Is xenForo Dying?

It's not about drama.

This is the kind of post that keeps coming up on other admin forums in response to the XenForo situation, it's effectively the stance of "just run your own forum and stop worrying about the company". That might work for small hobby boards where nothing really matters, but for a lot of people this is their core business, it is how they put food on the table, and having any kind of risk to the future development and support of the project can be catastrophic.

Therefore people will continue to question the current disturbing situation, no matter how many times people instruct them not to.

 

Well somebody told me yesterday that Mike (from XF) was spotted with Brogan online at Clip the Apex, and Brogan is online there now just noticed. It's things like that making you wonder, how can Mike find time to visit that forum (showing online), yet can't find time to show his face online at XF? But we know he's visiting still in hidden mode. I mean, what's that all about? Are they doing it on purpose or what? Playing games wanting to be seen online at another forum they know people will most likely check to try and start - more drama up?

He could just as easy hidden his online status there like he does at XF (same forum software). They're playing fun and games with people if you ask me, but for what end? I've no idea and I'm really starting to not care one hyota anymore!

 

Sorry, as Xenforo sits now, it's nowhere near in the same realm as vBulletin 3.x. When the community was rolling and skins, mods and other things were being developed and shared, it blows away what XF current is and where it currently stands.

 

Don't think vBulletin will ever recover getting users back who ran over to XenForo, with most of them being long-standing customers for vB previouslly. Even if they take XenForo completly out the picture, doubt they'll see user running back over to use vBulletin 4. I'm NOT a hater of vBulletin, but so much has changed since, things are just not the same anymore.

 

While I think that's probably true, I'm going to continue to run it. I've bought licenses for Xenforo and IPB recently and still prefer vB as do my users. While I think that Internet Brands really handled the transition and their customer relations poorly, I think they've done a good job recently. My biggest mistake was buying into the Suite nonsense.

I also think a lot of the issues stem from them listening too much to the community. CMS, blogging and all of these other sidetracks took away from the core competencies of vBulletin. Personally I think they should have let third-party developers continue to provide those solutions and focused on refining and adding features to the forum product. I know many people think forums are dead in favor of social networks, but social networks rarely have meaningful or worthwhile discussions. You went to Target? Awesome. You're grilling out? Great. 32 likes? Sweet. I can count on my hand the number of times I've had a decent discussion on Facebook, Twitter, et al.

 

They are talking about this thread now on XenForo: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-needs-a-lawrence-cole.30209/

 

You know Mark, you throw this "phrase" around so much (whether it's XF or vB) and then change your tune as soon as something happens that makes you feel better that it really has no credibility...why even say it other than for the drama?

 

Stirring it on both ends as usual I see Gary. Talking to yourself about it on Twitter too I bet.

 

Well, your always checking my twitter account reading what I've said to comment about with your cronnie friends in secret, with some of you now even using LOCKED twitter accounts so nobody can read the trash you say to one another about others like "T8L" in this thread on XenForo. So you tell me John, have I said anything interesting of late in my "for all to read" twitter account worth sharing with Shelley, Lisa, Forsaken and others? Be a man and grow some balls, instead of hiding what you have to say about others - just like Shelley does - chickens.

I've read your all use MSN for chatting now, like a bunch of little sissy girls name calling folk between yourself. So pathetic! And why do "You, Shelley and Forsaken" keep running around XenForo hjacking threads in which people are asking for paid themes? I keep seeing Shelley posting your lot sites selling themes as recormedations to buy from every time, are you that desperate to sell your themes to XenForo users between yourselves?

Also, been itching to ask you this question for a while. Why the hell have you got baby talcum powder on your face in that photo?

 

Ah, such a mature discussion.

Ejecting...

 

Well against my better judgement I started posting in that thread on XenForo, wish I never had now. Won't post any further in it. Already you can tell were it's heading, towards getting locked very soon! I just don't get why people cannot understand it would help clear the air of uncertantly, if either Mike or Kier posted something quick to put peoples minds at rest.

You'd think they'd be wanting to do it by now? So easy to do, yet avoiding doing so on purpose.

 

All it would take is a short update explaining the radio silence.

The absence of such a statement *is* cause for concern.

 

I'm so sorry I even read this thread...

 

Hmm I have posted perfectly sane, legitimate opinions on XenForo and as usual I'm getting flamed by fanbois.

It's such a pity that the forums have for a long time been spoiled by that sort of behaviour, it's why I haven't posted much the past year or so. Can't be doing with it. I am just ignoring it as best I can.

 

That's why I've eased off posting in that thread. I've read the jibes and scarcastic remarks being slipped in to try and annoy and get a rise out of you. Some won't be happy until they get it locked. But, I'm gad to see it has been left to run, no doubt Kier and Mike are aware of it and it's good to see them letting it run it's course, after all they can take on-board things said by people in it later.

 

Look how much attention that thread has received today, all the replies from different people made. That in itself tells you it's been in the back of many peoples minds. Everything else there now is more or less getting ignored, all focus is on that one single thread. I know for sure if I was in Kier and Mikes shoes what I'd be taking away from that.

 

Kier and Mike have obviously worked full time on making XenForo an incredible piece of software. In fact, Internet Brands believes it has to be the work of a dozen people or their product because nobody could turn out so much with so little time. But these guys are great at what they do. This isn't about a rich daddy.

It's also why this entire Internet Brands vs. Xenforo lawsuit is enough to make any human being sick. Nobody here knows whether these guys put up everything they own and mortgaged the house for what they believed in. Yet some big company hopes to bleed them to death by making a mockery of the US court system. My estimation puts Internet Brands having expended over $1 million alone on this case, complete with affidavits that assert that Namecheap's proxy service (in big bold letters) must be the Xenforo business address with a good measure of reliability since it comes from Whois.

I'd like to believe that there is a need to manage multiple resources and it's just impossible to do 10 jobs with one person. And quite frankly, this is what the lawsuit was all about. Winning by playing dirty.

 

I posted this over on the XF forums in that thread, but I think a lot of this issue stems from the fact that XF was sold to many customers as being the anti-vB or anti-IB, if you will. Lots of chest pounding from the outset about how responsive the admin/dev team was compared to the IB counterparts -- like the good ole 3.X days of vB. That marketing tactic was used to sell a lot of licenses and is what some of the customer base has come to expect -- frequently communication and interaction with the admin/dev team. Now that said communication and interaction has gone silent for an extended period of time, you've got a portion of the customer base wondering what the hell is going on.