Why people go with XenForo instead of IPS?

[mysiteguy]

Generally my support requests happen fairly quick. I mean it's not instantaneous, but generally within an hour or 2 usually. Many times less than that. And they've always been friendly towards me. Recently I posted a thread on their forum with some requests. Some people, including staff, chimed in. Some agreed and some disagreed. I kept things going with it and eventually they did agree some things probably should be looked at as I kept my case going. Of course I did so respectfully and with the understanding I'm just one voice in thousands.

And I recently had an issue with an add-on from a developer and contacted them. They were awesome in how quickly they helped me and helped work to fix the problem. So clearly not all developers for add-ons are unreliable either. Like anything it's a game of russian roulette.

Xenforo still hasn't updated their main page from YEARS and YEARS ago. They recently said they were working on it but still. If they can keep stead development on Xenforo it'll do fine. But lately it's been a bit random with a post being made about how they still have some serious work to do and ground to gain. Hopefully they do it.

IPB is more well rounded in terms of features and what is offered. Xenforo CURRENTLY (but likely not forever) is more simplified and relies fairly heavily on add-ons and plug-ins to add that extra functionality at the moment. And as everyone knows, a plug-in or add-on is only as good as the developer. If they stop developing for it, you're put into a bad spot.

So for me the more functionality I can get out of the box the better. Xenforo is good software, but it's not quite there yet for me. But I do keep an eye on it to see what's coming or for any improvements that have been made.

Great, but this thread was about why some people pick XF over IPS, not why some people pick IPS over XF.

 

[mysiteguy]

Is it just me, or does it raise anyone else's "is this a shill?" hackles when you see a person's first 2 posts being the vigorous defense of a product?

 

[cubdriver]

 

[Joel R]

Great, but this thread was about why some people pick XF over IPS, not why some people pick IPS over XF.

This thread also shouldn't devolve into a meta-discussion on the purpose or intent of a topic. As an experienced admin, you would surely agree the best topics are often ones that meander and explore insights from all perspectives, which can be valuable for consideration.

Information is information, and valuable for any person willing to weigh different software.

 

[Hentai]

Honestly? Because XenForo allows license transfers and I was able to buy a 2nd hand license for XenForo much cheaper than a new IPB license. Then once I had my first XenForo I got really comfortable and started deploying more, because I was already familiar with it.

 

[mysiteguy]

This thread also shouldn't devolve into a meta-discussion on the purpose or intent of a topic. As an experienced admin, you would surely agree the best topics are often ones that meander and explore insights from all perspectives, which can be valuable for consideration.

Information is information, and valuable for any person willing to weigh different software.

I tend to disagree. If there's a relational bias in a discussion, I feel it's best a person disclose it, especially when they are new.

Otherwise, not all readers can discern the difference between a happy (or disgruntled) customer versus someone with undisclosed motivations for promotion (and in many countries in some cases reviews motivated by the exchange of money, favors, etc are illegal). If they aren't a shill, I hope they respond and say so - I'll happily admit I made a bad judgment call.

For myself, its part of why I make clear in my signature I have a vested interest in migration and sysadmin related topics. And for the record for anyone reading, I have no personal or professional relationship with any forum software company other than being a current customer of both Invision and Xenforo.

 

[nadaa]

I am a former client of vbulletin until 2008/10 I believe where I stopped and bought an IPS License that I recently updated.

I remember vbulletin and its strong years with its powerful add-ons for its time and also free.

I think in particular about me to links and download manager of Andrew w.

I have known your forum only recently (not being English-speaking) and have decided to participate in this discussion to correct things said that seem false to me and not come to promote a product.

Xenforo is good for those nostalgic for vbulletin because it looks like it but is not as powerful as what was vbulletin and its add on in its time.

 

[mysiteguy]

Well, there ya go. I concede I made a bad judgment call.

Concerning your previous comments about what seemed false, I have to disagree about your comparison of add-ons for each platform. You said:

"but I don't see things really useful and essential?

while IPS is a lot of really useful things"

Yet almost most of those Invision addons has at least one Xenforo counterpart.

 

[whitetigergrowl]

Well, there ya go. I concede I made a bad judgment call.

Concerning your previous comments about what seemed false, I have to disagree about your comparison of add-ons for each platform. You said:

"but I don't see things really useful and essential?

while IPS is a lot of really useful things"

Yet almost most of those Invision addons has at least one Xenforo counterpart.

