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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One of the main issues with Xenforo as I see it is the outdated "What's new".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" which can be viewed here as example

Forum list

Community of Honey Harbour and surrounding area. Blogs, classified ads, event calendar, community messaging, and regional news.
honeyharbour.ca honeyharbour.ca

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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What I've been wanting to do for a long time is build out the Latest Activity feed page to achieve what you just described:

Latest activity

honeyharbour.ca honeyharbour.ca
(or https://honeyharbour.ca/whats-new/news-feed for logged in users)

That page has the potential to be very powerful, especially if it was fully templatized and modular, allowing the admin to pick and choose what elements are displayed and how they get displayed. As of now, there is pretty much no way to modify how that feed looks via templates. I could see that page being the catalyst for all engagement with the forum, with reactions being shown next to content, people being able to react to content right on that page, post comments on that page, etc. If it was all templatized, you could make it look and function a lot like a Facebook feed.

The first step would be to make all the elements available for the page in templates in order to allow for custom layouts. The second step would be to make it possible to engage with content directly on that page. Content could be expanded with JS to view more, similar to the way FB does it. So much could be done with this, and many forum owners who are looking for ways to have a "crossover" style page that appeals to the masses who are more familiar with social media apps that use feeds like this would be interested in this.
 
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So I'd like to hear from 021 on this. If we can agree to a mutual format and he's willing to allow as to co-sponsor this add-on I think it could be much better than I originally planned.

Gemma. Are you interested in the development of this project?
 
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Seeker-Smith said:
So I'd like to hear from 021 on this. If we can agree to a mutual format and he's willing to allow as to co-sponsor this add-on I think it could be much better than I originally planned.

Gemma. Are you interested in the development of this project?
Click to expand...
Should invite Sal over from the XF forum too.
 
Gemma
Seeker-Smith said:
Gemma. Are you interested in the development of this project?
Click to expand...
I'm unsure, so probably not. Yes, I agree the What's New/Latest Activity feed needs a lot of work and I'm very interested in new ways of delivering content but I couldn't think of anything I'd like less for my forum than a system that is anything like Facebook or social media sites.

This would be a huge undertake first you would need a system in place that could bring ALL forum/content types under one feed, then you would need to work out filters (prefixes, content types, followers etc) - I've talked to 3 or 4 developers about this in the past and no-one would go anywhere near it because of the complexity (which would obviously mean much higher development costs). Themehouse came close with their Feeds add-on but it still didn't work as most people would like.

So, back to the question - no, I'll sit this one out, maybe get some development done to my current set-up, and wait see what happens with XF 3.0. But good luck :)
 
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Gemma said:
I'm unsure, so probably not. Yes, I agree the What's New/Latest Activity feed needs a lot of work and I'm very interested in new ways of delivering content but I couldn't think of anything I'd like less for my forum than a system that is anything like Facebook or social media sites.

This would be a huge undertake first you would need a system in place that could bring ALL forum/content types under one feed, then you would need to work out filters (prefixes, content types, followers etc) - I've talked to 3 or 4 developers about this in the past and no-one would go anywhere near it because of the complexity (which would obviously mean much higher development costs). Themehouse came close with their Feeds add-on but it still didn't work as most people would like.

So, back to the question - no, I'll sit this one out, maybe get some development done to my current set-up, and wait see what happens with XF 3.0. But good luck :)
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I wish I could afford to take that position, but the reality in my niche and many others is, social media-style feeds are the new standard the masses are used to, so I have to try and adapt to what the users expect. It doesn't have to be forced upon the membership, but I have to try and make it an option people can use.

As I see it now, most content types are already displayed in the Latest Activity feed (and user News Feed), as are prefixes. The tricky part is likely the posting functionality - being able to post content to various content types right there on that page. But maybe that gets addressed by making it so clicking comment or reply brings up a popup modal for the required form. That would be perfectly fine. Being able to react to all the different content types shouldn't be terribly difficult I wouldn't think.
 
Gemma
Ludachris said:
As I see it now, most content types are already displayed in the Latest Activity feed (and user News Feed)
Click to expand...
Yes, that is true - but what happens if you only want to display something like Showcase items or Classifieds, or make it filtered by prefixes? You've got to have the system in place to allow that to happen. I'd imagine most of us would like it to be user-configurable too, so our members could pick and choose what they want in their feed. Again, that can only be done if all the content/thread types are covered in the first place - I use all of Bob's addons, take Showcase for example - the content types for that alone are - Showcase item pages, Showcase item ratings, Showcase item rating replies, Showcase item series, Showcase item updates, Showcase item update replies - and that's the least complex of his addons - all of those content types appear in the current news feeds but there is nothing that allows searching, filtering etc - you can't click on a prefix and get only news feed items for prefix A or prefix B.

Maybe people aren't looking for all the searching, filtering features but that is something I'd want and need.

Ludachris said:
The tricky part is likely the posting functionality - being able to post content to various content types right there on that page.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of that functionality is already in place, looking at the link @Seeker-Smith posted in the OP you can see the Hierarchical posts forums in action (I have an earlier version on my site so I know how it works), I don't think it would take too much to make it compatible with the news feed (well, not for someone who knows what they are doing like @021).
 
