Social Groups

[Alpha1]

Social groups are just forums that members can create & join. Almost all the functionality needed for groups is already present in xenforo: forums, threads, posts, XFMG media albums, member list, pages. It just needs to be tied together.

In my mind the Showcase framework is the optimal framework for this.
It already has much covered. A social group can be an item, with tabs for group info, forum nodes, member list, XFMG albums, AMS articles, custom fields.

There is much demand for social groups.
See: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/missing-social-groups-group-forums.1287/
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/what-functions-do-you-want-for-social-groups-crowdfund.73200/
There are a few addons for XF, but none deliver stock XF functionality, most are not without issues, or supported. I regularly receive requests for advise on the matter from various webmasters.
As XF receives most of its new licenses from vbulletin refugees, a good social groups addon is essential for some vbulletin webmasters to migrate to XenForo.

I would love to see a social groups addon based upon the showcase framework.

 

[Echelon]

Social groups are just forums that members can create & join. Almost all the functionality needed for groups is already present in xenforo: forums, threads, posts, XFMG media albums, member list, pages. It just needs to be tied together.

In my mind the Showcase framework is the optimal framework for this.
It already has much covered. A social group can be an item, with tabs for group info, forum nodes, member list, XFMG albums, AMS articles, custom fields.

There is much demand for social groups.
See: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/missing-social-groups-group-forums.1287/
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/what-functions-do-you-want-for-social-groups-crowdfund.73200/
There are a few addons for XF, but none deliver stock XF functionality, most are not without issues, or supported. I regularly receive requests for advise on the matter from various webmasters.
As XF receives most of its new licenses from vbulletin refugees, a good social groups addon is essential for some vbulletin webmasters to migrate to XenForo.

I would love to see a social groups addon based upon the showcase framework.

Hereby i support this initiative.

 

[Stuart Wright]

To my mind, the core of social groups would be the forums, creatable by members (although they would have to be moderated before creation on AVForums) with appointed admin.
The admin would not have have *real* Xenforo admin permissions, only the ability to administer group membership and to have moderator abilities over the content of the group.
The group forums could be private with admin having the ability to grant access to those who apply to join the group and dump people from it. Moderators would have normal access.
If a social group is relevant to a particular category of the forums (and ion theory it should be) then we should do as much as we can to encourage members to participate by having the social group visible there, or at least promoted there.
Privacy permissions should apply to any addons available also like the XMG and showcases so that they can be created but private to the group.
If the group is not popular and is neglected, then proper admin need the ability to quickly delete it and its content.
I'm not convinced that we would have a need for social groups on AVForums. We had the vB3 addon and it wasn't used significantly.
I think the key would be how well it's integrated into existing functionality in order to give members a feature which enhances their normal forum experience.

 

[CallieJo]

I've written so much on this topic, I hate to sound like I'm repeating myself. I will copy a few thoughts I've left on XF, IPB, and on my own website:

The problem with some social groups is how they are presented, integrated, and what they offer the end-users as a whole. I'd love to see a social groups addon that has everything vb3.8 social groups has with XF notifications and events with google map integration.

Social Groups features I'd like to see:

• a group forum
• group calendar of events with google maps integration (at least for group admin to enter events)
  
• group photo album (or tied into XMG)
  
• group newsletter (using the PM system)
• decent alerts to group members
• decent privacy permissions (invitation only, public, private with manual approval)
• decent group member permissions (who can post threads, who can reply to threads, who can add photos, who can add events, etc.)
• Ability for group admin to style the social group with their own backgrounds and logo.
• Visibility through the what's new, details on profiles (groups belonging to), a way to present all groups in a visible area

Social groups have been popular for many years for many other websites outside the forum world. Unfortunately we are still lacking in a complete social group addon for XF even though forums have evolved into communities over the years. This is no disrespect toward the developers of the current social groups addons. I just don't think their vision of a social group addon matches that of my own.

 

[faithfirst1001]

I would love to see this.

 

[3rd angle]

Like this idea. For me, the feature to create a forum under a tab is good enough to start this social groups feature.