XenForo desiderata

[Steve Fabian]

Rex:
I know very well that XenForo is not your product, and you cannot change its behavior. OTOH you are its paying customer, and as such only you can make requests for changes. On occasion XenForo may respond to your customers, but the legal term privity applies: there is no privity between XenForo and us. So I submit this list in the hope that you will be the intermediary.

1) New Posts display - the browser "refresh" action should display the current list of new, i.e., not yet displayed, posts, instead of displaying the list at the time one last (maybe hours earlier) requested "New Posts". This is technically feasible, weather.com does it!

2) New Posts display - make it dynamic, i.e., once a thread with new posts is displayed, returning to the "New Posts" display by either the browser's BACK key (if using the same browser tab), or by reselecting the same tab where it is already displayed, should drop the now o longer new thread. Likewise, marking all forums read using "Mark Forums Read" should display the now empty list.

3) New Posts display - Watched Forums and Watched Threads should be drop down menus permitting one step selection.

4) Starting a new thread should be easier. One method would be a "Start Thread" display, with just the list of forums (without any history or statistics) - customized to list only those in which the user has permission.

5) There ought to be hotkeys, preferrably customizable, to various actions; at least to the main menu items.

6) Help for the actions supported by XenForo ought to be available.

 

[rconn]

1) New Posts display - the browser "refresh" action should display the current list of new, i.e., not yet displayed, posts, instead of displaying the list at the time one last (maybe hours earlier) requested "New Posts". This is technically feasible, weather.com does it!

It already does that here (using Chrome). Are you still using that awful FireFox?

2) New Posts display - make it dynamic, i.e., once a thread with new posts is displayed, returning to the "New Posts" display by either the browser's BACK key (if using the same browser tab), or by reselecting the same tab where it is already displayed, should drop the now o longer new thread. Likewise, marking all forums read using "Mark Forums Read" should display the now empty list.

The first part is a browser issue, not XenForo.

I have no idea why you would want to display an empty list.

3) New Posts display - Watched Forums and Watched Threads should be drop down menus permitting one step selection.

I don't see what that gains you versus just clicking on the button. And it would not be possible with Watched Threads, since it can have far more entries that could fit in a menu.

4) Starting a new thread should be easier. One method would be a "Start Thread" display, with just the list of forums (without any history or statistics) - customized to list only those in which the user has permission.

I don't think that clicking on a "Create new thread" button is particularly burdensome or complicated. I suspect your scheme would result in much greater posting of messages to the wrong forum.

5) There ought to be hotkeys, preferrably customizable, to various actions; at least to the main menu items.

Browser issue, not XenForo.

6) Help for the actions supported by XenForo ought to be available.

I don't know what you're referring to.

Most of your changes could be done by creating your own skin. I doubt XenForo will do it (they have two themes, one for users & one for admin and no inclination to create any more), and I'm certainly not going to attempt it. If you don't want to do it yourself, you could try to persuade one of the many third-party theme developers to implement it.

 

[Steve Fabian]

1) New Posts display - the browser "refresh" action should display the current list of new, i.e., not yet displayed, posts, instead of displaying the list at the time one last (maybe hours earlier) requested "New Posts". This is technically feasible, weather.com does it!

It already does that here (using Chrome). Are you still using that awful FireFox?

Yes, I still use FireFox. I don't even like to "google" any more, because when I find a website, selecting it first takes me to google, and only after they collected who I am do they transfer me to the desired website. If Chrome updates by refresh, I am not sure they are not doing something non-standard. I was bitten badly by such actions, when I inherited a website made with Microsoft Front Page - which is abandonware.

2) New Posts display - make it dynamic, i.e., once a thread with new posts is displayed, returning to the "New Posts" display by either the browser's BACK key (if using the same browser tab), or by reselecting the same tab where it is already displayed, should drop the now o longer new thread. Likewise, marking all forums read using "Mark Forums Read" should display the now empty list.

The first part is a browser issue, not XenForo.

I have no idea why you would want to display an empty list.

Comparing other websites with XenForo, using FireFox, it does not appear that it is browser issue.
An empty list indicates that there are no new posts. A list of all forums is wrong because neither did I ask for it, nor do I want the extra traffic which conveys no more information than the simple message "nothing new", which is analogous to mail clients' "no new messages" display. The empty New Posts display also offers to locate recent messages.

3) New Posts display - Watched Forums and Watched Threads should be drop down menus permitting one step selection.

I don't see what that gains you versus just clicking on the button. And it would not be possible with Watched Threads, since it can have far more entries that could fit in a menu.

OK.

4) Starting a new thread should be easier. One method would be a "Start Thread" display, with just the list of forums (without any history or statistics) - customized to list only those in which the user has permission.

I don't think that clicking on a "Create new thread" button is particularly burdensome or complicated. I suspect your scheme would result in much greater posting of messages to the wrong forum.

Only if you happen to be displaying the particular forum already is the option to post a new thread available. Otherwise it takes extra steps, e.g. 1) Watched Forums which displays a lot more information than I need, 2) Scroll the excessive list to select the forum, 3) Select the forum, which displays another irrelevant list, and finally 4) Select Post New Thread. Cf. 1) select Create New Thread, 2) select forum from stripped down list of forum titles only.

5) There ought to be hotkeys, preferrably customizable, to various actions; at least to the main menu items.

Browser issue, not XenForo.

Do you mean that I can add custom hotkeys to every browser page? Because I meant that just as on the TCMD16 tool bar there are underscored hotkeys that can be used to activate features, the Watched Forums label could have the F underscored, and New Posts underscored the P, to activate the Watched Forums or New Posts feature, respectively. This is customized to the web page, and does not seem to be appropriate to be a browser feature.

6) Help for the actions supported by XenForo ought to be available.

I don't know what you're referring to.

The whole XenForo interface is learn by trying - it might do what you want. If you cannot figure out how to do it - ask a person for help, not XenForo.

Most of your changes could be done by creating your own skin. I doubt XenForo will do it (they have two themes, one for users & one for admin and no inclination to create any more), and I'm certainly not going to attempt it. If you don't want to do it yourself, you could try to persuade one of the many third-party theme developers to implement it.

AFAIK skins affect only how the interface looks, not how it works. I am looking for additional features! But of course they are not as customer sensititve as ... Rex Conn. But they can afford to lack sensitivity - they are buffered by their customers, who are not as diverse as the forum users.

 

[Steve Fabian]

More items to add to the list:

- A timestamp for New Posts to indicate when it was refreshed

- Use date and time format specified in Windows or permit customization (in many countries 12hr time is not used);

- allow using absolute time of posting instead of relative time ("a moment ago" when not refreshed for hours is extremely misleading}

- attempting to post an answer should warn (but not prevent) if it is not the latest post in thread, esp. if a new but unseen message was later posted - allows elimination of lots of posts duplicating answers or ones conflicting with e.g. your more authoritative answers