Does xenForo get communities?

You cant know every customer that a company has thats not realistic but interacting with others people see that the company cares. So while you cant keep up with everyone by maintaining connections with others is still key.

The key is the forums pre-sale, customer feedback, issues, whats to come, help and idea -forums are where you forge connections with customers. If you are true and true to your word then you will start forging long term relation with customers, by making sure the above forums are covered by staff and also people in control you can make powerful connections.

 

To an extent only that is true. Most are not bothered if they say much or not. What matters is the product first and foremost. They could talk till the cows come home, but if the product is rubbish - bye, bye. I mean, surely if the product is rubbish, you ain't going to continue using it just because the devs like being friendly with you in constant chat on forums. Only a fool would stick with using bad product based on that happening.

I don't remember Kier and Mike ever talking that much on vBulletin before, didn't make a difference then.

 

Well what holds true now can be changed in the years to come, when vBulletin 3 was coming out and the years after that people trusted everyone on blind faith. Now peope are changed and in 5 years or so this can change to to how kt was or something new that we havent seen yet. Internet is something that keeps changing every few years and that us how it should be if it stands still no progress will be made.

 

Whether a long time customer's desire for acknowledgement and interaction is warranted or not, is it there. Ignore it if you want, but I assure you things go better when you don't.

I still feel relationship management is a huge missing part of online community management today. Who are the top influencers that I need to maintain relationships with? How is my relationship with them? What can I do to improve it? etc. This is something I'm tackling with a product I'm currently working on. The tools aren't there to scale those good feelings as our communities grow. That's still no excuse though.

 

I get what some are saying, that KAM brought them into the fold early doors when XenForo was first being tested behind closed doors, and many of those people had influence to help kick-start XenForo for KAM. Why no doubt they got singled out by KAM (that's business tactics for you). Such as John, who was one of the biggest vBulletin theme sellers at one point, Shelley with her graphics e.t.c. So get why some might feel a little "put out", when later being ignored.

It would help yes, if they were more incline to communicate better like at first, but still think the majority of people using XF won't be swayed either way about it, if feeling the product is good enough for them to carry on using. This is about a small minority of people really, and the ones who helped KAM at first with influence who now feel left out in the cold.

 

I think the biggest mistake in this thread is confusing customer loyalty with friendship. Friendship is used way to loosely. Acquaintance would be more the norm.
Customer loyalty is obtained from the customers satisfaction with the produced product. If the product sucks there is not no amount of imagined friendship that will keep it afloat. You can't buy loyalty or friendship. Just look at the thousands of dollars people spent on vBull. No loyalty from the producers and none from the consumers.

 

So where does friendship apply here? Friends don't abandon friends because they get their feelings hurt from time to time. You are a consumer and like you said when you are not satisfied with the product or treatment of staff, you move on. No friendship, no loyalty.

 

Take vBulletin for example vBulletin 3 everything was fine vBulletin 4 people believed in the company so they trusted them but after a few years of the same people left. With vBulletin 5 people did nit trust them. Friendship is a good thing but friends do not. Mis use the friendship.

 

Really? A forum community is nothing more than a gathering place for like minded people (acquaintances) with similar interests. If you believe any different, be my friend and lone me a grand or to. As Wimpy says "I'll gladly repay you next Tuesday"

 

Again friendship does not apply. A friend will give without the expectation of getting something in return. A consumer will pay for something and demand the company owes them the world.

 

Communities can enable real friendships, just as they do offline. I still have some friends I'm fairly close with from my very first board. That's the highest level, and probably not very common, but it does happen.

 

So what do you categorize the people who bought multiple licenses just to help KAM get started and fend off the lawsuit?

 

Investors comes to mind, they saw the potential and invested in its future.

 

Hmm, not so sure about that. There was a lot buying licences they didn't need just to support KAM because they couldn't give donations and did it that way instead.

 

Customers... They were buying something of value that they wanted/needed.

Friends would *give* you the money for nothing in return.

If I buy gas at a gas station because I need gas, the gas station owner doesn't become my friend even if the money he makes from me is going towards a lawsuit (or whatever else in his life).

 

Yeah, but in a way, those customers who bought extra licenses didn't buy something of value, they bought something just to help out. They didn't need the licenses in some cases and didn't use them. They didn't know if there was a future for Xenforo which could have easily lost the lawsuit and made their licenses useless. They bought licenses anyway.

Yes, they were customers, but those customers went above and beyond. So to a certain extent I see both sides.

 

If they just wanted to help out, they should have given money directly. There really is no point in buying something you don't need as it only adds overhead/paperwork for the seller.

Regardless of the lawsuit, purchased licenses never had a chance to be rendered useless. Like there was no magic off switch they could throw that would make them stop working.

Either way, buying software does not entitle someone to the friendship of the author any more than a random visitor claiming you are their friend because they visited your site and you made money off them via advertising impressions they saw.

 

The situation you describe is investing as I said. It is purchasing something on speculation not knowing for sure if it will make it or not because there are variables which are not in the control of the investor.
Like @digitalpoint pointed out "Regardless of the lawsuit, purchased licenses never had a chance to be rendered useless. Like there was no magic off switch they could throw that would make them stop working."

Friends will give money towards the law suite costs not purchase a tangible item that could possibly gain in value as a pre law suite artifact or whatever.

I have an acquaintance who is in the grips of a lible suite, a publisher, she has friends who gave her over $15,000 for her defense fund. Nothing received and nothing expected in return. As an acquaintance and liking her and what she does, I too donated without any expectations but in no way consider any of this interaction a friendship nor done out of friendship.

 

Actually they tried that - there was even a website setup to take donations. As I recall, there were some tax issues or something that made it unworkable.
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xf-legal-donation-fund-david-vs-goliath.5352/

Don't get me wrong, im not saying anyone should have preferential treatment or anything, but I can understand some of the feelings of those who defended KAM, contributed to the cause, etc.

 

Just because the court case is over, it is important to remember that the burden of the case may not be. Because details weren't released and we don't know, but there may be huge attorney fees that still need to be dealt with. Not to mention whatever happened to them on a personal financial basis. The pressure may still be on to right their personal lives, monetarily speaking.