There are counterparts to a Prius too. There is a counterpart to Chevy. The fact is, a counterpart is only as good as the softwares capabilities and the person making and supporting it. I see some counterparts on Xenforo that are substandard in comparison to a similar one on IPB. Possibly due to software or coder limitations.

I try to use a minimal amount of add-ons however and I'm generally choosey about what I use. I don't want to be stuck like many with a ton of add-ons that aren't supported anymore and have them be popular with no upgrade path. It minimizes the damage and number of upset people.

It's pretty much undeniable though that IPB walks around Xenforo in many areas right now. Xenforo development is there, but for some time it really slowed which allowed IPB and others to catch up and surpass Xenforo in certain areas again.

And I don't know about you, but I prefer as a member and admin functionality out of the box rather than rely on countless others to add and maybe support it later.

Great, but this thread was about why some people pick XF over IPS, not why some people pick IPS over XF.

It's one in the same. You can't have one without the other and without it going both directions. Otherwise it's a shallow discussion that doesn't properly convey why one may be better or worse than the other. And what benefits one has over another.

"Why do you pick Xenforo over IPB?"

Answer: "Because I had a bad experience with IPB."

I can tell you all day long. But it's a personal preference that doesn't equate to anything of substance.

IPS and Xenforo are competitors. There are many that have used or use both and have had varying experiences with both. If you expect anything less than personal experiences with both in a thread like this you're wrong.

It's the nature of the beast. As long as it doesn't devolve into a flame war, the current discussion has been fine and within merit.

 

[nadaa]

Yet almost most of those Invision addons has at least one Xenforo counterpart.

Regarding me, xenforo does not contain the applications I am looking for and often these are only small modules ....

xenforo surpasses IPS surely in terms of active community from what I see ...

But the IPS community seems enough to me for the quality of plug in proposed and the ability to report bugs, proposed improvements ...

The only ones who seem to me to have understood the needs of the communities and who are up to date are vanillaforum on the first things I could see. Their disadvantage is that without a large community it's hard to report bugs having good feedback, good add ons ...

but at least what they do not have as add on they propose it in the form of integration apr API. just unfortunately it's extremely expensive additions ...

 

[Panupat]

I bought and tried IPS for almost a year. Attracted to it by the prospect of their CMS integrating with their forum. At the end tho I couldn't customize the CMS to the level that I wanted. That combined with my questions going unanswered on their customer forum and the appearance which was just OK, I switched to Xenforo and gave up trying to unify my content.

Nowadays I have my forum Xenforo being just forum and my content file-base CMS (Kirby) which is very easy to set up, migrate and upgrade. Doing in this way simplify things a lot, plus I can just drop in a different file-base CMS in any sub-domain if I want to try them out.

 

[mysiteguy]

There are counterparts to a Prius too. There is a counterpart to Chevy. The fact is, a counterpart is only as good as the softwares capabilities and the person making and supporting it.

And speaking of cars, driver experience is what separates a car which enthusiasts love verses one they simply drive. Not the gadgets.

The Invision admin backend isn't well organized. The look of the forum is lifeless and blocky. Features are great but lack the ability for inexperienced users to quickly jump in and participate without confusion. The software shouldn't be only about functionality like it was designed by engineers, but the look and feel. I find Xenforo more friendly.

I see some counterparts on Xenforo that are substandard in comparison to a similar one on IPB. Possibly due to software or coder limitations.

Hmmm... coder limitations, look into the security exploit history of the past decade.

(Edited for grammar)

 

[haqzore]

The look of the forum is lifeless and block. Features are great but lack the ability for inexperienced users to quickly jump in and participate without confusion. The feel of software shouldn't be only about functionality like it was designed by engineers, but the look and feel. I find Xenforo more friendly.

Agree with this. OOTB, IPS feels more like a sanitary hospital than an inviting community.

 

[whitetigergrowl]

And speaking of cars, driver experience is what separates a car which enthusiasts love verses one they simply drive. Not the gadgets.

The Invision admin backend isn't well organized. The look of the forum is lifeless and blocky. Features are great but lack the ability for inexperienced users to quickly jump in and participate without confusion. The software shouldn't be only about functionality like it was designed by engineers, but the look and feel. I find Xenforo more friendly.



Hmmm... coder limitations, look into the security exploit history of the past decade.

