Upgrade to XenForo 2.x because the current version is unmaintained

[Ajdin]

Hi,

MC-Market should update to XenForo 2.1. The current version of XenForo that MC-Market is using is no longer maintained and will not receive any further security updates.

Source: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-1-5-is-no-longer-supported.165946/

Running unsupported software at this scale is definitely something that should be avoided asap. In addition to this XF 2.1 contains countless features that the community has been requesting over the past few years.

While I understand that there will be a cost to upgrading, I think it's something that should be put on the top of the priority list. Staying outdated for much longer has no point and it'll have to happen eventually.

Some new features:
- Out of the box functional REST API
- Automated updates for XF itself
- Native browser push notifications (also works on mobile and is actually pretty great)
- Native support for Android/iOS emojis across whole forum
- Various improvements to forum notices (which MCM uses quite heavily)
- Added markdown (more customizable threads)
- MUCH more flexibility and customisation possible with XF Styles and better support for mobile
- Things like widgets are out of the box included to XF2 now instead of having to use addons which cause hacky ways of other addons injecting in each other.
- The way you edit posts and create new threads has improved so much. It's much more instant and more user friendly (imo)
- much much much more.

 

[Norska]

MC-Market has been running on XF1 since forever and I doubt they would bother upgrading and rightfully so as they have tons of custom addons. While it would be nice to upgrade I simply believe it's not worth the time and effort it would take on their part.

 

[Ajdin]

MC-Market has been running on XF1 since forever and I doubt they would bother upgrading and rightfully so as they have tons of custom addons. While it would be nice to upgrade I simply believe it's not worth the time and effort it would take on their part.

It's not really sustainable to stay on XF1.5 for ever. Instead of focusing on additional custom development, they should focus on upgrading first and then doing additional development. When something reaches its end of life, it should be looked into to get rid of it asap. Especially if it's the core of your business and site.

MC-Market does not have that much custom stuff that are hard to make compatible with XF2.x. Most addons are maintained by other developers that have already ported to 2.X. If they haven't and don't have a roadmap, they should probably look for alternatives because that says enough about that addon.

 

[BrettPlays]

It's not really sustainable to stay on XF1.5 for ever. Instead of focusing on additional custom development, they should focus on upgrading first and then doing additional development. When something reaches its end of life, it should be looked into to get rid of it asap. Especially if it's the core of your business and site.

MC-Market does not have that much custom stuff that are hard to make compatible with XF2.x. Most addons are maintained by other developers that have already ported to 2.X. If they haven't and don't have a roadmap, they should probably look for alternatives because that says enough about that addon.

How do you know how many custom Addons are running on this site? Some/many could no be visible so we are unable to tell. Also the forums are fine for now and I think MC-Market should focus on moderation rather than updating their forums software which works fine.

 

[nether1]

To be honest, I found XF1 more comfty to use than XF2.

 

[Ajdin]

How do you know how many custom Addons are running on this site?

I used to manage this site and I'm well aware of the complexity to port these addons to XF2.X.

Also the forums are fine for now and I think MC-Market should focus on moderation rather than updating their forums software which works fine.

Moderation and development are 2 completely separate things. This shouldn't slow down any moderation tasks the staff has.
And yes, it does work fine however you're completely missing the fact that it's unmaintained. The developers are no longer releasing fixes and security updates for it. This is quite a big concern.

To be honest, I found XF1 more comfty to use than XF2.

Majority of the user experience is down to theming. You can pretty much do anything when it comes to looks and feels.[DOUBLEPOST=1580822346][/DOUBLEPOST]I think everyone is missing the fact that this isn't a matter of IF MCM should upgrade, it's when. Now is the time before further investing in custom development. Building custom stuff for outdated and unsupported software is just stupid.

 

[Lotus]

I’m pretty sure that this is somewhere down the pipeline actually, it’s just pretty slow going.

I wouldn’t be surprised if development on porting is happening this very moment.

 

[Ajdin]

I’m pretty sure that this is somewhere down the pipeline actually, it’s just pretty slow going.

I wouldn’t be surprised if development on porting is happening this very moment.

No offense towards Mick but according to this post, he didn't make it sound like it was on the roadmap. The announcement of 1.5's end of life was already announced then.

 

[Joshua C]

I agree with Bosny, despite keeping up with the community an upgrade to the newer version is mandatory.
This will not only improve the security and the bugs of the site itself but also provide better and fast usage.
I've have seen a lot of people "who wanted to replicate mcm with the theme and all that stuff" and only managed to do this whole thing in under $1500 or even less, and I can say they are featuring better experiences than of this on here.


1) The theme here is super basic, Only a few things are customized that too only is the header and the footer, and some buttons.

But you have to compete with the outside market because there are more and more forums that are serving better performances.

