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- Jan 1, 2001
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Are you sitting down? Because wow, what a first week! With this article we will be taking a look back at the first seven days after Kier and Mike quietly opened their web site on July 29th, 2010.
Well, they were perhaps hoping it would go in a lower gear while they demo their alpha and get a first impression feedback. But within hours the news has spread and hundreds of users registered, and the first thousand posts were a fact.
But it didn’t end there.
For the last few years there was an unanimous thought going around the bulletin board system universe. The market leaders in free and commercial forum solutions were moving forward, but weren’t evolving (enough) to that innovating modern solution that would help site owners push their community to the next level, respecting todays web technologies.
With vBulletin 4 by Internet Brands not being received as well as vBulletin 3 by Jelsoft, and their lead develops parting ways, a negative tone has been set. Invest twice the money into a community and upgrade or convert to a solution that’s not that modern solution one needs? Some gave it a try, tried alternative forum packages, or decided to wait and see.
Through hints in blog entries, a Facebook group and Twitter messages, the rumors started growing that something was in the works by Kier and Mike, and we’ve now learned this is a forum solution, called XenForo, from their start up XenForo Limited.
And the BBS universe slowly started spreading the exciting news that there’s this new forum package that most likely is the answer to their questions. Key players, known faces, big board owners, and small to big companies started browsing around, signing up and posting. Within days there were hundreds of questions, suggestions and bug reports.
500 suggestions have been posted in the last week, please keep in mind that some of them were already implemented, or duplicate suggestions.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.9/
The tone on the site has been positive from the start. I have contacted my friends, and users on the site that I know by name: What is your honest first impression? And everybody basically replied: Very exciting news, I can’t believe this is first build, first alpha. It feels very stable and quite complete. It might need a feature here and there for it to be viable for me to consider converting to, but I will certainly buy a license. Very promising. And the XenFans team supports this thought. We’re as impressed as everybody else.
So what about the negatives? Yes, there are also negatives. While there are no security issues or showstopping bugs found yet, smaller issues were found, as well as of course crowd-found issues you simply can’t test for with just two people. What I found quite interesting is that during the hours of the day the bugs were reviewed, confirmed (or not) and fixed. And newer alpha 1 builds were pushed out. I guess the only other negative is that we simply don’t know the license scheme, the pricing or what the future might bring.
250 bug reports have been issued in the last week, please keep in mind some reports are not bugs, or duplicate reports.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-bug-reports.8/
Okay, let’s go over that week, with some statistics. It’s great and all that about a hundred people registered in the first day, making over a thousand posts. But that on its own is not a sign of potential success. Despite a positive mood on the board. So where are we now?
It’s been a bit over a week, and the statistics are a ten fold, and only growing. The community has a week of experience. This has been leading to more bug reports, and even more so in suggestions. And probably very little sleep for Kier and Mike, who’ve told us in a private conversation that they’re overwhelmed with the feedback (in a positive way). Well guys, we’re equally overwhelmed by the awesome work you’ve done with XenForo. And it’s showing that we are, with over a 1,000 members, 1,500 discussions and over 21,000 messages. The XenFans team has been working with communities for the last ten years, and we’ve only seen it a rare few times that a new board/community is this well received.
An amazing first week. Discussions have been flying around, comparisons with other forum solutions have been made. Speculations and “what if” topics have been created and answered by both Mike and Kier, as well as Ashley and the community moderators. Features have been tested and discussed in-depth, and the mood hasn’t changed. And I have to be honest here, it has been a while since I’ve posted a 1,000 times within a week. I’ve not only been posting to test the system and build experience, but the way the software is working, the user experience and the user interface, it’s smooth, logical, and functional; Inviting to use, and provocative to come back and check for updates. And I believe the same with happen with a lot of other people, including the members on my own boards. I see it around me, but I do hope everybody else shares that feeling / experience. And will, when they decide to convert their community over to XenForo.
Talking about staff members. It’s been a guessing game the first day who was involved, made what, and is on the team. We’ve learned the answers here first at XenFans, when we were invited to the alpha demo behind closed doors (a few hours before the community site went online). Mike and Kier are equal partners and developers in their start up XenForo Limited. And on their team is Ashley Busby (business manager).
During the first week they’ve introduced a couple of community moderators, Peggy and Lawrence to help with the vastly growing community.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements.2/
A look back at the first week of XenForo has learned us that there is a modern solution in the making for people who want to take their community to the next level, and that we’re all overwhelmed with the growth of XenForo.com/community, as well as the quality of version 1. And to demonstrate some tricks and tips these are the first glimpses of what XenForo can do.
http://vimeo.com/xenfans
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen.3/
I invite everybody to visit and register on xenforo.com, and play with the features. Search around first, but, feel free to post suggestions and especially bug reports. We think this first week shows us that it’s a great product, with a good future. And we can’t wait to install an instance here at on XenFans.com
Well, they were perhaps hoping it would go in a lower gear while they demo their alpha and get a first impression feedback. But within hours the news has spread and hundreds of users registered, and the first thousand posts were a fact.
