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Under consideration Improving the 'What's New' Feed in Xenforo

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What's new feed.

One of the main issues with Xenforo as I see it is the outdated "What's new". In my mind I think the feed should literally be the landing page of the site. Members should be able to interact and get a better overall view of what's happening.

Thing's I want:
  • simple clean listing
  • threads that open in the same page
  • users being able to comment within the same page
  • content from threads, profiles, friends, your content, media, media comments, your followers or people you follow
Because a typical thread is page based this obviously will work best with the new thread type "Hierarchical posts forums".

I'm completely open for ideas and feedback on this. 021 and I have discussed it at length but nothing is written in stone.

Cheers,
Peter
 
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Gemma
021 said:
I already have a base for such add-on and I can improve it so that comments for different contents can be left on one page. The add-on already supports the following content types: posts, profile posts, media, articles, blogs, social group posts (Truonglv). I see that a lot of people are interested in this and maybe we should announce a crowdfunding campaign to develop this thing?
Click to expand...
Looks great, very similar to what I consider a feed should look like.

Edit: Looks quite similar to the Audentio/Themehouse Feeds addon too, that had some cool features like promoting and bumping threads but, imo, was let down by the card view design and incompatibility with different thread/content types, so I'll be very interested to see how this develops.
 
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F
I already created a project and requested from a developer to develop it. I will have a chat with him. if he is not going to start, I will share my idea here you maybe interested.
 
F
Hi,
We've talked before about how XenForo users are increasingly looking for ways to see more of what's happening, more easily. While XenForo's traditional forum structure works great for organized discussions, it sometimes struggles to keep up with what people expect from online experiences today.

Think about it: we're all used to getting information in bite-sized, personalized feeds. People have shorter attention spans, and they want to quickly find the content that matters most to them. A good feed feature could really help with this by:
  • Making sure the best stuff doesn't get lost.
  • Giving the forum a more 'live' feel, so people see new activity and updates as they happen.
  • Helping users discover interesting things they might otherwise miss.
  • Bringing XenForo more in line with the kind of experience people expect from modern platforms.
The bottom line is that relying just on chronological lists and static layouts isn't always the best way to keep people engaged these days. A well-designed feed, perhaps with some smart features to show the most relevant content, could make a big difference in how active and vibrant XenForo communities are.

I truly believe that developing a comprehensive Feed addon would be a huge improvement for XenForo. It would address a real need from users and make the whole experience feel much more modern and engaging.

Thanks for considering this! I'm really excited about the possibilities here.

Menu, view and filter options. There will be 4 menu options as List, and 3 different designs. Allowing admins to design their menu can be advantageous. The menu choice will be selected by the Admin. Addon will support the items in the List menu (we can remove some items with similar functionality).
XenForo Feed.webp

Slide2.webp


Card view, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
Slide3.webp


Comfortable, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
Slide4.webp


Compact
Slide5.webp
 
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L
021 said:
Hi, guys!

I already have a base for such add-on and I can improve it so that comments for different contents can be left on one page. The add-on already supports the following content types: posts, profile posts, media, articles, blogs, social group posts (Truonglv). I see that a lot of people are interested in this and maybe we should announce a crowdfunding campaign to develop this thing? 🤔
URL: https://feed.gnz.is/feed/

Basic Auth Credentials
admin
d$[4.,_M3@:<*29=]FrQe}

But! When people talk about integrating modern social media features, it often feels like they're imagining the old XenForo interface with some new functionality layered on. But let's be honest – XenForo is outdated at its core. Why should the community keep patching up an aging system piece by piece, when we could be building something fresh and future-ready?

My long-term vision is to create a brand-new engine based on modern technologies like Vue and Laravel. We can keep tweaking the old system endlessly, but if the original developers aren't actively evolving it, should the community really be investing time and money into keeping it alive? If we manage to raise $20,000-$30,000 at the initial stage, this will already give a good chance of developing a truly new life in the forums sphere, rather than investing in a half-dead product.

In any case, even without this, I personally plan to invest my own resources in such a project and want it to be source-available – that is, the code was available to everyone and everyone could contribute to the development of the project, but commercial use will be limited. I really hope we can release something fresh in the coming years with the help of a community from all over the world 🦾
Click to expand...
As for the add-on preview - I see it has comments and share, but no reactions. Also, it looks to be just for the user feed, not the entire site feed. I would need to have other content types included, like Bob's addons. But it looks like a good start. It looks closer to the Profile Posts feed, which appears to have most of the functionality we're looking for.

As for the new forum software vision, I'm with you on that. I would love to see forum software evolve more into community software, not necessarily social media software. But some of the aspects that people have come to expect in social media apps will need to be built in, as that is the expected behavior for online communities now. It's amazing how more and more people don't understand how a forum works anymore. If you have to explain how to use your site, you've already lost some of your users. I am happy to see that someone is invested in some type of future vision.
 
F
Fatih said:
Hi,
We've talked before about how XenForo users are increasingly looking for ways to see more of what's happening, more easily. While XenForo's traditional forum structure works great for organized discussions, it sometimes struggles to keep up with what people expect from online experiences today.

Think about it: we're all used to getting information in bite-sized, personalized feeds. People have shorter attention spans, and they want to quickly find the content that matters most to them. A good feed feature could really help with this by:
  • Making sure the best stuff doesn't get lost.
  • Giving the forum a more 'live' feel, so people see new activity and updates as they happen.
  • Helping users discover interesting things they might otherwise miss.
  • Bringing XenForo more in line with the kind of experience people expect from modern platforms.
The bottom line is that relying just on chronological lists and static layouts isn't always the best way to keep people engaged these days. A well-designed feed, perhaps with some smart features to show the most relevant content, could make a big difference in how active and vibrant XenForo communities are.