(Edited for grammar)

Again it comes to preference. The backend is getting an update in their next release 4.5. However you can re-order the admin menu. That said it's also more fully featured than Xenforo. Guaranteed Xenforo as they keep adding features and capabilities will end up much the same way eventually. It's a matter of how soon. If they had the sheer amount of options IPB has, theirs would be more overwhelming too. And many would likely complain of much the same things.

I'm inexperienced and I find IPBs admin interface much easier than Xenforos. Want to add a logo? IPB you simply upload it from the theme menu. With Xenforo you upload it by ftp, go back into the theme menu, find the option, then add the text that points to the logo.

Want to upload a plug-in? With Xenforo you upload it through ftp then 'Install' from the admin menu. With IPB you don't upload anything usually. Just go to the application or plug-in admin area then upload the XML or .tar file. It takes care of the rest itself.

Want to add or move or delete blocks on the forum? Simple as drag and drop with IPB. With Xenforo it's nowhere near as simple to add blocks to the sidebar and move them around without feeling like you're stuck in 2005. IPB currently destroys Xenforo for ease of use on adding and using blocks on the forum. That's not even an opinion. You don't even need to leave the actual forum page to do it. I could have my entire front page re-arranged if I want, in the time it would take you to add 1 or 2 blocks to where to want to and how you want to on Xenforo.

Want to re-order the forums? Simply drag and drop right from the forum menu. With Xenforo you have to open up a different option from the forum menu to do it that isn't quite as obvious. Etc Etc

The look of the forum isn't much different than Xenforos. Xenforo just uses smaller fonts and a smaller footprint. There really isn't much of a difference. They are both blocky. Can't say there is much in the way of smooth curves. lol

So I'm not sure how you think Xenforos admin area is easier. If it is, it's only for certain things and is because of their general lack of current features. It's a good forum, but it's also pretty vanilla at the moment. And it's a huge gamble to add a bunch of plug-ins to make up for it.

Eventually Xenforo may reach closer to what IPB currently offers. Right now it's still in the past. And if they don't pick up some speed in its development, eventually people will get tired of feeling left behind by IPB and others. Their development greatly slowed for awhile. With IPB you don't have to worry about that usually.

Xenforo is fine forum software. It's simplistic to an extent, but you have to jump through more hoops in other areas. It will eventually have a more cluttered admin area as things keep getting added. And not all decisions will likely be popular that they make as the forum grows. It all depends how much work you want to put into your website.

 

[TheChiro]

The Invision admin backend isn't well organized. The look of the forum is lifeless and blocky. Features are great but lack the ability for inexperienced users to quickly jump in and participate without confusion. The software shouldn't be only about functionality like it was designed by engineers, but the look and feel. I find Xenforo more friendly.

You said this better than I did. The unorganized back end seems to be a recurring theme in many of our complaints, yet some people are chalking it up to the inexperience in running and IPS board. I ran one for many years, have had experience with their 2.x and 3.x series. I've also used multiple different forum softwares out there. IPS's admin panel is the worst (and that includes the old phpbb 2.x).

And a recurring rebuttal about the gravity towards XF being similar to vb...IS IT THOUGH?! The admin panel from the vb3 series is nothing like Xf's 1.x and 2.x acp. So what's so similar? Are we talking postbit? Because I think they all are similar in that regard. Is it the default navigation? I think all work very similar in that aspect as well. So...I just don't understand that argument whatsoever.

Guaranteed Xenforo as they keep adding features and capabilities will end up much the same way eventually. It's a matter of how soon.

The way things are categorized is much better in Xenforo than IPS. Again, I use both, have familiarized myself with both (in fact, I have less experience with xf2.x acp than I do with the current IPB acp). I would have to go back into the IPB acp to give you specifics but I've given up on the software and won't be wasting my time.

With Xenforo you upload it through ftp

This tells me you haven't used Xenforo 2.x.

Simple as drag and drop with IPB. With Xenforo it's nowhere near as simple to add blocks to the sidebar and move them around without feeling like you're stuck in 2005.

True, there is no drag and drop, it's done by priority numbers. IPS gets a small "plus" in this category because "how often are you changing up your blocks???"

