Feedback - Updates

  • Thread starter Sushubh
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XenForo 2.2!

So, this forum is now running a beta of XenForo 2.2 software. There are a bunch of new features that I would like to highlight here. There is a risk in running beta software on a live website. I am known to do stupid things so this is just the latest in the line. Honestly, it should be fine. We are now in Beta 4. There might be 1 or 2 more betas before release candidate version is released. Stable edition might come out in a few weeks. But so far, it has been working pretty nicely. There are a few issues here and there that I would report once the stable build is out if they are not fixed by then.

Worst case scenario? I would have to roll back to the backup from last night. So there's that.

Here are some of the features that should be available to everyone now...

Thread Types​

Forum now support a few thread types. You can start a regular discussion. You can post a question. You can start a poll (existing feature but with new implementation). And if you are writing a review or a guide... You can write an article here. There is also a suggestion feature but that works only on a dedicated forum. We have no use for that but if you want to play with it, I have a test install here: Suggestions. There is also a dedicated questions forum now at I want to buy a....

I am not doing mass conversion of existing content to different thread types. If I land on a thread that seems like a question or an article, I am converting them. I might end up making mistakes here so report threads that are converted wrong. Though, it's likely that I would end up converting again so I would have to find a way to avoid doing that.

Question threads have voting buttons. I have disabled downvotes for obvious reasons. Thread poster and mods have the ability to mark a response post as answer if there is a single post meeting the requirement. Suggestion forums have voting buttons for entire threads.

I have made a dedicated forum for guides here: Guides. If you land on a thread that seems like a guide, report it for moving here.

In short, use the report button liberally to report threads that should be converted to another type. Use the vote button instead-of/in-addition-to like for good suggestions. And if you are OP of the thread, mark the post that solves your question as a solution. It helps everyone!

Activity summary​

If you have used discourse and some other forum types, you would have noticed this. If you are away from the forum for more than a few days, forum might send you a mail with recent updates. This option can be disabled here.

PWA​

Forum now has a proper PWA but without offline functionality. On Androids, you can install it like an app. It would appear as an icon in the app list. It would run in full screen mode without any browser chrome. You can install it from the sidebar. Chrome and other browsers might show an install button after regular usage. Apple iOS support is not available. It also works on desktop browsers though user experience on computers is not very good.

Search Forums​

I haven't used it yet but I plan to. This is basically a forum that only shows search results for pre-defined queries. So I can basically make a dedicated forum for all internet related threads. You might or might not see these sections in future. Have to find out a good purpose for these.

Profile Banners​

You can now add a banner on your profile page.

Username change​

You no longer have to send me a message to change your user name. Right now it is configured to let you change your id after 30 days. You cannot reuse an existing ID for a year. These settings might change in future based on feedback. User profiles would show recent name changes.

Giphy​

I am not sure if I would keep it. It is enabled right now. But I do not have a proper approved key so it might or might not work till Giphy approves my account.

Similar Threads​

You might have already seen them. They would also appear when you are posting a new thread so you would be able to see if an existing thread exists on the same topic. This might cause some annoyance while posting a new thread. Remains to be seen.

New Editor​

I am not a fan but it's sort of unavoidable. It does fix a few issues I have. But adds a few other issues so there's that. Good thing is that you can now insert a horizontal line. You can use headers as you might notice I used here. Quotes are visible in editor which is annoying.

New Lightbox​

Again, not a fan but it's here. I believe it supports pinch to zoom on mobile devices. To exit the lightbox view, swipe up or down.

If you have any questions, you can post here.
 
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Smh

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Quote rules are too strict. In generic x updates thread I think using quotes is required. Discussion is not on one topic

Else if the new reply is on new page (we don't know where it will be when replying) i will have to read the previous reply on different page to understand the context.

And it's actually a design issue on some level because the button says reply and there is another quote button. Some one not used to forums cannot know how it will work. Reply button should ideally work as a "comment" to the main post. Kind of reddit.


So changing reply to quick reply and disabling it's orginal functionality like this should be done XF 1.4 - Disable quote on reply button

Suprising why it's not already done on this forum to make quoting more difficult. I think @Sushubh removed all reply buttons from last post.
 
netomato

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I was thinking about few things that came to my mind just now. Feedback/Suggestions for @Sushubh

We all know hosting costs a ton and for sites like IBF I can't imagine how much it would be.
I think it mainly relies on ads which is not the way to go in the longer run.

I just want to share that can we bring a subscription service to IBF?

Like a user can pay 99₹ a month or 999₹ a year (Decided & Set By Sushubh). And get access to ad free IBF experience + Verification check next to their name + A dedicated option for premium members to create a thread where only premium members can engage & reply. Normal members can view only.

I know this might sound discriminative but we have to understand that majority of users use Adblockers which hugely impacts the running of this site. We might be certain about few years but in the long term this would be beneficial.

Also something else we can have is exclusive reactions & emojis. Premium members can react with many more emojis, have GIF profile picture, have more themes, have direct chat with other premium menbers and get other additional features (which I can't think of because I don't know the limitations of XenForo).

I know it might be very difficult to implement these but if they come then it will be a lot better. Honestly it might seem like the idea is stolen from Twitter or Telegram but for me platforms like IBF are crucial. So new additions + QoL improving changes are awesome. It definitely adds more value than just 99₹ a month.

Share any more ideas if you guys have.
 
netomato

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@Sushubh Okay, A small question.

Can someone get an archive of the whole site (only posts & threads).
Just to preserve it as a whole in a format that they can't ripoff to copy to their own forum like site in the future.

If somebody wants to have all that archived information stored. Approximately how much TB's it'll occupy?

And is it even possible to share an archive like this?
 
Jonas

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Forum seems to be loading a bit slow for the last few days. Images either don’t load or take really long to load and the main site takes relatively long to load at times. Not sure if it’s an issue at my end.
 
SVK

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I wanted to quote and reply some post in thread as there were 5-6 posts after that post.
But I don't see Reply button now. Has it been removed for all?
 
netomato

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Might be off topic but this is a really cool feature.
b35WmjQ.jpg
 
Jonas

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There used to be a thinking emoji to react on posts. Why was it removed 🤔
 
Sushubh

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I haven't changed reactions since the days it was launched. Iirc i manually added facepalm and removed one of the default one at that time.
 
SVK

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Oops Server error occured message is displayed when trying to post from Desktop Firefox browser.
Posted this from mobile Firefox browser.
Tried logout login, yet same error on desktop.
 

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