Administrata meets Invision

[Cedric]

Hi everyone,

First off, welcome to the new Administrata: Invision.

For some of you, this might come as a surprise. For others, it’ll take a bit of adjustment. And for many, it’ll feel like coming home. Let me explain why we’ve made the switch.

XenForo’s development has been disappointing for months - arguably years - with little meaningful progress. There’s been a lot of talk, but not enough action. Meanwhile, Invision Community V5 has been steadily evolving, offering strong content discovery tools, solid SEO features, and consistent updates. It just made sense. With much more to come in the near future.

Of course, with any transition, there are trade-offs. We’ve lost a few add-ons, and parts of the forum will need to be reworked. Some things will go, others will be introduced. The goal is to simplify, focus on content, and provide a better experience - whether you're on mobile or desktop.

Give us a little time to get everything set up properly. We promise - it’ll be worth it.

Thanks for sticking with us,
– Administrata

 

[Gizmo]

Very interesting. I'll check it out at some point.

 

[Katrina]

Well now, that looks different from before. I prefer the other look because it was more graphically inviting and this is just like every other forum now? You say you're still working on it, so maybe the look will improve soon enough. I know people don't visit for looks and having good content is key.

 

[Bryn]

A switch from Xenforo? That's a first... and I'm surprised that it isn't all green grass and blue skies regarding it.

Anyways, despite the few teething problems that some may experience and such, I wish you the best of luck with this move @Cedric 👍

 

[Deathstarr]

Can't say i disagree, Xenforo has been slow at rolling stuff out and I do not even own a forum anymore. The forum looks good but different, I am sure a few tweaks here and there would make it better. I always preferred the traditional look of a forum - so it may be a me thing. IPB is a choice but besides Xenforo its about the only choice now day. IPB lost me around IPB4 and the pricing gouges. Good luck as always.

 

[Cedric]

Well now, that looks different from before. I prefer the other look because it was more graphically inviting and this is just like every other forum now? You say you're still working on it, so maybe the look will improve soon enough. I know people don't visit for looks and having good content is key.

I’m honestly not fussed about a theme anymore. I’ll adapt the current theme over time, but the content discovery is what we’ll be focusing on. Members really don’t care how a forum looks, as long as the content is there.

 

[Cedric]

A switch from Xenforo? That's a first... and I'm surprised that it isn't all green grass and blue skies regarding it.

Anyways, despite the few teething problems that some may experience and such, I wish you the best of luck with this move @Cedric 👍

It’s still a great software. There’s things I love about it, but they don’t outweigh the slow development anymore. I made a small blog piece about it here.

 

[Cedric]

Can't say i disagree, Xenforo has been slow at rolling stuff out and I do not even own a forum anymore. The forum looks good but different, I am sure a few tweaks here and there would make it better. I always preferred the traditional look of a forum - so it may be a me thing. IPB is a choice but besides Xenforo its about the only choice now day. IPB lost me around IPB4 and the pricing gouges. Good luck as always.

V5 is a lot different. I wasn’t a fan of 4 either, but the V5 version is very powerful. Try out a demo, you won’t regret it.

 

[Lord Saru]

I always have a softcorner for IPB because it was the software used by the first board that I ever joined.

However, I respectfully disagree when you say that appearance donot matter. That said, it is unreasonable for anyone to expect that a webmaster will be able to find a theme that suits everyone's likes.

The changes are great, I will check it out more soon.

 

[Cedric]

I always have a softcorner for IPB because it was the software used by the first board that I ever joined.

However, I respectfully disagree when you say that appearance donot matter. That said, it is unreasonable for anyone to expect that a webmaster will be able to find a theme that suits everyone's likes.

The changes are great, I will check it out more soon.

That’s the great thing about forums. We can discuss things and matters we disagree on. 😀

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to see you around.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Although I'm not a fan of Invision's outlandish management behavour I do think in general it's a good switch. Xenforo's slow development cycle has become their Achilles' heel e.g. their failure to integrate version 2 of the Tiptap editor demonstrates just how glacial things have become.

Invision Community has a rapid development cycle by comparision and far more potential for content discovery amoung other things. That does come at an increase in costs but it still represpents good value for your money in my view.

