When will you shift from XF1 to XF2?

[Steve]

how few new styles we've seen for XF2

I'm surprised too though for myself (and Russ too) life happened. Yes keeping up with updates while at the same time learning the new setup is a bit hard when you can't spend much time on it on a daily basis. I've done a couple styles (one example here) just nothing has been released and of course working on a framework to aid us in making styles at a faster pace while giving the end user more options is taking up a good amount of our time.

 

[Chris D]

Certainly can't knock that

We're all just really eager to see what you guys (designers in general) come up with. Keep up the great work.

 

[Russ]

This year has been rough, time-wise . Steve has been out for 2-3 months this year due to hospitalizations and recovery, I bought a house which took far more of my time than I wanted too. Past that there's still a lot of custom XF1 being requested. We're excited to move onto XenForo 2 and it's all just a balancing act. We definitely had no intentions of releasing anything during the beta period of XenForo 2. We see the light for XenForo 2 styles though, almost there.

 

[Steve]

Steve has been out for 2-3 months

Make that a total of 5.5 months that I could not even do my offline business and now having to make that up.

 

[Joeychgo]

I disagree that adoption rate is low

Although not scientific, look at the poll on this thread. 17% are waiting for xf 2.1 and 44% are waiting until all their addons are available --

And really - at this point, I have to ask Chris... What is the incentive for an established forum to upgrade to 2.0 now instead of waiting at least for 2.1? How many new forums that start on 2.0 are going to become frustrated when addons they want aren't available for them?

Developers really should not be resting on their laurels and they should be positioning themselves at the forefront of this new era. They should have ideally started a year ago (and many did) but it's not too late.

Actually, I think that hurts XF more then the developers. Many forum owners wont consider converting until all or most of their addons are available for 2.0. Further, a quick look at the RM shows over 3000 addons & themes for 1.x and less then 300 for 2.x

All this to say that basically I don't agree that this should be looked upon with negativity. Everything is moving in the right direction and any challenges upcoming should not be insurmountable.

I'm not looking at it that way exactly -- and please don't mistake my statement for bitching. That wasn't and isn't my intent. I'm just pointing out that it looks to me as though this is going to be a slow transition because of several factors.

 

[Steve]

Joeychgo it will be a slow transition for established forums which is to be expected if you have certain things that are not available in XF 2.0.

New sites have an advantage as they do not depend upon this and that. The biggest problem is people were/are expecting to much from XF 2.0. From the onset I took “feature parity” as just that, and if I needed add-ons it would take time for those to be ported to XF 2.0.

The benefit in XF 2.0, which has been stated is developer efficiency. You may not (as a fact) see this benefit until official 2.1 and from developers of add-ons.

 

[Mouth]

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/welcome-to-xenforo-2.132146/
[...]we are of course actively soliciting suggestions and feedback for XenForo 2.1 and beyond, for which we already have big plans - we are very excited to continue building new and exciting features[...]

So nothing that talks about functional feature development intentions in XF2.1, just a generic statement that it will come with new features (nothing surprising there). So, anyone stating what or where for XF 2.1 features are just wishlisting and hypotherisizing. https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.18/ contains over 1,200 open suggestions with no indication as to version or consideration.

 

[Maddox]

From a developers viewpoint (third party and first party) XF2 will appear to be a dream come true; that's future forecasting, but it's a bit like forecasting the weather, it can all change in the blink of an eye. That's not exactly a stable situation when you are an established forum owner and it's not an attraction to new forum owners when others out there are offering more 'now' and announcing more for early next year (I am of course referring to IPS). XF2 is, at best, going to be more stable at that time with who knows what to follow in 2.1 and when. New sites are disadvantaged regardless of what software they choose (for the many reasons people have given throughout TAZ), but being hamstrung at the outset is even worse unless all you want is a basic vanilla forum and nothing else.

I don't believe that the biggest problem with XF2 is that people were expecting too much, rather that it took far too long (far longer than anyone expected) to get to where it is now and it will, probably, be another year before it catches up to XF1 in terms of essential add-ons ('essential' being a subjective matter) and that's before cost factors are considered; having to pay again for what you have already paid for in XF1 in terms of third party add-ons is not appealing - some developers (not many) have agreed to give their XF2 makeovers to their user base as long as they have kept up with renewals, some are offering a special discounted rate for a limited time, others are just charging again now and some, who never charged, are now charging for the first time.

I do feel for those who were expecting something 'extra special' (me included) because I see people going back to IPS as they are offering now what XF2.1 will possibly (unknown!) offer further down the line. The XF loyalists will, probably, be happy to wait and see what transpires sticking with XF1.5 until they can see through the fog of uncertainty, others may not be so patient. Perhaps if the XF team had not announced XF2 when they did and waited until it was at least at (or close to) Beta stage (giving developers access on a NDA) then things may have been a little different; but that's past tense and only time will tell.

As for me? Well, I have a project in mind and will use either XF2.1 or IPS 4.x (or 5.x) as I'm in no rush - I want to see how the game progresses and will watch with interest as to what transpires.

 

[gilmoreren]

This is a really interesting and useful discussion.

I've only recently completed a migration to XF 1.5 so I won't be undertaking another software change in the near future!

My community is a digital service (I work for a charity), so any changes undertaken have to be done with user-need in mind and the priority has to be to offer a consistent and usable online service that my members know how to use and my staff know how to operate. We'd never upgrade and ask people to learn on the go for example, so we'd have to ensure we had a 'prepared' product to upgrade to.

XF 2 is a possibility though, but it will depend on a number of things: whether the key features and functionality are available (and if not assess time needed to produce them), implications for theme and basic usability, whether there are any resultant changes in member UI or moderation functionality which would involve a period of testing/training and change documentation, and also implications on hosting/database changes.

