IPB4

The full suite will cost $465 and $105 per 6 months if you want to have an active license. The quality is different you know when you buy it or wait until you hear other people about it. I am buying it for sure i have some cash for the renewal but have not made up my mind if i will do it straight away or wait a few months for every person out there this is personal choice.

It not ridiculous because they showed how it will work in a video and like i said IPB does not release information about features if they are not 99,99999% sure it will be in the next release. How IPB is handeling the translation is well thought off it will make translating easier, the reason because now you can see where something is and what it does. Where did you hear it will be 6 more months as you can see here release is still set on Q2 2014 so they have till 30 June 2014 23:59:59 seconds to release in Q2. As for outdating something that has not been released well you see in the video how they are going to do it (like i said IPB does not release information about features if they are not 99,99999% sure it will be in the next release) so if that is not a new and improved way you can look and do nothing as competition and wait until its released and then develop or develop now and release asap. How you describe it you want to wait until released then say by example to Xenforo i want that feature and then wait until Xenforo has it in your case how you say wait till release IPB 4.0 then wait a few weeks or months till Xenforo has it. You are forgetting that if you want features it will take time before developers can implement them in their own software.

 

There is one major differnce between IPB and vBulletin, vBulletin promised and did nothing to keep it, IPB promise and keep them. Xenforo looks good but with major improvements it will get outdated just like vBulletin is now.

If you will read IPB forums then you come to the conclusion that IPB is not going to put their reputation on the line, staff have said it before they only release information if there almost sure it will be in the next version. I know its hard to believe because most of use all ready got bitten by making statements and promises and not filling them in.

 

I migrated a number of my heavily modified forums from vBulletin 3/4 to XenForo and I've now reached the point where XenForo has allowed me to increase functionality over and above what I was able to achieve with vBulletin 4. I know a lot of people still maintain that XenForo is lacking in development but I don't really see it from my perspective.

I do agree XenForo generally follows a traditional forum design structure but that is what most forum owners seem to want. Whether of not IP.B leaves XenForo looking old and tired remains to be seen. What I do know is that no matter how good it is it's unlikely to get the same degree of market penetration because of the costs involved.

Like all new forum software I'll evaluate 4.0 when it's delivered. So far it looks good but I've yet to see anything that really makes me want to use it for any of my forums.

 

Visually as it stands, Xenforo DOES looks dated compared to IPB 4. No there is no hands on experience for us to try but already from videos and screenshots so far, it does make Xenforo look dated.

This all can change when the software comes out(I AM HOPING FOR NEXT MONTH!) but as it stands now, first impressions are what matter and what we have and XF does appear to look dated. It's not Vb outdated of course but still.

@zappaDPJ much to my chagrin, I've been hanging out at XF's forums as I am trying to stay up to date on software. Which is why I am also staying up to date on BB(Which looks better than XF does imo) in the off chance that IPS screws 4 up and I wind up needing an alternative.

While I don't run XF anymore as an admin, my opinion and knowledge is limited to mid-2013/late 2013. But yes the development of XF is slow.

XF JUST added Multi-quote? A feature that I know has to have been around at least like 5 years and I am willing to bet longer didn't exist until a couple of months ago? The software is good but the reliance on 3rd party mods to patch holes that the 1st party(Xf) should have included is why the development was slow.

It was just last year, they added major features I needed THEN but I had to leave for a better and more mature software. 1.3 may have been speeding stuff up and they may better now but from what I see, most of the stuff I am noticing are catch up features that Mybb/SMF/Phpbb already have or interesting tweaks but nothing game changing or otherwise better.

 

You people(XF users) really need to stop holding onto that argument about the "Court Case" from XF. While they likely did affect things, it is not an excuse for why they are still playing catch up on basic features that FREE software and even free hosted software has.

Here's an example.

I use Windows Phone(Lumia) as my device. I love Windows Phone. it is the fastest growing mobile os(like XF is in forum software), however there were up until this year features that we still lacked on our phone software that iPhone and Android have long had.

We just got a notification center for an example. It has existed on Android since 2009 and IOS introduced it a few years back.
Back in Wp7 days(2010/2011) we didn't have copy and paste though Android and IOS did. I don't make excuses for the lack of feature and using your same argument, I know plenty of people that moved form Android/IOS to WP and love it(WP is the equivalent of Xenforo in this example). Doesn't change anything. WP is growing and the development is getting better(like XF is) but until they stop playing catch up, it doesn't make them BETTER. It at best makes them good enough or on par.

My point in the comparison is, you can't keep holding onto the excuse of a court case because it doesn't change the fact that even before that long drawn out court case, they had been missing already established features since Day 1.

I looked at XF just now in the past few releases and the fact of the matter is, XF is a great software but going back to the original argument of outdated, Xenforo for all intents and purposes is essentially a flashier version of what we already have currently with present software.

It's the new kid on the block and a lot of the success XF has is not so much for the software itself it

1. It is ran by Ex-VB developers
2. It came along at the perfect time of VB apparently doing their users wrong
3. It's new and "Flashier" but behind the flash, you can see definite weakness, that a lot of people don't either care to admit or they are happy with relying on 3rd parties to fix.

I seriously believe if XF was ran by anyone other than the people now, XF would be another Burning Board.

Idk the details of the court case. Idk if XF did wrong or VB truly are bullies. Idk and I don't care. What I do know is I wish people would stop using that "Victim" mindset over the court case. And that is how it comes across. I was a customer during the court case and I did not like what I was seeing(Which was nothing) and with that, the fact that the issues with XF were going on, developers were leaving or abandoning their 3rd party stuff.

I pay the "premium" because the software for IPB warrants it because it does more and is a more mature software than XF and I don't have to pay "Premium" prices for add-ons like I did for XF since the features already exist within the software.

