General Xenforo's pre 2.3 release "sale"

[Tracy]

Anyone else have the "reptile hind-brain" twirk that this gives me?
Last time I remember similar was around a decade ago when XF's lifeline was hanging by a thread during the lawsuit with vB and so many were looking to leave and after their "resurrection" they threw their users a bone that were willing to stick with them (me being one of them) since they were in dire straights.
That little reptilian part of the brain keeps sending signals out.... but they are a mixed signal.
Is this a "need" to get more people onboarded because they are hurting for finances because nobody is renewing because they haven't brought anything major to the table for years?
Or is this a "thank you" for putting up with our BS for 3 years" signal and maybe you can keep wishing for more and one day they will grant it?
I have to lean towards the former since they apparently have (after only about 6-8 months) once more increased the cost of their "branding free" option after their bragging about having held it so low for so long.
Don't get me wrong... I really like XF... and the add-on environment for it... but compared to the other two major players current (and future) plans... they are sucking hind teat.
For a base forum (sorry, their 1st party add-ons still suck and need LOTS of work) they are fine (but being exceeded by other providers scripts now).
I'll continue to run XF since it fits what I currently need... but Gods honest truth... they need to do some serious work on the end user experience aspect of their script offering.

 

[Arantor]

Or is this a "thank you" for putting up with our BS for 3 years" signal and maybe you can keep wishing for more and one day they will grant it?

This.

I have to lean towards the former since they apparently have (after only about 6-8 months) once more increased the cost of their "branding free" option after their bragging about having held it so low for so long.

This isn't the thing it used to be; people don't really care who provides the platform (outside of admins having e-peen contests) and whatever negative effects there used to be for 'but it's advertising' appear to have largely gone away.

the other two major players

I presume you're thinking of IPS and Woltlab. There are others, and dare I say it, others with bigger pockets than those. They're just the other two major players that are strictly in our strata.

 

[Tracy]

I presume you're thinking of IPS and Woltlab. There are others, and dare I say it, others with bigger pockets than those. They're just the other two major players that are strictly in our strata.

Realistically.. in the "full proffering" area of forums that extend well beyond simple discussions (that have decent add-ons).. there are only about 3 viable (and a 4th wannabe) in the game.
You have:
IPS/IC (whatever the hell they are calling themselves this year)
WoltLab
XenForo

Then you have the once king, but now turd vBulletin.
Yes, you have some other paid options.. but in the daily realm of cost for most admins, they are WELL outside of their purvey and the cost to extend them much beyond discussion areas is prohibitive for all but the larger commercial clients.

This.

I lean towards this aspect personally... but of course, I've pissed most of the XF fan-bois and developers off with my "blasphemous" position and attitude, never mind I've been using it for over a decade and have been a strong proponent for it.
Do I care... not a bit. It should be VERY telling that someone who has stuck with XF for so long (and been a long time proponent of it) has become disenfranchised.

and whatever negative effects there used to be for 'but it's advertising' appear to have largely gone away.

And that's the irony to me.... I have NO problem showing what script I use... and most other "hobbyist" are the same (no matter the script).
The irony is they realize that many commercial ventures would rather not have that fluff... so they simply increase their price because for commercial ventures.. it's not that big of a deal. But for those hobbyist, $100 increase increase in a 12 month period is significant.

 

[Arantor]

How many hobbyists care about hiding the script copyright though?

 

[Tracy]

How many hobbyists care about hiding the script copyright though?

Not a lot... but there are actually a few that do from what I have observed from questions over on the XF support site.
I've seen over 20 questions related to it in my decade of using it.. so that's over $6000 if all accessed the option, which is not exactly pocket change.

 

[Arantor]

So you've seen over 2 people per year... it wasn't ever really about the money, and I suspect the reason it's there still is because those who want it can and will pay more (and these people probably aren't *really* hobbyists either)

 

[Tracy]

So you've seen over 2 people per year... it wasn't ever really about the money, and I suspect the reason it's there still is because those who want it can and will pay more (and these people probably aren't *really* hobbyists either)

2 people or 1200... the fact is... there ARE those that are not commercial that use it.

 

[kolakube]

At first I was surprised to see a sale go up as I read a post from Chris D about why they don't do Black Friday sales, which that time has obviously passed.

I've just amounted it to good timing with the 2.3 release. I can't speak for them but I don't think there are any "sorries" or "thank yous" being given out on their part, just a smart way to increase their prices.

 

[Arantor]

2 people or 1200... the fact is... there ARE those that are not commercial that use it.

They're such a small drop in the ocean that it really doesn't matter. For them it'll be an inconvenience.

 

[Cam]

I certainly don't love seeing price increases coming, but it's smart business for them to have a sale beforehand. It makes it a lot harder to gripe. I'm personally going to take advantage of it, going through and renewing the extra XF licenses that I own.

 

[zoldos]

I'm not worried about renewing my license until 2.3 comes out, and plugins get updated. But if it's such a big update that older, possibly unsupported plugins, that still work with 2.2, but not with 2.3, I don't know.

In any case, it's my favorite forum software by far, and I have no problem renewing when the time is right.

 

[Tracy]

In any case, it's my favorite forum software by far, and I have no problem renewing when the time is right.

I think that's part of the issue they are having... no big changes, folks are more complacent and see no outstanding need to upgrade so they have done something they have rarely done.... engaged in a "sale" to encourage additional income.
Depending on the 2.3 release rate, I may update to it, but that's more dependent upon Bob's add-ons than anything else.

 

[zoldos]

I think that's part of the issue they are having... no big changes, folks are more complacent and see no outstanding need to upgrade so they have done something they have rarely done.... engaged in a "sale" to encourage additional income.
Depending on the 2.3 release rate, I may update to it, but that's more dependent upon Bob's add-ons than anything else.

I use about 30 some plugins, some that may or may not get updated.....

 

[Tracy]

I use about 30 some plugins, some that may or may not get updated.....

There should not be (other than style templating changes) that big of a change from the core 2.2.xx line to the 2.3 line from my understanding. If your add-ons are dependent upon styling and template modifications, they may have issues. From what I remember reading, the developers stated that the core was not changing that much.

 

[zoldos]

There should not be (other than style templating changes) that big of a change from the core 2.2.xx line to the 2.3 line from my understanding. If your add-ons are dependent upon styling and template modifications, they may have issues. From what I remember reading, the developers stated that the core was not changing that much.

I have heavily modded the templates myself... Anyway, I'm mainly hoping for native webp support.

 

[Arantor]

Wasn’t that already confirmed for 2.3?

 

[Cedric]

Wasn’t that already confirmed for 2.3?

It is.

XF 2.3 - Image optimization, enhanced image resizing, and more!

We hope you're enjoying the "Have you seen...?" series for XenForo 2.3 so far. We still have quite a bit more to show you while we work on adding the last finishing touches before we unleash XenForo 2.3 on this very forum. This week we're going to talk about various improvements we have made...

xenforo.com

 

[Tracy]

Anyway, I'm mainly hoping for native webp support

As pointed out... already confirmed... but I'm hoping it is a selectable option. WebP has some issues when dealing with my niche and downloading images, then having to convert them back over to JPG.

 

[zoldos]

Ah, k cool.