Forum software has come a long way over the years, but even with all the advancements, there are still some features that many of us wish existed to make managing and participating in communities easier and more engaging. Whether it's tools for better moderation, deeper engagement options, better analytics, or modern integrations, there are always areas for improvement.

 

Some questions to consider:

 

• Are there specific features you’ve always wished your forum software had but couldn’t find?
  
• What modern functionalities do you think forum software needs to stay competitive with other platforms like social media or instant messaging apps?
  
• Do you think current forum software does enough to encourage mobile engagement or simplify user onboarding?
  
• In terms of customization, what limitations have you faced that made you think, "I wish this was built into the platform"?
  

From better gamification to deeper analytics and beyond, let’s discuss what’s missing from forum software and how it can evolve to meet the needs of today’s communities.

I wish XenForo had a proper static page editor. That has to be one of the only things I dislike. Their editor could be better, but they're integrating a new one in 2.4.

 

I understand that a forum software isn't necessarily a content management platform. But since they already have static pages... Why not add a proper editor, and be done with it?

I wish Jcink had a Likes system... just saying.

 

Also, ProBoards has no feature where you can back up your database should anything happen (ZetaBoards lacked this as well, and made worse regarding the Tapatalk crisis years ago...).

I wish Jcink had a Likes system... just saying.

 

Also, ProBoards has no feature where you can back up your database should anything happen (ZetaBoards lacked this as well, and made worse regarding the Tapatalk crisis years ago...).

[mention=6]Cory[/mention] - develop a like system for jcink? :P

Invision Community still lacks star rating custom field (even in IC v5)

develop a like system for jcink? :P

He has done so already, but you need to create a new forum category to store its data...

He has done so already, but you need to create a new forum category to store its data...

I don't see the problem? :P

He has done so already, but you need to create a new forum category to store its data...

Also, you have to hover over the likes/dislikes area on each post to view the count, and you don't receive alerts when someone likes/dislikes your post. It's a sub-par code for the most part. But, it's the best you'll get using JavaScript.

and you don't receive alerts when someone likes/dislikes your post.

You know, I actually had a feeling that it doesn't do that... if I was patient enough to add it in, I wouldn't mind that anyway.

 

Guess I can try poking John about it to make it official for Jcink, and I wouldn't be the first to do so...

You know, I actually had a feeling that it doesn't do that... if I was patient enough to add it in, I wouldn't mind that anyway.

 

Guess I can try poking John about it to make it official for Jcink, and I wouldn't be the first to do so...

I could add alerts through JavaScript as I have done on some other codes, but it would be an AJAX hog.

 

John is fully aware that people want this feature. A "reactions system" topic was semi-recently posted in the Feature Requests forum, and the most viewed and replied-to topic in that forum is for a "likes" system, which was locked because people probably kept bumping it begging to make it happen.

which was locked because people probably kept bumping it begging to make it happen.

It will happen, right? 😐 Jcink can't be behind the times any longer without it... :P

It will happen, right?

Don't give your hopes up. The topic I referred to was created in 2010.

Broadcasting!

You can do anything on forums that you can do on social media, except broadcast content. Since forums lack this feature, and social media sites have this feature, forums are left behind even though forums are older than the social media.

Broadcasting!

You can do anything on forums that you can do on social media, except broadcast content. Since forums lack this feature, and social media sites have this feature, forums are left behind even though forums are older than the social media.

That’s definitely a good point.

Real time notifications. Invision has this. Instead of an alert bubble at the top of the page that might or might not see there is a notification box that pops up. You can then interact right away.

I wouldn't mind the live topics feature that vBulletin 3.x and 4.x used a while back where when you have a popular topic, you can see replies in real time. I know that this basically converts the thread into a chatbox of sorts, but it was nice to give the simulated feeling of having real conversations on things.

Broadcasting!

You can do anything on forums that you can do on social media, except broadcast content. Since forums lack this feature, and social media sites have this feature, forums are left behind even though forums are older than the social media.

IC is doing something like this with their new model. They have a video demo of someone giving a presentation with a chatbox to the right and they go in-depth on how you can interact with, moderate, etc, similar to Twitch and some of the other platforms.

I'm not convinced that 'live topics' are actually that interesting. I think they're an interesting tool to have in the toolbox - but they're not a replacement for long form discussion; indeed, trying to have a conversation or discussion in that format is cumbersome (just as it is trying to have much of a conversation of substance on Discord, and for the same reason)

 

The real question is how discoverable and archivable that content is after the fact. How much it is useful for reference material, looking up things (and then referencing that in conversations)

 

For me, though, a lot of the things I think that would be really interesting to have are ways to connect topics together. I also wonder if there's interesting space to bring in something like Meilisearch rather than ElasticSearch; so that instead of doing 'similar topics' based on the words matching, something closer to sentiment matching, matching on meaning. (It's not AI, it's certainly not ChatGPT, but some of the underlying ML concepts are relatable)

 

I think it's also interesting to explore alternative ways of tagging and categorising topics and being able to surface them. What other information about topics do we have (either by default, or that we can optionally start collecting when creating) that would make it useful or interesting to surface? I know we sort of end up doing this by way of prefixes as a first route but I feel there may be others.