 

[Cedric]

Although I'm not a fan of Invision's outlandish management behavour I do think in general it's a good switch. Xenforo's slow development cycle has become their Achilles' heel e.g. their failure to integrate version 2 of the Tiptap editor demonstrates just how glacial things have become.

Invision Community has a rapid development cycle by comparision and far more potential for content discovery amoung other things. That does come at an increase in costs but it still represpents good value for your money in my view.

It’s honestly frustrating — the moment you point out their flaws on the forum, their entire fan club comes after you with sticks and stones. I'm just done with them. They seriously need a proper project manager to get things under control. And yeah, Invision isn’t cheap, but if you look at what you’re getting, it’s probably the best bang for your buck. XenForo, on the other hand, can easily rack up into the thousands once you start customizing and adding add-ons. Their core product is just too barebones.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think this was a good change! I'm looking forward to the future of Admininstrata now that it's on a better fitting platform and one that gets updated more often than Xenforo.

 

[HoleInTheGround.forum]

Fantastic move!

 

[Phun]

Amazing move and wonderful looking site as well.

 

[JBCreates]

Xenforo is a great piece of software that's becoming overloaded with ideas and changes that they want to do and trying to do it with a very small team. With TipTap v2 having been released back in 2023 and with v3 just going into beta, they should do a feature freeze of what they have currently in the works with XF 2.4. There comes a point where something new and cool is found and it would be great to have it be part of XF 2.4 but, you'll constantly be chasing that dragon.

I'm not bashing XF at all, as it was the first forum software I used back in the very early days. I love the software and if there was a project I thought would be good for it, I would go and renew my license that expired a few months ago. Currently IC suits my needs more while offering more built in features that I look forward in using soon. While both IC and XF have their pros/cons, IC ticks more of those boxes.

Sorry for going on there for a bit lol but, Administrata is looking good and looking forward to what the future is in store for the forum.

 

[CodyCool]

I think that is a first, and I will need to check it out sometime.

 

[cpvr]

The move to Invision is pretty smooth. The content discovery that invision offers is better than Xenforo. I'm a fan of both softwares as Invision was actually one of the first forum software that I used. It's shaping up quite nicely.

 

[CodyCool]

Good the hear the move was pretty smooth and I like both as well!

 

[TPerry]

A switch from Xenforo? That's a first... and I'm surprised that it isn't all green grass and blue skies regarding it.

Actually.. it's not a first. There have been other sites doing this because of the glacial slowness of XenForo bringing anything of real value to the table for what drives an owners site(s).... the actual users. The upgrades/"improvements" have historically (or some would say hysterically) been targeted more towards the 3rd party developers and admin specific improvements while ignoring the public facing aspect (the thing that drives users to a site). And it is honestly starting to bite them in the posterior. And I personally LMAO about it... as they have been regularly told about this and they chose to ignore those in their
Just look at them... They can't get a timely release out (blowing their estimated date out of the water and onto the nearest mountain top), the release that they are planning is heavily dependent upon 3rd party code that has either been donated to them or they have paid for and they really have brought a bare-bones minimum to the end user aspect over what is already available due to those add-ons that they have adopted and that they will slow-roll updates for compared to when they were 3rd party offerings.
Xenforo of today is not the Xenforo of 10 years ago. And if anyone, as a license holder cannot see that, then they really need to lay the crack pipe down.
Meanwhile, you have companies like Invision pushing forward on user interaction aspects... granted, maybe not in the best format, but at least they are trying instead of doing a "well, we've always done it this way" philosophy of Xenforo and their sycophant cheer-leaders supporting them in that, what many would consider an ignorant and egotistical outlook in believing that they know what is best for their license holders.

I used to be a big supporter of the script. Now I only use it because of certain 3rd party add-ons as the core offerings are sorely lacking. If other scripts had equivalent 3rd party offerings (in some cases their 1st party already exceed what XF offers) I would leave XF in a heartbeat. Chris, his fellow XF developers/staff and sycophants would probably cheer that. But currently certain 3rd party offerings keep me tethered to XF... not because they are a great script... but because they have some great 3rd party developers. I mean really... how long would you expect a developer to ignore improvements to 1st party add-ons like they have with XFMG, XFRM and XFES?