You’re using AMS for the articles, right? Why on Earth does it have discussion (= a real topic) but also comments (under the article, not reusing the topic)?

 

This continues to baffle me and every time I see it, I feel like this shows a flaw in thinking because it creates two places for comments about the same thing, and I find the way it handles the discussion thread part of it to be really clunky, because going into the articles board and then clicking on the title doesn’t take me to the article, but to its description.

 

The XF hardcore fans insist that this is “native” to XF but it feels inelegant to me.

 

Thoughts?

It's indeed repetitive and unnecessary. Repetitive isn't even the correct word, as it doesn't copy the posts to the comments or vice versa. It creates two different discussion outlets.

 

But leaving them to the articles (and no discussion forum) makes them blend away to the background. Or you'd need to put them somewhere in the first page. But they often create cluttered appearances.

 

While this is pretty much useless:

[ATTACH type=full" size="1343x617]394[/ATTACH]

 

The current setup is functional but far from ideal. It lets people know an article has been posted, but they still need to navigate to the Article tab to read it. XenForo’s core setup could definitely use improvements in this area. This approach works, but there's plenty of room for a more elegant solution.

You don't need to enable that feature.

 

You can have a standalone blog without it.

 

Bob just programs in line with 1st party add ons, which if you look at XFRM, allows for commenting and discussing.

You don't need to enable that feature.

 

You can have a standalone blog without it.

 

Bob just programs in line with 1st party add ons, which if you look at XFRM, allows for commenting and discussing.

I know it's optional. But like I said, if it's not enabled then articles being published hardly get any publicity if that makes sense.

commenting and discussing.

What’s the difference? (I know what the difference is because I allude to it in OP, but on a wider scale, what is the difference between these two things, to the point you need two sets of discussion about a thing?)

What’s the difference?

There isn't, yet it's different.

 

See what I did there? :ROFLMAO:

There is no difference. Perhaps we can turn off comments on the blog and direct to the thread for discussion.

And this is why I won’t use AMS because despite “working like native”, the “native” experience is actually poor. Even article threads treat this better, though not wildly.

I have disabled the comments on the article. So, now it will no longer be able to comment. But by going to the discussion tab, you'll still be able to discuss. 😅

 

It actually makes sense now to think of it. Having both comment and discussion options, is pointless. Thanks Pete.

You're welcome.

 

 

 

Oh...

What I believe you were trying to say is…

 

 

While it’s an improvement here, I have serious reservations with it philosophically being “native” in XF, and it actually undermines the strategy for building out more than just a forum on XF.

If you're going to disable comments, I'd attempt a template edit that is really a "reply" macro (I'd need to check if the reply is a macro) and have it reply to the associated thread id, redirecting them to the last post (theirs).

 

Pretty sure this is achievable, but I don't have an up to date AMS.

 

If anyone is interested in something like that when I open my next forum in the following weeks, that relies on AMS as a main driver of traffic, I'll post the template edits.

Alternatively, you could possibly make an Article thread type and the discussion tab's first post would be the full article (so it stays at top). That way they can still read it. But I don't know the implications of that as far as duplicate content goes.

There are already some topics in this board like that, but the whole thing feels underwhelming to me - not a criticism of how Administrata has or has not done things, but the offering from XF and the lead it sets taken by others.

 

I am wondering now if I want to provide articles if I need to make my own, but I’ve been wondering that for a while since I don’t especially want to write articles in the XF editor. I’d almost prefer Gutenberg for some of the things it offers but that’s a different proposition entirely.