Want to re-order the forums? Simply drag and drop right from the forum menu. With Xenforo you have to open up a different option from the forum menu to do it that isn't quite as obvious. Etc Etc

This one we are in agreeance with. I believe there was an addon that took care of this but again, how often are you changing and moving things around? I just did a huge re-ordering of things on my site and I won't be touching it for probably another 10 years. You may be confused as to why, but that's because of Custom Thread Fields allowing me to have main holding sections and using CTF's similar to that of subforums. So if a CTF ever needs to be added (may have to add 1 or 2 over the next couple of years), it's as simple as adding a CTF and specifying which section(s) it applies to. I've structured my site in a way that the site will evolve with the times without me having to get involved. I may post about it in the near future but I think some of my past threads may give away what I've done exactly.

general lack of current features

This keeps getting said, would like to know "like what?". I haven't found anything on an IPB site that I'm like "oh, I need that on my site...DANG IT, it isn't available".

With IPB you don't have to worry about that usually.

No, you just have to worry about every update breaking something on the site.

I think the main argument is "OOTB" vs Customization. I'm ok with less features, esp if I don't need them, and then customize it to my needs. And my visitors must agree with how IPS feels vs Xenforo since the bounce rate went from 60% to 11%. You can argue with emotion all you want, but statistics don't lie.

 

[mysiteguy]

whitetigergrowl,

My post was a slight rewording of complaints you posted on Invision's support forums about their user interface, which you then disagreed with your reply here. So you actually rebutted ... yourself.

 

[sbjsbj]

Why? Because the core of XF is very very stable and it gives a better user experience both to visitors and admins.

If one thing hasn't changed over the years is that XF periodically releases bug fixes. Everything what is reported will get handled in a timely manner. This means everything feels snappy and everything works as expected. There are no stuff breaking errors ever unless some addon is involved which means the fault is not XF. The other major thing is that XF feels nice. It looks nice and tidy and offers a good forum experience.

IPS feels clunky or at least it did. And it also looked outdated. But I think they improved on these things over the years. The other thing is that IPS is more expensive, at least until 2 years ago or something. I still believe that XF is cheaper and it offers more for the money, but the gap isn't that big anymore.

So people choose XF because it offers a great core product for the money they invest. For most admins this is actually all they need and want. You can't do anything wrong if this is your expaction to have a good working forum solution. Also the community is great. I heard not a lot of good things for IPS in that regard. But XF is slowly eating away their excellent reputation for the last couple of years imo. But as the core is stable and good as described, it gets overlooked. If money wouldn't be a problem and if you expect more than a forum solution, I would give IPS a serious consideration. Other than that XF is still ahead imo. At least so far but IPS is making some serious huge steps whereas XF is the Sleeping Beauty right now.

 

[whitetigergrowl]

You said this better than I did. The unorganized back end seems to be a recurring theme in many of our complaints, yet some people are chalking it up to the inexperience in running and IPS board. I ran one for many years, have had experience with their 2.x and 3.x series. I've also used multiple different forum softwares out there. IPS's admin panel is the worst (and that includes the old phpbb 2.x).

Again that comes down to preference. I can move around IPBs way faster and in half the steps to do the same or similar to things on Xenforo. While you're busy uploading your logo or banner to ftp, then editing the url to point to it, I've already uploaded it via the admin interface and moved on to the next thing. And that's just one of many things.

And a recurring rebuttal about the gravity towards XF being similar to vb...IS IT THOUGH?! The admin panel from the vb3 series is nothing like Xf's 1.x and 2.x acp. So what's so similar? Are we talking postbit? Because I think they all are similar in that regard. Is it the default navigation? I think all work very similar in that aspect as well. So...I just don't understand that argument whatsoever.

Yes I would definitely say it's similar. Xenforos postbit is similar to VB3. The same obviously not. But similar yes. People need to remember that Xenforos creators are VB3s former creators. There will be similarities as it is meant to be that way by design. That's been obvious since VB 1. But you are right there are some similarities between all of them.

The way things are categorized is much better in Xenforo than IPS. Again, I use both, have familiarized myself with both (in fact, I have less experience with xf2.x acp than I do with the current IPB acp). I would have to go back into the IPB acp to give you specifics but I've given up on the software and won't be wasting my time.

I can re-order the admincp to how I see fit. Can you do that with Xenforo? Nope. Obviously you knew that, right? Don't like the order, you can change it. Simple drag and drop. But you knew that right?

This tells me you haven't used Xenforo 2.x.

Yes I have. Feel free to explain how I can directly upload the logo or banner to the site without the need for FTP and have it autoinsert into the theme. Because I have yet to see that option.