 

[Ambrosia]

I agree with Bosny, despite keeping up with the community an upgrade to the newer version is mandatory.
This will not only improve the security and the bugs of the site itself but also provide better and fast usage.
I've have seen a lot of people "who wanted to replicate mcm with the theme and all that stuff" and only managed to do this whole thing in under $1500 or even less, and I can say they are featuring better experiences than of this on here.


1) The theme here is super basic, Only a few things are customized that too only is the header and the footer, and some buttons.

But you have to compete with the outside market because there are more and more forums that are serving better performances.

I dont need a complex website design to shop for my minecraft plugins.

 

[Ajdin]

Mick Your silence on this fairly important suggestion is quite concerning.

Let me quote a statement from XF:

The exception to XenForo 1.5 support, of course, is security updates. We will continue to provide security updates for XenForo 1.5 up until the end of 31 December, 2019.

 

[Ajdin]

there's almost no difference in terms of user experience.

I'm sorry but I disagree with this. XF2 is quite different and and has quite more features out the box. To list a few:
- Out of the box functional rest API
- Automated updates for XF itself
- Native browser push notifications (also works on mobile and is actually pretty great)
- Native support for Android/iOS emojis across whole forum
- Various improvements to forum notices (which MCM uses quite heavily)
- Added markdown (more customizable threads)
- MUCH more flexibility and customisation possible with XF Styles and better support for mobile
- Things like widgets are out of the box included to XF2 now instead of having to use addons which cause hacky ways of other addons injecting in each other.
- The way you edit posts and create new threads has improved so much. It's much more instant and more user friendly (imo)
- much much much more.

I can keep going but what's the point?

For the moment, XenForo 1.5.x is considered secure and yet are any breaches to be found in it. I'm certain that in the moment security breaches start to appear, this website will start going forward to XenForo 2.

Ok. XF itself might be secure today. What happens if a security issue pops up tomorrow with XF? Or worse, with an addon that's no longer being updated because the devs moved to XF2? Are you going to start moving to XF2 then? Seems like a fairly stupid idea.

I'm not saying that this change is not necessery, and you are saying very true things, but I'm saying that it can be put on hold until it really needs to happend. And trust me, there could be a chance that some day this site migrates to XenForo 2 and you wouldn't even notice.

Lol, what? Obviously you're going to notice. This just shows how little knowledge you have on this subject.

Anyways, Mick is in fact interested in getting this started because he's spoken to me recently regarding some advice on this subject. I'm glad this is the case and I'm happy to see something is being done about it.

I think you're also forgetting that MC-Market is a business and constant innovation and updates are very much needed to keep the forum alive and interesting. Man... I remember back in the day how hyped members used to get for a new feature or forum theme. I can't even imagine how happy they would be with just some of the features listed above.

EDIT: Not even going to talk about the changes in it's backend and improvements in performance.

 

[Ajdin]

After having a conversation with Mick regarding this topic, I can confirm MCM will start working on porting the forum to XF2
While yes, there's several custom features that require quite some development to function in XF2, it's definitely not an impossible task and I look forward to the day this forum runs on XF2.

The issue MC-Market is having right now is mostly finding competent and affordable XenForo developers.

 

[pace]

After having a conversation with Mick regarding this topic, I can confirm MCM will start working on porting the forum to XF2
While yes, there's several custom features that require quite some development to function in XF2, it's definitely not an impossible task and I look forward to the day this forum runs on XF2.

The issue MC-Market is having right now is mostly finding competent and affordable XenForo developers.

Jayson

 

[Lotus]

Jayson

There are multiple developers behind the scene - there's a lot of development going on.

 

[Justis]

If we wait for a security breach before updating, it'll be too late and we'll risk leaking a lot of data.
You have my full support.

The XenForo software we’re using is well known to be stable, and has been tested on such an incredible number of servers for such an incredible amount of time before reaching this point. It is far more likely that we would encounter a security flaw in XenForo v2, which is a complete recode of the platform, hasn’t undergone the same test of time that XenForo 1 has, and is actively receiving new updates.
As is often quoted, debugging is the process of taking bugs out, programming is the process of putting them in. It’s very much expected that many of XenForo 2’s updates to come contain bugs, and maybe one or two of them is a major security issue for MCM.

I feel much safer on our current, better tested version of software, where we control all of the new code being introduced and where core functionality is rarely touched.

Security is not the main issue. In my opinion, that is just being thrown in with the rest of the less provoking reasons for upgrading in order to try and stir up a sense of urgency.

That said, upgrading is still necessary, and ASAP is certainly the best plan. The longer we put it off for, the more money we toss out getting features custom developed for this version of XenForo, and the more we have to re-spend later to get those features re-developed for version 2. It’ll also be more painstaking to transfer because there will be more data needing handling and conversion where necessary.

I would just prefer if the idea stop being spread, that our users are being put at risk by us being on XenForo v1, or are being put at risk any more than they would be if we were on the recoded version.