I truly believe that developing a comprehensive Feed addon would be a huge improvement for XenForo. It would address a real need from users and make the whole experience feel much more modern and engaging.

Thanks for considering this! I'm really excited about the possibilities here.

Menu, view and filter options. There will be 4 menu options as List, and 3 different designs. Allowing admins to design their menu can be advantageous. The menu choice will be selected by the Admin. Addon will support the items in the List menu (we can remove some items with similar functionality).
View attachment 2340
View attachment 2341

Card view, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
View attachment 2342

Comfortable, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
View attachment 2343

Compact
View attachment 2344
Click to expand...
@021 are you interested to implement something similar? or you will just improve existing addon?
 
S
I’ve been watching the updates to this thread. In my opinion I think 021’s feed option is probably the best option for what most of you want.

But for the time being I’m going to hold off.
 
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F
Seeker-Smith said:
I’ve been watching the updates to this thread. In my opinion I think 021’s feed option is probably the best option for what most of you want.

But for the time being I’m going to hold off.
Click to expand...
There is an alternative @Gemma is using effectively. if @021 is not interested in further improving and enhancing the addon. I will touch base with the alternative.
 
L
Fatih said:
Hi,
We've talked before about how XenForo users are increasingly looking for ways to see more of what's happening, more easily. While XenForo's traditional forum structure works great for organized discussions, it sometimes struggles to keep up with what people expect from online experiences today.

Think about it: we're all used to getting information in bite-sized, personalized feeds. People have shorter attention spans, and they want to quickly find the content that matters most to them. A good feed feature could really help with this by:
  • Making sure the best stuff doesn't get lost.
  • Giving the forum a more 'live' feel, so people see new activity and updates as they happen.
  • Helping users discover interesting things they might otherwise miss.
  • Bringing XenForo more in line with the kind of experience people expect from modern platforms.
The bottom line is that relying just on chronological lists and static layouts isn't always the best way to keep people engaged these days. A well-designed feed, perhaps with some smart features to show the most relevant content, could make a big difference in how active and vibrant XenForo communities are.

I truly believe that developing a comprehensive Feed addon would be a huge improvement for XenForo. It would address a real need from users and make the whole experience feel much more modern and engaging.

Thanks for considering this! I'm really excited about the possibilities here.

Menu, view and filter options. There will be 4 menu options as List, and 3 different designs. Allowing admins to design their menu can be advantageous. The menu choice will be selected by the Admin. Addon will support the items in the List menu (we can remove some items with similar functionality).
View attachment 2340
View attachment 2341

Card view, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
View attachment 2342

Comfortable, all action buttons such as like, share, reply and follow will be active in this view.
View attachment 2343

Compact
View attachment 2344
Click to expand...
I think this addresses a lot of what needs to be in a "News Feed Essentials" addon. More ways for people to find new/latest content in the forum and also allowing them to interact and engage with that new content quickly. That's the goal.

I'll add in a suggestion from another forum owner - using AI to summarize all new posts in a thread since the last time you viewed it. Let's say the OP added 3 new posts with several paragraphs, there could be a shortened AI summary of what was posted (how many replies, etc).
 
L
021 said:
Hi, guys!

I already have a base for such add-on and I can improve it so that comments for different contents can be left on one page. The add-on already supports the following content types: posts, profile posts, media, articles, blogs, social group posts (Truonglv). I see that a lot of people are interested in this and maybe we should announce a crowdfunding campaign to develop this thing? 🤔
URL: https://feed.gnz.is/feed/

Basic Auth Credentials
admin
d$[4.,_M3@:<*29=]FrQe}

But! When people talk about integrating modern social media features, it often feels like they're imagining the old XenForo interface with some new functionality layered on. But let's be honest – XenForo is outdated at its core. Why should the community keep patching up an aging system piece by piece, when we could be building something fresh and future-ready?

My long-term vision is to create a brand-new engine based on modern technologies like Vue and Laravel. We can keep tweaking the old system endlessly, but if the original developers aren't actively evolving it, should the community really be investing time and money into keeping it alive? If we manage to raise $20,000-$30,000 at the initial stage, this will already give a good chance of developing a truly new life in the forums sphere, rather than investing in a half-dead product.

In any case, even without this, I personally plan to invest my own resources in such a project and want it to be source-available – that is, the code was available to everyone and everyone could contribute to the development of the project, but commercial use will be limited. I really hope we can release something fresh in the coming years with the help of a community from all over the world 🦾
Click to expand...
Short term, I think a configurable News Feed addon would be a good bridge to achieve what many of us are looking for, and to test usage and response from our communities, then adjust as necessary. Long term, a new architecture would be an interesting project.
 
nameasd
Hi guys. I and a number of people have been looking for an open solution to this issue for several years.
In fact, you don't need to invent anything new, everything has already been thought up for you on Reddit.
We have our own analogues of this site like pikabu.ru or dtf.ru

As you can see, the most important functionality that people need is:
Feeds with preview thread:
Feed of recent posts (dtf)
A popular feed with the ability to sort like day/week/month/year (dtf)
Feed subscribed nodes with sorts ofc (dtf)

Nested comments with sort by likes/chrono
Nodes with the ability to sort like day/week/month/year (dtf) - posts inside nodes can even be left in the usual collapsed format.

(optionaly) Hiding viewed posts and the ability to bring them back (pikabu)
(optionaly) Personal ignore list by tags (pikabu)

Thats all!
Very simple view. This is what it takes for a very large number of people to form their communities, and I'm shocked why it hasn't been implemented on xenforo yet.
 
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