@Tracy
Reading many of your posts, I know you hate xenforo lol...
Actually I don't hate Xenforo, the same as I don't hate Invision. In some ways, Xenforo remains a solid forum script for those that want simple. For those that want a more expanded offering for their site in one package... Xenforo sucks extremely salty balls (no relation to Chef's chocolate salty balls) unless you have DEEP pockets, which most hobbyist do not have. In many ways, no matter what certain cult members may tell you, Invision self-hosted is a MUCH more fully encompassing site offering for less money when you start adding in the required add-ons to XF to get an equivalent feature set. And with Pages you can do stuff that XF never has even fantasized about and are most likely to be unable to code an equivalent product to do so before the year 2050 at their progress rate.
What I DO hate is some of the shitty XF (and other) developer attitudes that have become prevalent over the last few years. At least one of them (XF related) has done a drastic change and gotten an EXTREME case of big-head (and I don't mean the kind the ladies like) since he came onboard and is now apparently the "face" of Xenforo. As I've gotten older (and after my last health scare issue), I don't have time to play their kids games and have become rather blunt in my responses and it appears that Chris D. couldn't take the heat being given. I'm simply not going to kiss their (or anyones) arse to make them feels special (are they special needs children?), as the current XF development staff is not the same (attitude wise) as it was in 2012. And as someone who has been using XF since 2012 and was "fairly" active on their support site, I think I have a pretty good clue about the changes that slowly started occurring. I'm just not a cult member that is blind to it.
That's the thing. Seems like Chris and some others cannot separate themselves from Xenforo. You can criticize the person while still liking the product. But I've come to realize that a few of those XF developers are snowflakes, and Chris leads that pack as he cannot take direct criticism and being directly called out by name. I've also realized that there is a definite XF cult membership core of worshippers that do play the part of the "official fluffers".
I continue to recommend XF to folks if it fits their needs profile. I don't let the actions of "temper tantrum" Chris and his merry band of fellow idiots impact that.
But if the people I discourse with need a more fully encompassing site offering, I do recommend that they look elsewhere also as Xenforo and it's "add-on only" attitude can "nickel and dime" you to death once you start adding all the 3rd party add-ons into the mix with their initial cost and yearly renewals.
I don't even add mine up now as I know that I would get upset (and my spouse definitely would) - out of site out of mind attitude in play. I know the ball-park amount, and I could be buying a new IMX571 sensor based camera every year for what it is.
Since I don't monetize my site, that's basically money wasted the way most people look at it. But I look at it as an extension to my hobby (which is niche) and not a money making proposition. Site has been up for 5-6 years now and doesn't get much posting activity, but it gets a LOT of activity from folks accessing resources (some of which are hard to find now and directly hosted from the site) and reading the guides,. So from my POV, it's doing what I want it (and meant for it) to do. It's not the Xenforo script itself (which hasn't given me much of ANYtHING that I can use on it in the last few years and in many ways is lagging behind competitors) that keeps me on Xenforo, but a certain developers 3rd party add-ons.
All you have to do is look at the last few years of "advances/improvements" that Xenforo has brought out and VERY few of them affect the actual end user directly... and guess what keeps your site active? It sure as hell ain't an API function that sits unused. But a function that would allow you to do searches based upon custom fields (which custom fields I remind you have been in the script for YEARS) would be a god-send, even if it did require ElasticSearch - which most that would want that ability are already using (and paying extra money for a 1st party extension that needs a 3rd party add-on to make it actually useful).
It SURE would be nice to be able to do searches (or filtering) based upon one (or multiple) of those fields in the above image. And I KNOW I'm not the only one that has mentioned (and asked for) that (at least
since 2018). And it has been ignored but has received more votes than other things that they DID implement, because..... and that because is that doesn't stroke the XF developer ego enough. They need that praise from other XF related (3rd party and even a VERY few license holder/admins) that they get when they "tickle their fancy" of something developer targeted.
It's like a certain sect of the XF developers enjoy taking a hammer (not a tack hammer but a 16 pound sledge) to their tender bits and hitting it repeatedly the way they keep missing what a large number of their license holders ask for. And they now continue to do it because of ingrained behavior and a certain sect that continues to "fluffer" them.
And now that other scripts are starting to offer some of those features, I've seen (and helped in a few) migrations away from Xenforo.
Xenforo has been known for years to be more developer centered in their "improvements" and more "**** you" centered in end user improvements that are frequently asked for by their license holders.
And yeah, I have zero issue with expounding on what I see as the pros and cons of Xenforo... and could give zero rats asses about how it offends Chris and the merry band. I can also give the occasional bout of praise not to kiss their arse, but because it is deserved in a VERY few instances.
I'm actually what Chris (and other developres) dread.... someone that has no allegiance and is willing to call out what they see as BS with no worry about the results. ****, I pissed Chris off enough by calling him out that he got the rest of the group to agree to refusing me as a continuing customer because I basically hurt Baby Chris's feelers... and in 2 years, I honestly question at the current track of Xenforo if they will even being an ongoing concern.