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Gemma said:
Yes, that is true - but what happens if you only want to display something like Showcase items or Classifieds, or make it filtered by prefixes? You've got to have the system in place to allow that to happen. I'd imagine most of us would like it to be user-configurable too, so our members could pick and choose what they want in their feed. Again, that can only be done if all the content/thread types are covered in the first place - I use all of Bob's addons, take Showcase for example - the content types for that alone are - Showcase item pages, Showcase item ratings, Showcase item rating replies, Showcase item series, Showcase item updates, Showcase item update replies - and that's the least complex of his addons - all of those content types appear in the current news feeds but there is nothing that allows searching, filtering etc - you can't click on a prefix and get only news feed items for prefix A or prefix B.

Maybe people aren't looking for all the searching, filtering features but that is something I'd want and need.


I think a lot of that functionality is already in place, looking at the link @Seeker-Smith posted in the OP you can see the Hierarchical posts forums in action (I have an earlier version on my site so I know how it works), I don't think it would take too much to make it compatible with the news feed (well, not for someone who knows what they are doing like @021).
Click to expand...
I'd love to take a peek at your site(s) - PM me if you'd rather not make them public. I'm using SC, Classfieds, AMS, and IMS at the moment on a couple automotive sites.

I can see a filter being pretty nice, and I agree, making it fully configurable would be great in the long run, but I would first want to get something "simple" working with basic functionality to see how it goes and then move on to that in phase two if the users request it.
 
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Gemma said:
Yes, that is true - but what happens if you only want to display something like Showcase items or Classifieds, or make it filtered by prefixes? You've got to have the system in place to allow that to happen. I'd imagine most of us would like it to be user-configurable too, so our members could pick and choose what they want in their feed. Again, that can only be done if all the content/thread types are covered in the first place - I use all of Bob's addons, take Showcase for example - the content types for that alone are - Showcase item pages, Showcase item ratings, Showcase item rating replies, Showcase item series, Showcase item updates, Showcase item update replies - and that's the least complex of his addons - all of those content types appear in the current news feeds but there is nothing that allows searching, filtering etc - you can't click on a prefix and get only news feed items for prefix A or prefix B.

Maybe people aren't looking for all the searching, filtering features but that is something I'd want and need.


I think a lot of that functionality is already in place, looking at the link @Seeker-Smith posted in the OP you can see the Hierarchical posts forums in action (I have an earlier version on my site so I know how it works), I don't think it would take too much to make it compatible with the news feed (well, not for someone who knows what they are doing like @021).
Click to expand...
I’m using the same hierarchical posts as you. But I have another add-on called Simple forums. We’re still working it but it has some neat features. User sortable forums plus a My feed where the user can move favourite forums. Also a hidden folder that allows users to put forums they don’t want. The My feed stays hidden until used and the hidden stays hidden.

It also has a new announcement area above the first post.
 
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Ludachris said:
first want to get something "simple" working with basic functionality to see how it goes and then move on to that in phase two if the users request it.
Click to expand...
That is the first step. My two other add-o ns mentioned have been designed with the new what’s new in mind. I want users to be able to interact with the main feed without loading new pages. Not possible with standard forums.
 
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Gemma
Ludachris said:
I'd love to take a peek at your site(s) - PM me if you'd rather not make them public. I'm using SC, Classfieds, AMS, and IMS at the moment on a couple automotive sites.
Click to expand...
Nothing exciting really, we're just a small community site for a group of real-life friends and some of my work clients, a private and invite-only site so a lot of our features are hidden but parts of SC, IMS, and AMS are visible to guests - CAS, UBS, and RMS are hidden - https://idlechatter.co.uk or my showcase thread on XF.com - https://xenforo.com/community/threads/idle-chatter-a-general-discussion-community.211990/

Gemma said:
I'm unsure, so probably not
Click to expand...
Seeker-Smith said:
I want users to be able to interact with the main feed without loading new pages. Not possible with standard forums
Click to expand...

I like your vision but I think we're on different paths with our ideas so I'll bail out here :)
 
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Gemma said:
Nothing exciting really, we're just a small community site for a group of real-life friends and some of my work clients, a private and invite-only site so a lot of our features are hidden but parts of SC, IMS, and AMS are visible to guests - CAS, UBS, and RMS are hidden - https://idlechatter.co.uk or my showcase thread on XF.com - https://xenforo.com/community/threads/idle-chatter-a-general-discussion-community.211990/




I like your vision but I think we're on different paths with our ideas so I'll bail out here :)
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I get it. My thinking is to start with a basic idea. Also about thread types. The way we're handling it now with mixed thread types works pretty well.

In this example you can see how a normal forum works next to a hierarchical posts forum. If you open both forums the threads are exposed. Clicking the first forum shows the new format opening the second shows a standard type. I think this will work for the What's new as well.

Check it here on a test mock up I' working on https://honeyharbour.ca/forums/#motorcycle-riders-groups.38
 
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Gemma said:
Nothing exciting really, we're just a small community site for a group of real-life friends and some of my work clients, a private and invite-only site so a lot of our features are hidden but parts of SC, IMS, and AMS are visible to guests - CAS, UBS, and RMS are hidden - https://idlechatter.co.uk or my showcase thread on XF.com - https://xenforo.com/community/threads/idle-chatter-a-general-discussion-community.211990/
Click to expand...
I love how you're using the Latest Activity as the default content on the main page - that's essentially the page I want to make more powerful. Very nice way of making it not look like a traditional forum. Well done.
 
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Yeah, that's a lot like what I had in mind, at least in terms of the way the user can interact and engage (like/comment/share) and see who has engaged with the content directly in the feed. But I'd like to keep the traditional forum layout everywhere outside the feed page(s), which that site doesn't do.

Can't find what platform they're using with BuiltWith.
 
021
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/

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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 🦾
 
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