True, there is no drag and drop, it's done by priority numbers. IPS gets a small "plus" in this category because "how often are you changing up your blocks???"

Wrong. Xenforo you CAN drag and drop forums. But it's done in an obscure way that makes no sense and that many don't notice. It's not as in your face obvious. As for blocks, you may want to remove, modify, delete them without entering the admincp. Can you do that with Xenforo? No. Some people may change them often if they have a dynamic and not static website or CMS. It's far easier and better than how Xenforo does it and its generally more logically done.

This one we are in agreeance with. I believe there was an addon that took care of this but again, how often are you changing and moving things around? I just did a huge re-ordering of things on my site and I won't be touching it for probably another 10 years. You may be confused as to why, but that's because of Custom Thread Fields allowing me to have main holding sections and using CTF's similar to that of subforums. So if a CTF ever needs to be added (may have to add 1 or 2 over the next couple of years), it's as simple as adding a CTF and specifying which section(s) it applies to. I've structured my site in a way that the site will evolve with the times without me having to get involved. I may post about it in the near future but I think some of my past threads may give away what I've done exactly.

This keeps getting said, would like to know "like what?". I haven't found anything on an IPB site that I'm like "oh, I need that on my site...DANG IT, it isn't available".

No, you just have to worry about every update breaking something on the site.

I've NEVER had that problem. Unless you're using quite a few plug-ins. Or you're using something many use that's noticeable, I've never experienced a break. And if you do and it's reported it's normally fixed quickly. But different server environments can lead to different results. If they can't replicate it, it's hard to pinpoint or fix the problem. But that can be said for ALL forum software. I've seen people complain that a Xenforo update has broken something. So this is a rather moot argument. And the bigger a forum software gets, the more features and abilities it gets, the more likely of a break no matter how hard you try.

I think the main argument is "OOTB" vs Customization. I'm ok with less features, esp if I don't need them, and then customize it to my needs. And my visitors must agree with how IPS feels vs Xenforo since the bounce rate went from 60% to 11%. You can argue with emotion all you want, but statistics don't lie.

But that's YOUR experience. And It's many times difficult to pinpoint exactly what causes those variations. How do you explain those that went from Xenforo to IPB and are doing better? Or those that went to Vanilla even and are doing better? Or those that ditched forums all together and are now strictly social media? There is no one answer or reason.

And sometimes those 'bounce rates' after a conversion eventually stabilize and change for varying reasons. And some may be false positives too. Again, it's not a black and white answer or reason.

whitetigergrowl,

My post was a slight rewording of complaints you posted on Invision's support forums about their user interface, which you then disagreed with your reply here. So you actually rebutted ... yourself.

I had a 'recommendation' recently to simplify it for those that are advanced users and those that are new. But it wasn't a dig at the admin cp so much as it was just a way to better simplify it for those that may not need to use all of the countless advanced features it has.

Eventually Xenforo will absolutely run into this problem. However they are pretty vanilla in comparison to most forums out there yet as they seem to rely more heavily on plug-ins and addons to fill those gaps. Which to me is pretty dangerous as it can open the forum to security vulnerabilities, lack of support which can cause member dissatisfaction if you want to upgrade your forum but can't without removing it if it's popular, and can cause numerous other problems and concerns. I have a grand total of 4 on mine.

I even pointed out that I can navigate the admincp pretty easily. But for those that are NEW to IPB or forum software in general, it can be overwhelming out of the gate. It was a simple recommendation other forum software should follow.

I am looking at it from a new user perspective, which I'm not. Which is more than I can say for Xenforo which is underwhelming and I would need to rely on numerous addons or plug-ins to get the same or similar functions. Why is their admincp less cluttered? Simple. They offer far less. Period.

VB3 and VB4s admincp were not always easy to navigate either. They offered quite a bit and were cluttered. Xenforo will absolutely eventually get that way at some point. And people were complaining at that point about it. Those same people are now working on Xenforo. So you better believe the same problems may eventually follow when they start becoming more complex.

It was a recommendation for new users. And I can't say new users would have an easier time with Xenforos smaller menus and feature options. There is definitely some counter-intuitive stuff going on in their admincp. Stuff I'm certain even some of their more rabid fans had no clue was there or that they could do.

