins who run their sites. These are community managers who recognize that content, strategy, and engagement are just as important as technology and who get value from running successful forums.

There are plenty in the forum ecosystem who are both, and even for myself, I swing between the two. (Love getting my grubby hands on private apps!) But the existing and future audience of Invision is clearly in the second camp -- clients who are interested in running successful, long-term forums and who want to worry less about the quality of third-party apps and plugins. (And admit it, nobody actually enjoys chasing down third-party devs to fix broken features, broken templates, performance problems, security holes, etc. It's okay if your site has ten fake members from ForumPromotion and no posts since yesterday. It's not okay when you have 500+ simultaneous online users.)

This is not to say other ecosystems can't or don't cater to successful, long-term forums with other approaches to their third-party development. In fact, I think it's great that companies are starting to differentiate themselves with their approaches to the third-party community -- it gives a sharper choices to clients.

 

[Ramses]

Wouldn't it be better to satisfy both groups? One reason vBulletin was that great because of their enormous ressource pool at vbulletin.org

 

[whitetigergrowl]

Wouldn't it be better to satisfy both groups? One reason vBulletin was that great because of their enormous ressource pool at vbulletin.org

No. That site is fairly dead now too because of the horrid direction VB went. There's blazing your own trail and having others follow. Then theres VBs way of blazing your own path and no one cares because it's so off base from what anyone wants.

That said, I can't imagine the number of times Xenforo, IPB, and other forum makers have had to deal with forum problems that came from plug-ins and not the forum software itself, but people still turned to them for help because the developer wouldn't give it to them, or they thought the forum software itself was the problem. It's a waste of time honestly. It's best to have some sense of control over what's allowed to be plugged in for security, stability, and other reasons.

IPB is on a better path currently. Allowing for better admin functionality and safety, while allowing for more forum flexibility and ease of use.

 

[Ramses]

No. That site is fairly dead now too because of the horrid direction VB went

I wrote, it was.