Thread: Xenforo Conversion Announcement - Part II

So, there were a few more thoughts on this conversion I wanted to share. I know this conversion is going to be a huge overall net good for the site, and there are several things that are going to be very good for me personally, but there's also some things that aren't going to be so good from my perspective. x3 I know there's almost no chance of anything being done about them since they're honestly pretty minor issues compared to how much it would take to address them, if they even -can- possibly be addressed due to the way how Xenforo works. But hey, almost no chance is still greater than no chance at all, which is what it would be if I say nothing, so, might as well mention it anyway, doesn't cost anyone anything. x3 The first and biggest problem for me is going to be the complete loss of PM-tracking. Due to the way PMs in Xenforo basically just work as threads rather than discreet messages, it's inevitable that there's no longer going to be any way to actually track read-receipts. Which is gonna majorly suuuuuuck for me given how much I heavily rely on that to know when I should or should not message a partner. xP Another problem is going to be the effective loss of the Drafting function. Oh, Xenforo -does- have a drafting function, but the problem is it's done completely automatically, and there is no manual or central draft management whatsoever. As you are writing a post Xenforo autosaves the draft every time you pause typing for a few seconds. There is a way to tell it to save the draft right now, but since it autosaves so frequently it rarely comes up, and even then, the button to make an immediate draft save does nothing that the autosave doesn't. The problem is no central management. There's no page that you can go to to my knowledge where you can view all your drafts-in-progress, like you can here on Bluemoon. The only way you can view a draft is if you go back to the very same thread where you started the draft same for private conversation threads. And if you draft a new thread from scratch? You can only view it again if you go to the same board and hit post new thread to see the draft. This means you cannot have more than one post draft for any thread or more than one new-thread draft for any board, ever. And worst of all, the autosave function is simply not consistent. Or at least non consistent enough. If it had only happened once, I might have dealt, but I've had several drafts go bad or missing on me in Xenforo and as I said, 'manually saving' does nothing that the autosave doesn't so that doesn't help. Enough so that I can never trust Xenforo's drafting feature, ever. And I'm a guy who doesn't really trust autosaves on principle -anyway- Soooo, not having drafting anymore is gonna suck. wow this point got way longer than I thought. xP Due to the fact that Xenforo private messages work just like threads, I can no longer justify nudging PM-leaning but not PM-only partners into them and I already do so many RPs in PMs as it is. However, so this post isn't just nothing but complaining, moving to Xenforo is going to have several personal -positive- effects as well. Soooo many more thread-management tools! Due to the fact that Xenforo private messages work just like threads, they won't be such a hassle to me anymore. x3 Not really a personal benefit because of how I use it, rather I'm sure many many other people will love this, but Xenforo's default most-making interface is a WYSIWYG-interface that is, when you use the controls to insert images, hyperlinks, tables, etc, it actually appears exactly how it will once actually post inside the textbox where you are making the post! Though, like I said, not a benefit for me, because I nearly always hit the button to force it into basic BBcode-edit mode anyway This -would- be the worst part of the drafts thing above, and the thing is that on top of everything above, you will no longer be able to have recipient-less PM drafts saved just for notekeeping. But, since PMs work like threads, that means you can actually edit them, so with all my drafts getting PM'd to myself which will become Conversations with myself later, it shouldn't be any problem--and in fact might be a net positive if I can keep adding posts to a conversation with myself. Much better base coding, so I'll no longer have any browser-lagging problems at all even with the longest amounts of text in a single post! Xenforo regularly handles fanfiction chapter posts that are far, FAR longer than any post or draft I've ever had, by multiple times In-forum alerts for SUBSCRIBED THREADS! Oh frabjous day! Anyway...oh yeah! And one actual question. Vekseid, once a hard date is chosen for the move to be performed, we're going to get warning of it well in advance, right? At least a week, say?