But long story short it's simple math. As the forums get more complex and the admincp grows in options and abilities, its navigation and ease of use should be looked at from a noob perspective. Not just an engineering perspective. With IPB they already have the option to drag and drop the navigation options for ease of use and to better find what you use and don't use. And 4.5 has shown to bring further improvements to the admincp.

And thats what my comments on that forum were about. I can walk around their admincp pretty easily and quickly and generally have no problems. (Been using them since the early 2000s.) Even Xenforo fans have issues with Xenforos admincp. And it's not even loaded with half the abilities of IPBs admincp yet. It's always good to see things from other perspectives and not just yours. And my recommendations were generally not entirely my perspective, but from new user perspectives. Its a recommendation. Not a requirement.

 

[whitetigergrowl]

Why? Because the core of XF is very very stable and it gives a better user experience both to visitors and admins.

If one thing hasn't changed over the years is that XF periodically releases bug fixes. Everything what is reported will get handled in a timely manner. This means everything feels snappy and everything works as expected. There are no stuff breaking errors ever unless some addon is involved which means the fault is not XF. The other major thing is that XF feels nice. It looks nice and tidy and offers a good forum experience.

IPS feels clunky or at least it did. And it also looked outdated. But I think they improved on these things over the years. The other thing is that IPS is more expensive, at least until 2 years ago or something. I still believe that XF is cheaper and it offers more for the money, but the gap isn't that big anymore.

So people choose XF because it offers a great core product for the money they invest. For most admins this is actually all they need and want. You can't do anything wrong if this is your expaction to have a good working forum solution. Also the community is great. I heard not a lot of good things for IPS in that regard. But XF is slowly eating away their excellent reputation for the last couple of years imo. But as the core is stable and good as described, it gets overlooked. If money wouldn't be a problem and if you expect more than a forum solution, I would give IPS a serious consideration. Other than that XF is still ahead imo. At least so far but IPS is making some serious huge steps whereas XF is the Sleeping Beauty right now.

The core of Xenforo is also very very small. Its a basic forum. It's not loaded with features and options yet because its development the last several months, admitted by Xenforo themselves, didn't move far. They are behind on their next big release they admitted because of it. And for awhile on these forums people were wondering if Xenforo was even in active development anymore because of its lack of movement and going generally quiet.

Xenforo will absolutely eventually raise costs. Burning Board. VBulletin. IPS. etc all started off cheap but as they grew more popular, got more expensive. They can't pump out the extra features and support people want while focusing on the forum without needing to hire more help and use more resources. Thus needing to raise costs. Can't wait to see the responses when that eventually happens. And it will.

You NEVER want a forum that requires too many plug-ins or addons for solutions. That is a recipe for disaster unless you're willing to put the financial investment into fixing them when they are eventually no longer supported or unless you can do it yourself. Or risk creating unhappy members if you have to get rid of it and can't carry over any content. Let alone the security nightmare that can come from them. Amongst other issues or concerns.

I see many Xenforo forums that are plug-in heavy. Then I eventually see them posting later on asking what to do because they can't upgrade their forum without breaking it because the plug-in is no longer supported, is popular and if its removed the members will be upset, and they need to know how to transfer the stuff to a a similar or different plug-in. Which most of the time they can't without significant investment.

Xenforos own homepage they even admitted recently is very outdated.

Xenforo isn't bad software. It's just 'lacking'. It's like its more in competition with Vanilla software which is free, than IPB or VBulletin at the moment. Though that will probably change at some point.

 

[Ingenious]

If I can add to the mix, another deal-breaker for IPS for me was (and still is) the completely useless IMHO approach to showing new content. Specifically, I think that quick and easy access to latest POSTS for all users including guests is critical for new visitors who land on your site and want to see what is being discussed and whether you are an active community. XF has always done this well with a simple new/latests posts button. On IPS forums, you seem to get some weird activity button (sometimes not very obvious to find) that lists every minutiae of irrelevant events like avatar changes, reactions to posts, changes of status etc... I was told when I enquired that the forum admin can change all this to show only new posts but I don't recall any IPS forum I have browsed that has a simple, clear, latest posts options (for guests) and when I asked here no-one could link me to one either.

For example: https://invisioncommunity.com/discover/ - do I want to know as a guest looking for post content that two people joined in the last hour and another changed their avatar?

Seems like a good point to ask again then: Can someone link to forums on IPS that mimic the XF latest posts (for guests)? A basic view of latest threads with new posts? To put my mind at rest it's possible on IPS?