XenForo 1.3.0 Release Candidate 1 Released

Talk about a troll post and it is working on me like it should. I am crazy mad, because the comment itself drives from the topic. Do you see it that way Mark? Probably not. All I can say about "silly drama" and who wants it is, look in the mirror first Mark, before you make such accusations. You started with the past yourself. "I was banned on Xenforo." Awwwww......who cares?

I see your unconscious projecting badly with your statement above, along with the "I don't like people being hypocritical about rule changes" comment. Do you live that rule yourself Mark? Not being a hypocrite? You've got about zero ground to stand on about pointing out people's mistakes here. Fix your own first.

So back on topic. I was actually hoping for one whopper of an improvement in 1.3.0. The changes are nice, but nothing mind blowing. I have high expectations from the work coming from Mike and Kier. I hope they are working on something, which will bring some surprise to the forum/ online community world soon.

Scott

 

Guess you'd never join my forum then, because I would have him as a member no problem. And you say that, but you're staff at TAZ and Mark is a member there, same with AX where you staff. So are you going leave them two sites then?

Think Mark is getting way too much stick lately on these admin forums, seems every man and his dog is out to constantly have a go at him the minute he "posts anything", even when not being vB related.

 

That doesn't prove shit. The big difference is that XenForo has had people buzzing with all of their "Have you seen?" posts. The fact that people aren't going nuts on third-party admin sites is probably because we've already talked about it already. I'll admit you are right that people tend to flock to drama...but drama is always interesting, otherwise reality TV wouldn't be so popular.

 

Who would? You've deleted the damn thing more times than I can count.

 

But doesn't that suggest that third party admin sites have a credibility issue? Nobody seems to want serious discussion of major new releases and their progress, they just want various forms of drama, whether it be anti-vB, anti-XF, pro-vB or whatever. Is there even any point to third party admin sites if all the actual proper discussion takes place on official company sites? And if that's the case, it it in any way a good thing?

 

I don't really know. In the past, when I first purchased vBulletin 3.6, I signed up to a third party admin site for some support. However, I didn't stick around long and eventually stayed on the official forums. One thing seems very obvious, third-party admin sites offer us an opportunity to vent frustrations when we have an issue with a particular vendor. I've never been on the IPB official forums, but there's been times at both vBulletin and XenForo where the censorship was too much. If that's the new purpose for admin sites then so be it - people are still here and still talking. Third-party sites also allow potential customers to gauge which software to choose. A smart buyer doesn't just trust comments at the official source - there's a level of distrust. Third-party sites show people's true feelings and, for example, someone looking up information about vBulletin would probably be swayed to another software after coming across several admin sites with only vBulletin staff defending the shitty product. So yes, I think it's a good thing.

 

People are not going nuts about XenForo at all, you go look at topics started about XenForo away from XF.com on admin forums and take note how many replies they get. Not many now the court case is over, because apart from the fan boys starting them, nobody else is that interested really in talking about it. Only admin forum I visit that is, would be AX and that's only because they act like a XF fan site, so attract mainly XF users who want to talk their about it.

Go visit TAZ running vB and look at the XF release section topics started and take note how many replies they get. Not many! Then go check the vBulletin ones and replies made... you'll see a huge difference. Granted, with vBulletin it's because of the drama surrounding it. But still doesn't take away the fact few seem that interested in talking about XF compared to vB their. So where you get this idea XF is BUZZING is beyond me...

 

I agree with all of that, but what is actually happening is not people discussing how bad, or good, a product is, but merely furthering their own drama-driven agenda. Whether that's vB hatred, vB evangelism or XF evangelism.

It's really tiresome going into threads where people are asking for help with something only for someone to jump in and tell them to ditch their current software and use XF because it's so wonderful. It's tedious, it annoys the person requesting help, and it ruins the credibility of the site, driving people instead to official support sites where, to be fair, you generally only get a very biased "pro" view. Which helps nobody.

Case in point yesterday on another admin site - I'm trying to advise someone on the vB4 CMS and someone keeps jumping with remarks about "crappy software" and "get rid of it". Whatever the rights or wrongs of their personal views, they have absolutely no right disrupting someone's legitimate support thread. And what it does, is discourage others from asking for help that way, which in turn further drives traffic away from the third party sites.

 

If you slow down and actually read what I said, I was talking about xenforo.com. There's tons of discussion over there about 1.3.

I still see lots of posts discussing product quality (good and bad).

Maybe those people wouldn't be at a third-party site asking for support if a certain company would get it right. Let's be realistic here, before this whole Internet Brands/vBulletin thing happened, you still had your fan boys and girls, but it was a lot more tolerable. Then IB came along and destroyed a great product in very little time. That changed everything. If there's anyone to blame, point your finger and them.

Do you have any evidence of people discouraged from asking for help that way? How do you know those comments didn't help them make a decision for a better software?

 

I'm not on the staff at TAZ and although I do browse there I don't often post for much the same reason. I am on the staff at Admin Extra but he rarely posts there.

Running forums provides my income. I regularly browse the official forum developer's sites and third party admin sites to keep on top of what's going on. While everyone likes a bit of drama now and again, the drama created by Mark.B became tiresome while he was vBulletin's most outspoken critic. He's an attention seeking troll of the worst kind and rarely adds anything of value to a forum conversation. I got sick of reading his garbage years ago so I'd rather just avoid it and not participate in any forums that he's an active member of. Granted he brings in a lot of traffic, but it's the type of traffic I like to avoid.

 

Mark, you know just as well as anyone else vBulletin criticism now is a result of Internet Brands own doing, and for no other reason. No use pointing the finger at other people for that. And if others jump in a thread and advise a user go look at other forum software instead, they are entitled to do that if feeling the person is going to make a mistake buying vBulletin 5. The user doesn't have to take their advice after-all

 

Right, thought you was staff on both sites.

 

I agree, it was somewhat disappointing. Aside from a few additions that removed the need for some add-ons there was no show stopper jumping from 1.2.5 to 1.3.0

 

There were some nice changes and it was great to be able to remove some addons (I removed a healthy amount), but I agree, I was kind of expecting more.

It's very nice to have a fully functioning multi-quote now.

 

The old "vB Fanboi-ism" used to annoy me just as much to be honest. Nothing wrong with liking or even loving a product but there's a core of people who take it too far and get personally hurt by anyone who disagrees.

In XF's early days I dared to mention a need to have IP addresses in Who's Online (think it got added anyway later). I got roundly flamed and told I knew nothing about running forums. So after that I never posted a single feature suggestion or request. I can't have been alone. How exactly does that attitude help anyone, anywhere?

Don't need evidence. I've run forums for 14 years. It's completely obvious.

 

I'm with you there.

I'm with you here, as well.

I'm asking for evidence of this happening. You said:

So what is your proof that people are discouraged from asking help in that way?

 

Ah, 14 years going crazy talking to yourself on it, lol!

 

It's impossible to provide evidence of someone NOT making a post. Suffice to say, like many on here, I have considerable experience running forums and other online communities. Anyone who runs a support forum will tell you that having people jumping into support threads with personal agendas is not conducive to a proper support environment.

Obviously, it's possible some or even all of the third party sites are not seeking to be viewed as a proper support environment, and would rather just get the drama. I don't really know the answer to that.