Because I run a service, I err more on the side of caution with changes made so will be keenly watching how others adapt to XF2 and learn from them

 

[Dan18]

I've done a couple styles (one example here)

Excellent Logo

 

[Steve]

Excellent Logo

Yeah, requested here at TAZ and Diana did an excellent job!

 

[kaptanjak]

I already switched. My first forum has been running 2.0 for almost two months, and I'm building a second one right now that has beta 8 on it. There was one very minor bug in beta 6 I believe on my first site, but I've found zero bugs in beta 7 or 8. Not to say there weren't/aren't any, but they didn't effect me.

My only reservation is addon availability. It will take some time for addons to catch up.

 

[Soulwatcher]

I need to wait for a skin and add-ons because I am moving in 2 months and I don't have any extra money to invest into my website. Hopefully I will have money to upgrade in february if all goes well.

 

[GeorgioGalben]

I cast my vote...
There are many of (real) good communities out there who they doesn't matter about the core (at all). In fact, the most important is keeping growing (every day) and posting threads non stop.
XF2 has huge update and pure technology in comparision with xf1. Many of users can lost they self when you upgrade your core; so is good idea that founders create polls for staff and members and know if they really want to go at next level of core because the most important is being duty not beauty.
Sorry for my low level of english.
Cheers.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I cast my vote...
There are many of (real) good communities out there who they doesn't matter about the core (at all). In fact, the most important is keeping growing (every day) and posting threads non stop.
XF2 has huge update and pure technology in comparision with xf1. Many of users can lost they self when you upgrade your core; so is good idea that founders create polls for staff and members and know if they really want to go at next level of core because the most important is being duty not beauty.
Sorry for my low level of english.
Cheers.

I've been using xF2 a lot during the last couple of months and although I agree with some of what you are saying I would also say this. The transition between xF1 and xF2 from a user's point of view is completely seamless. The main issue if there is one (from a user's perspective) will be add-ons and themes. To put some perspective on it, I found the latest upgrade to Firefox (57.0) far more of a problem than switching between xenForo versions. Functionally there really is hardly any noticeable difference.

And your English is fine, there's no need to apologise

 

[marcgo15]

I have a new project that I'd like to start with XF2. I have to wait on a few needed plugins before I could make it live. Hope I can do this by the start of next year.

 

[vbresults]

Actually, I think that hurts XF more then the developers. Many forum owners wont consider converting until all or most of their addons are available for 2.0. Further, a quick look at the RM shows over 3000 addons & themes for 1.x and less then 300 for 2.x

It's not fair to compare them yet IMO, XF2 hasn't been out in the wild for nearly as long as XF1. At the same time, I have a hard time seeing how XF2 will get even half the number of developers. The buzz around the software and atmosphere are different than when XF1 was taking off.

I do get the point about people not converting.

 

[LeadCrow]

The buzz around the software and atmosphere are different than when XF1 was taking off.

XF1 is still the solid option, supported with fixes and a lot more modders and designers will be familiar and proficient with it compared to XF2.

If you're either upgrading an active board or converting one running a different forumscript, you'd want to play safe and keep using XF1 for at least a few months. We've been holding out for a v2 upgrade but changed our minds, early adoption is too soon even if the addons we needed were already developped and v2 is reasonably issue-free.

 

[John Yoerger]

Just to throw in an additional perspective here: In a large corporate entity with shareholders, hundreds of employees, and thousands of end-users, this process is even slower and I speak from the experience of making recommendations on behalf of my community team wanting to upgrade and facing a lot of obstacles. In case you're curious, here's a quick breakdown of how this request (via 1 email) has expanded into a massive undertaking:

1. The request needs to be approved by the Director of Public Affairs, the Director of Community Relations, and the Director of Human Resources.
2. Internal Auditing Department needs to verify the validity of my request, including that I have no personal stake in XenForo and would not make any profit by making such a recommendation for upgrading to new software. Then, they need to make sure everyone else involved won't make a profit either. This will take about a month and puts every other business process on hold.
3. Strategic Planning needs to evaluate how the switch over might impact future profitability of products, goods, or services.
4. Community Engagement needs to evaluate how they might modify their strategies of communications and special events/opportunities to work with customers.
5. Community Support also needs to learn more about the software and all changing strategies as it affects how support is provided and key phrasing/core messaging they can use.
6. HR Education Team must learn all changes to XenForo Software and then create guides and documentations on how to utilize the software for staff internal-users, such as moderators, with guidance from Community Team and Web Development Team. Webinars or Meetings must be scheduled to go over the changes.
7. Marketing needs to work with Design to determine if the changes will effect the image and branding design and how they will counteract or improve it thereafter. With this, comes evaluation of other changes they would like to make since they will be apparently overhauling it anyways.
8. UIX Team and HR needs to evaluate software usability and if there will be any issues with accessibility of the software in compliance with ADA requirements, etc.
9. Web Development/Design Team needs to be consulted on how custom plugins, styles, and system integration will change and how much additional work they'll need to do to complete these tasks (which they estimated to be around 500 hours of work for the team of 8).
10. Software needs to go through staging and extensive alpha/beta tests before released to public, including a review by advisory team, executive advisory board, all of the mentioned departments above, and shareholders if they so desire.
11. Final review and approval by executives.
12. And more I'm sure I'll probably discover along the way.

All in all, it's probably over a year out from even being moved to staging. I really like the advances of XF2 and I'd like to use it because I believe my community would embrace the changes and additional features... here's to that eventually happening!

 

[doubt]

Hmmm...
1.
2.
...
11.
12.

For that large corporate the upgrade would cost about a million dollars.