But it didn’t end there.
For the last few years there was an unanimous thought going around the bulletin board system universe. The market leaders in free and commercial forum solutions were moving forward, but weren’t evolving (enough) to that innovating modern solution that would help site owners push their community to the next level, respecting todays web technologies.
With vBulletin 4 by Internet Brands not being received as well as vBulletin 3 by Jelsoft, and their lead develops parting ways, a negative tone has been set. Invest twice the money into a community and upgrade or convert to a solution that’s not that modern solution one needs? Some gave it a try, tried alternative forum packages, or decided to wait and see.
Through hints in blog entries, a Facebook group and Twitter messages, the rumors started growing that something was in the works by Kier and Mike, and we’ve now learned this is a forum solution, called XenForo, from their start up XenForo Limited.
And the BBS universe slowly started spreading the exciting news that there’s this new forum package that most likely is the answer to their questions. Key players, known faces, big board owners, and small to big companies started browsing around, signing up and posting. Within days there were hundreds of questions, suggestions and bug reports.
500 suggestions have been posted in the last week, please keep in mind that some of them were already implemented, or duplicate suggestions.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-suggestions.9/
The tone on the site has been positive from the start. I have contacted my friends, and users on the site that I know by name: What is your honest first impression? And everybody basically replied: Very exciting news, I can’t believe this is first build, first alpha. It feels very stable and quite complete. It might need a feature here and there for it to be viable for me to consider converting to, but I will certainly buy a license. Very promising. And the XenFans team supports this thought. We’re as impressed as everybody else.
So what about the negatives? Yes, there are also negatives. While there are no security issues or showstopping bugs found yet, smaller issues were found, as well as of course crowd-found issues you simply can’t test for with just two people. What I found quite interesting is that during the hours of the day the bugs were reviewed, confirmed (or not) and fixed. And newer alpha 1 builds were pushed out. I guess the only other negative is that we simply don’t know the license scheme, the pricing or what the future might bring.
250 bug reports have been issued in the last week, please keep in mind some reports are not bugs, or duplicate reports.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-bug-reports.8/
Okay, let’s go over that week, with some statistics. It’s great and all that about a hundred people registered in the first day, making over a thousand posts. But that on its own is not a sign of potential success. Despite a positive mood on the board. So where are we now?
It’s been a bit over a week, and the statistics are a ten fold, and only growing. The community has a week of experience. This has been leading to more bug reports, and even more so in suggestions. And probably very little sleep for Kier and Mike, who’ve told us in a private conversation that they’re overwhelmed with the feedback (in a positive way). Well guys, we’re equally overwhelmed by the awesome work you’ve done with XenForo. And it’s showing that we are, with over a 1,000 members, 1,500 discussions and over 21,000 messages. The XenFans team has been working with communities for the last ten years, and we’ve only seen it a rare few times that a new board/community is this well received.
An amazing first week. Discussions have been flying around, comparisons with other forum solutions have been made. Speculations and “what if” topics have been created and answered by both Mike and Kier, as well as Ashley and the community moderators. Features have been tested and discussed in-depth, and the mood hasn’t changed. And I have to be honest here, it has been a while since I’ve posted a 1,000 times within a week. I’ve not only been posting to test the system and build experience, but the way the software is working, the user experience and the user interface, it’s smooth, logical, and functional; Inviting to use, and provocative to come back and check for updates. And I believe the same with happen with a lot of other people, including the members on my own boards. I see it around me, but I do hope everybody else shares that feeling / experience. And will, when they decide to convert their community over to XenForo.
Talking about staff members. It’s been a guessing game the first day who was involved, made what, and is on the team. We’ve learned the answers here first at XenFans, when we were invited to the alpha demo behind closed doors (a few hours before the community site went online). Mike and Kier are equal partners and developers in their start up XenForo Limited. And on their team is Ashley Busby (business manager).
During the first week they’ve introduced a couple of community moderators, Peggy and Lawrence to help with the vastly growing community.
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements.2/
A look back at the first week of XenForo has learned us that there is a modern solution in the making for people who want to take their community to the next level, and that we’re all overwhelmed with the growth of XenForo.com/community, as well as the quality of version 1. And to demonstrate some tricks and tips these are the first glimpses of what XenForo can do.
http://vimeo.com/xenfans
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen.3/
I invite everybody to visit and register on xenforo.com, and play with the features. Search around first, but, feel free to post suggestions and especially bug reports. We think this first week shows us that it’s a great product, with a good future. And we can’t wait to install an instance here at on XenFans.com
