Does xenForo get communities?

You hit the nail on the head with that assessment, Brent. If you search some of the earliest threads there, Kier and Mike were highly involved in "just shooting the breeze" and it was noticed and had a big impact on the sense of community and the launch. Everyone involved felt like this was a cool project that a tight bunch of friends was bringing to life and it added to the excitement, and the support given when times got tough. Heck, even when things were still under wraps, certain ones of us were approached to get involved - because we were friends. That all changed with the lawsuit and has never recovered. The cold shoulder I got, and continue to get, from those whom I thought were my friends had a lot to do with why I decided I was finished with XF and the lot of them. The place is now full of either people seeing what they can get for free or the one's trying to make a buck off of it. Sure, there are certain exceptions to that, but they are the minority. I'm not the only one who feels this way, either.

 

Think that is because they create XenForo to earn a living, as far as their interest goes really.

 

Is this the same person who calls everyone else for slagging off XenForo?

 

lol @ the Comcast analogy - it's perfect! Kier and Mike are brilliant developers and I was tickled to death to see Mike kick it into high gear as soon as the lawsuit ended...and has pretty much consistently kept it up since then. The product is rock solid and has a great future from the pure software aspect of it. The community, if you can call it that, sucks. It depresses me and has for a long time. That's ultimately why I gave up on it all. What the future holds for them and how they get there is beyond me nor do I have any real interest in it going forward...but I do look forward to IPB4. It's a pricey business model, but a stinkin awesome package of products (IP.Nexus is a masterpiece - it is hands down the best digital goods shopping cart/helpdesk I've ever used...and I've tried them all!). I'm not terribly impressed with the core ownership (Lindy is pretty cool), but their staff is much more welcoming and involved which translates to the overall community there as well. Any place with @Mikey and @Ryan Ashbrook on staff rates high in my book.

 

Yeah but John, you only went to IPB because you theme business failed covering XenForo, you also got miffed when wanting help from KAM and they shunned you. Bit different really, more personal with you because "you saw them as friends!" and was all about you making money out XenForo, same way KAM want to make money. And you've never been a person who says a great deal on forums, just same as Kier doesn't.

 

I'm not making it personal, it's a fact. If you or John don't like that being said, then sorry if the truth hurts...

 

I'll leave this thread with pleasure, have fun.

 

I'm afraid you are wrong in your analysis of my businesses, Gary. I guess it might have appeared that way to you from the outside, but, it really wasn't anything like you described.

 

As a dev and fairly active developer in vBulletin's prime, my view is probably very bias.

Forum software is essentially a platform we use to build sites with. If you look at other platforms, developers are one of the leading drivers in community growth. They extend your featureset, and encourage other customers to switch.

Once you start mistreating them, or if you never treated them well, you'll never gain that massive adoption they can help you swing.

XenForo's documentation and (correct me if I'm looking in the wrong spot) lack of engagement with the development community is going to massively limit it's uptake. vBulletin also got this horribly wrong when it started moving towards 4.x. Things got worse for developers and designers, and they have continued to.

Once this happens, big boards start to move away, which are basically the flagship boards that people reference. And the cycle begins somewhere else.

If I was them, I'd find the top dev/designer influencers and do whatever I could do to make them happy and ensure they're able to extend our development and marketing efforts. Remove barriers and resistance, and let them help. Unfortunately, they tend to work in isolation and think their way is best. I mean, it worked last time right? *sigh*

Ignoring the dev stuff for a sec, look at how the community for vBulletin look now. It has failed. Once that goes, people start slipping away much more rapidly, the the general brand image starts to show major public-facing cracks. We're already starting to see some of that for XF. I hope it can be corrected before it repeats again.

 

He's not doing that. He's making a constructive and well worded criticism, the vast majority of I and many other will agree with wholeheartedly.

 

Interesting conversation. You are right BSG, well, I completely agree with you. You have to be a real part of a your own customer community to sell a community software. It was like that at the beginning. Remember the "bare feet" discussions Kier had? It really had nothing to do with the software, but more about being friends and family....being community.

As for this comment.

I'd venture to say their motivations were on a much nobler and more passionate scale than just earning a living. I'd say they wanted to give their customers another (good) forum software alternative and I'd say they have. I hope their efforts haven't turned into just "work" and "making a living". That would be disastrous.

And as a last statement. Although the showing of "love for the community" is a bit waning currently, they are showing still, quite a bit of love in the production of the software. Maybe that is taking its toll, with just the two of them doing all the work. I can feel for that and maybe everyone else missing some community love should too?

Scott

 

Well, It's a bit stiff over there that's for sure. But the software is top notch and getting better. That's all a customer can really expect. Though I get what you mean and why you expect more.