What do you think about the "Discourager" being a built-in feature?

First of all, if you don't know what this is, it's similar to the vBulletin modification, "Miserable Users". It gives you, as the administrator, the ability to basically mess with selected users in hopes that they stop visiting your forum by giving them: a load delay, chance to load a blank page, chance to be redirected elsewhere, and other various annoyances.

Personally, I am surprised at the fact that this is a built-in feature. It seems like an unprofessional decision to have this in the core of what is expected to be a professional piece of software. If you need someone gone, ban them. It's the sure-fire way of getting rid of them. Why torment them hoping that it might be enough for them to leave on their own? Plus, I don't doubt it will lose its effectiveness over time when people start to catch on. To me, it seems weird that they included this in the XenForo package rather than leaving it as the childish add-on that it was and should have remained.

What do you think?

 

I see it as a little bit of deadpan British humor and also as the xF answer to Tachy goes to Coventry.

 

I think it has it's usefulness. I mean, if it's been good enough for vBulletin all this time without people moaning about that software using it, why not XenForo?

Don't see what all the fuss is about myself?

 

To answer part of your question...

A troll just registers again and again and spams again and again...

Using MU causes them to just give up usually...

 

It's not part of vBulletin - it's a modification on vBorg. My problem is more with the fact that it is included with XenForo than the purpose of the mod itself. If you wish to run your forum this way, fine. But adding it to the core for everyone to have makes me wonder about all the other popular mods that are not included in the core...

 

I think the same as the post above yours.

Well, not so much they give-up. But it's not obvious at first what's happening to them, so I think it acts as a better deterrent than outright banning as a whole. When they do suddenly find out they've been had for a while 'unknowingly'.

What about the 'Tacky' thing vBulletin has, doesn't that kind of do a similar thing really? Maybe it doesn't function the same in what it does - but the general idea in it's use is to achieve the same.

Also, although it's there for using in XenForo. You don't have to use it, and that's why I don't see what all the fuss is about with it? I've read the same posted on XenForo about it being included along the same lines.

 

haha the admin over at TheAdminZone posted almost the exact same thing. I actually think it would be pretty fun to mess with jerks who insult the staff and don't follow rules. Now, if I was one of those people, it wouldn't be very fun, but as a staff, I would be thoroughly enjoying myself

 

That's exactly the point: why XF developers are going the same way again? vBulletin was, and is, one ugly piece of bloatware. Its core is full of underdeveloped, weak or downright unusable features, hacks, kludgy add-ons and dirty fixes all over. Now the question is simple: why it is so? Why the development team spends its valuable time on writing, testing and - even more important! - maintaining all this marginal code instead of focusing on the core things nobody but them could do? vBulletin's only major advantage is the 3rd developer community that grew around the product, and the sheer amount of mods named "Better X" and "Improved Y" makes one stop and think. Why Jelsoft guys didn't take the hint? Don't waste your limited resources on trying to please every feature requester, focus on core software and leave extensions for 3rd party developers! The community is huge, they'll pick up and do better than you - just because their name is Legion. But no, Jelsoft wouldn't think of it, and they never even embraced their own plugin/product system in full - or did I miss something and they started to support it?
Now, as we all know XF developers are ex-Jelsoft guys. One might wonder if many years of work on the most successful forum software would teach them something? Apparently, not that much. I see that a fresh start did give them an opportunity to embrace new development approaches, to rethink some programming methods... But obviously not overall approach. As far as I can see it, they're still going the same way: trying to stuff the core software with everything they think is important at the time, instead of making a plan and following it. It's sad, because I believe they're missing an unique opportunity to make things right from the very start - and later it will be just impossible.
And no, I won't buy XenForo license, at least not as replacement for vBulletin. I already have one kludgy forum software and I don't feel like swapping it for another. And if you think XenForo is fresh'n'sweet now, wait a couple years and then we'll see.

Regards,
nohuhu.

 

I'm out this whole forum thing myself now, I use WordPress and have no intention of using forum software again. So for me personally, all this talk about XenForo and vBulletin matters very little to me these days.

It's still interesting to read peoples views on it all, but to honest I don't have one myself anymore. I'm more than happy to have moved away from it and just watch everyone else argue about it between themselves.

 

Well I suppose for you the question is academic; not so for me. I run a forum, not that big but not small either. The question of maintenance is always open for me, and I would groan at the headache updates give me if I didn't remember how bad it was in phpBB. No, compared to other affordable forum solutions vBulletin is quite good - but that doesn't mean it's good compared to non-forum solutions. One perfect example is WordPress, I use it for my blogs and I absolutely love it. It's just what a blog software should be, no more and no less. Its developers are going the right way, they're focusing on core software and don't bother with unnecessary stuff. Heck, even their own anti-spam protection they've made an optional module, that's saying something. Why XF people can't do the same? I don't know, probably they have their reasons, but I don't see them and thus won't buy into XF. I would gladly invest in forum software that would solve my existing pain points without adding new ones, but I don't see any software like that on the market, at least yet.

It's just a rare event we're witnessing right now, not every year it happens that an experienced team of developers decide to start a similar product in the same niche, but developed from scratch. Expectations are soaring, I think that's why everybody is so excited about XenForo. I must admit I feel somewhat enthusiastic about it myself, but less so with every sign showing that XF people are going to create "vBulletin as it should have been". I don't think we need another vBulletin, I think we need something better. Won't hold my breath this time, though.

Regards,
nohuhu.

 

I've never used the mod on vBulletin and do not have it active on my xenForo site (TeeVeeTown) yet.

 

I'm yet to use this, the thoery seems sound but if you're that fed up then you're better off banning the person

 

I love it! I've been using it since I bought xenForo licenses for users that I do not want coming back.