Xenforo

[D]

hahahah 😛

Audentio also make premium XenForo themes, That darkice theme is nice.

Your second theme listed looks like a recolor of default mybb TBH.

I don't know who made that third theme but that is exactly the same as the default mybb theme, just looks like they made it worse IMO.

You cannot tell me I do not know what a custom theme is when you post this theme and tell me it is custom and not based off the default mybb theme with about 5 mins of work added to it: http://mods.mybb.com/uploads/previews/2 ... rindex.png

Why are you even continuing this argument? You obviously do not know a thing about forum designs, Kavin was stating his opinion/views and I respect that but you were posting a bunch of non-factual rubbish with examples of themes that hardly even break out of the mybb shell.

May I ask, WTF is Askmite?

 

[karoshio]

^ Great points you make there shady.

That theme is creditable in 20 minutes, including graphics


I don't know why the XenForo structure is getting so much hate,
It's a damn nice set up also if you seriously look at some custom designs you will see the real work in what has been done.

Just because MyBB has less features allowing for people to easily rip apart and replace does not make it better.

 

[euantor]

Okay okay If you call any of those XF themes custom you do not know what custom is.... like kavin said, those are all using the same default structure.

If you would like an example of a custom theme look here -

http://www.audentio.com/images/portfoli ... arkice.jpg - Cheap Premium Theme

http://mods.mybb.com/view/dark-fusion-2 - Which is free !

http://mods.mybb.com/view/blaze-red - Again free

Not to mention the complete phpbb theme port to MyBB by guess who Kavin .


See how different it is compared to the default mybb theme. That is custom and I have yet to see one single XF with that kind of customization.

The most customized theme for XF I have seen is the wizkid style at fixitwizkid.com and even that has no structure differences.


As for the spam argument, Might I add MyBB comes with Askmite and Recaptcha by default now. Then there is the spam ninja which will be built in very soon.

To be honest, you haven't given great examples there. Blaze red is just... eurgh. Dark fusion isn't amazing and isn't all that highly customised either. Dark Ice is nice though. Also, a port of a theme from another software really doesn't count in my opinion.

Before anyone says something against me, I do use MyBB quite heavily and have done for some time. I can, however, see the merits of xenForo to some people even though I'm happy with my own software choice.

@ShadyX: I believe he was referring to "Akismet" - which, while a good service, does have a lot of false positives.

 

[NBK*Twitch]

LOL okay enough of arguing with you. Proof is right in front of you yet you ignore it. That is pure fanboyism there.

Go ahead and believe what you want though lol.. It doesn't hurt me 😀.

 

[D]

What proof are you talking about Twitch? This? http://mods.mybb.com/uploads/previews/2 ... rindex.png

Nothing you posted made any real sense to me, you didn't post any mybb styles that are remotly close to breaking out of the mybb default shell and with the examples you posted you pretty much contradicted yourself.

I know both MyBB and XenForo have some amazing themes, pretty much all forum software do if you look deep enough. It is not fanboyism, I do really like MyBB and I would reccomend it to anybody seeking a free forum software but for those who can afford a paid solution I highly reccomend XenForo over anything else.

@Ace (Getting back on topic), If you have the funds and want to give xenforo a shot then go for it, I took the plundge and moved from vBulletin back in Febuary. That is paid software to another paid software, so you can see that I took a risk since XenForo was really new at the time but it paid off, my fourm is flourishing now using XenForo and I couldn't be any happier with the way things are going.

I advise you check a demo of xenforo and take a look around the admincp, I know things might look alien at first but you will get used to it and love it compared to what you was using previously. Go take a look around other XenForo sites and see how it feels for you as a member to interact using XF, Have a look at what styles and addons are available and if you are not satisfied with what you see then you can always stick with what you have now. Nobody should force you to change, It should be your own decision.

Whatever option you choose good luck and have a merry christmas!

I'm out.

 

[kavin]

And to sum up my part, as ShadyX said, MyBB is best free software, and xenforo is the best pad one. We can't really sum up which one is better among them.
A forum software should be chosen considering a few things..
1) Which audience you are targeting.
If you are targeting non-technical people, then you should find a forum software which is extremely simple and user friendly. if you are going to target webmasters, then ofcourse you will need a powerful forum software (ofcourse all major forum softwares like phpbb, MyBB, SMF, VB, IPB, Xenforo are powerful).

2) What features it has:
Consider you forum is around photo sharing. Then you will need a forum software with proper gallery feature or atleast an addon.

Why you need to change from previous one?
if you miss some features in your old forum, which can't be achieved through plugin too, then you cna look for alternatives that has the feature.


And analyze whether you really need a software change. Because users will most probably suggest one software or other always. Consider you now switch to xenforo, and then if IPB release a new version and its lot better, then people would start to suggest to change it. Change software if you really want to change it, need to change it and have money to do it. 😀

Good luck.

 

[Nebulous]

After seeing countless threads about which software is "the best" and seeing all the petty arguments over the years, I've lost all will to debate the topic.

 

[David]

After seeing countless threads about which software is "the best" and seeing all the petty arguments over the years, I've lost all will to debate the topic.

^ This.

But, I will make a few related points. The argument behind a software looking better is redundant. It's the theme designers and developers who make a "software" look good. The default theme of XenForo is aesthetically better, but it's still a redundant argument because the MyBB default theme doesn't "need" to be changed. It's free and the userbase is large enough for word to get out that there are other themes out there.

XenForo, on the other hand, requires a decent looking default theme. It's a paid software, and any paid software needs to have a distinct aestheticism, otherwise it's a marketing nightmare. People won't recognize it and you're losing a lot of potential money.

The argument behind the exact same looking theme, just different colours, is again, redundant. A software requires certain features to be displayed in certain areas so it has its uniqueness. Do you really think XenForo is going to design their core code structure to look like vB or IPB or MyBB or PhpBB? How would you recognize the difference? The default XenForo location for the login/registration and statistics makes it unique compared to other software. Whilst only a small part of the software (all small parts add up), if it weren't located there, why choose XenForo?

There are plenty of XenForo themes which are not just colour changes. Check out XenFocus themes. Clearly they are a little more than a colour switch, but are still recognizable to be XenForo (although the better ones make XenForo or any other software indistinguishable).

You can replace XenForo with any other paid software name.

If you want to debate my points of clarification, I'll sum it up here:
1) theezy is correct.
2) The "software" doesn't look better, it's the theme/skin.
3) XenForo's default theme are required to make it unique and marketable.
4) XenForo's default component locations are required to make it unique and marketable.
5) XenForo themes can be altered to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
6) The above points can be made for any software (in the 3rd point, change "paid" to "free" for free software)

 

[Luke]

If you have the cash, I would say go for it. Xenforo is current, myBB IMO is the past. Whilst it may not be free (XF) by the looks of things it's worth every cent. But if you think people are just going to join because you have paid software, you could end up disappointed 😛

 

[Darthmaul]

After seeing countless threads about which software is "the best" and seeing all the petty arguments over the years, I've lost all will to debate the topic.

After reading the countless enormous posts in this thread, yours seems to say it best 😉
Also, David has some awesome points. Overall, you've both got it right IMO 😉

 

[karoshio]

@DavidL.

You make some good points but one thing I must say is that you said about themes making software Indiatinguishable but you can always tell, no matter what an that's the thing you always know it's a certain software noatrer how modified.

This makes me wonder why the he'll a bitching about not standard layouts, etc. If something looks nice then it looks nice regardless.
You don't need to move parts of a structure around or anything to achieve that.