For $140, XF is horribly overpriced because it doesn't offer anything that the competitors don't and it lacks in areas they do not to mention its design is poor imo. Very hard to differentiate a XF powered site.

 

For starters...IP Chat(Which I do use).

I have considered giving XF another try(and said that if IPS 4 disappointed me, I'd likely go back to XF since I was content with them).
However with IP chat, that is one reason I can't leave IPB.

 

See this is why I didn't elaborate. I wanted to see if you would do what I think you'd do and you did.

I am well aware of taigachat. I briefly used it when I had XF. I also dropped it because it wasn't what I wanted or needed and I switched to the ajax chat for Xenforo that was in the resources manager.

IP Chat > Ajax Chat > Taiga chat

What makes IP chat better is, while it is paid, it is not expensive. You get a free chat if you want it but the more people you need the price goes up.

Ip Chat for me is good because I don't have to use my own server. It is hosted on IPS Server. If anything goes wrong, open a ticket and they handle it. I don't have to worry about overloading my server(this is good for those who use shared hosting because chats are suicide for shared hosting) because it is not on my server.

More importantly, if taiga chat's developer ups and quits or god forbid falls on a terrible misfortune or something, what happens then?

This is the point I am trying to make...IPS has 1st party things that XF has 3rd party for and while the 3rd party is great, it is not 100 percent secure.


Also I am also dabbling into possibly waiting until July(when my next renewal is) and purchasing a IP Content and IP Gallery.
I am not sure if that is still the case but I recall last year, XF had some albums but the projects were moving slowly. I am not sure if they came into fruition. XF has no IP content alternative.

Smaller features I needed

1. Credit/Store System

At the time, XF had a credit system but in all honesty there was NOTHING I could really do with it. Members earned forum money but there was no store option

Currently we have a Store and members can earn money. It's a fun thing for them. They can do weekly gambles and lotteries, Virtual credit cards and loans, Welfare(LOL) and banks.

It seems trivial yes but the fact is, XF didn't have it.

2. Recent topics
I needed a recent topics type of thing for Xenforo and I had to wind up paying 6.50 Euros for this
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/1-1-x-most-recent-posts-sidebar.296/

which she winded up abandoning. I think I found another alternative (BD framework I think) but even that was ehh
http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/4550-recent-topics/

3. Skins
I really dislike most forum skins because "premium" I feel like is generous but in the case searching for skins for XF was annoying because they were overpriced styles where people took the default and simply changed colors and threw some icons on it. It was nothing special.

Very few XF skins(aside from Audentio and a few others) warrant the price they do, imo. It's another reason why I left...

I could go on and on about various reasons why I left XF and you could likely try and counter them, but that is besides the point.

Do I hate XF? no.
Do I think XF is the BEST Software and all the rage? No.
Do I think XF is a great alternative for me should I leave IPB? Yes....though Burning board is looking more and more better.

it doesn't matter if the 3rd party area is growing, when the price people charge(while their choice) is outrageous even for the smallest/simplest of features.

XF has a lot of hype and it doesn't live up to it fo rme. Not entirely.

It is the small things that XF misses in favor of flash that turn me off.

 

Oh btw @BamaStangGuy I wanted to add there are a few things that I miss greatly from XF that IPB doesn't do as good but does it adequately.

1. Notifications
I'll give XF a solid 10 on the notification while IPB Is like 8.

2. Status Updates
I absolutely hate the fact that I get an alert for every reply to a status. And my members love to talk so I can wind up with like 50 notifications for the same status.

I think IPS has improved this in IPB4(i'll be pissed if they don't)

The social networking aspects of XF are great and I miss the ease of use .

 

That is true. Sadly, it is true that people are on the XF bandwagon like they are.

But I wouldn't I don't see IPB making a good effort to reverse that. Nobody expected Vbulletin to go the way it did, I am sure.....things can change and a lot of speculation about IPB 4 is unfounded until we get more ideas of a full feature set and price and all that stuff.

though I again doubt the reason the trends are pointing towards XF is solely because of the software, it is more so simply a lot of people kind of following what is popular nowdays.

Case in point: Almost every admin forum runs XF with the same exact set up just about.
I haven't been running or into forums as long as most people on AT and other admin sites but from the time I HAVE been, I chose to go with the mature and more established Company vs the flashy new kid on the block who still is finding its way and lacking features and/or playing catch up.

You can't be a FORUM LEADER when you lack things even the basic of software have.

You can be a TREND which is what XF is currently. Whether it lasts or not, we shall see.

 

I find it hard taking you serious at times Sehun. Recently, I've read you talk about using Burning Board, giving that a try. Using WordPress as your front-page, you've mentioned that a few time. You might give XenForo another try. You say a lot of things like this and never end-up doing any of it. And a lot of these things you say, are either a replacement for using IPB (such as using Burning Board), and things to replace areas of your IPB site, such as using WordPress for your frontage.

You don't seem to me that happy at all using IPB lately?

IPB, you said something before in this thread about IPB you dislike, getting Alerts for everything that annoyed you. See, this what I never liked about IPB when using it before, they add features but they usually weak in what you can do with them (settings to control things). That is were vBulletin 3 always beat IPB hands-down, they both may have similar features back then, but in IPB they was always added half-baked, added fast with pretty limited control over configuring them compared to vB3.

I'm not having a pop at IPB, as I think IPB 4 looks very interesting. But as said, until it's released and install and see what's under the hood, how it can be configured with things, how much control you have. Looking at a few picture is nice, but at the end of the day it's means very little without trying it first hand. I think IPB could be the number one forum script easy, if they just spent more time making features it has much more flexible and configurable, for me it always lacked that side of things compared to vBulletin..