[katie hunter]

Originally Posted by KW802

The search add-on is supported Sphinx compatibility, the same type of add-on for Sphinx that is available for vBulletin and others with the difference being that the XF add-on is being supported as an official product. The stock search function can't really be considered "inferior" when it is the same type of stock search functionality as vB3/vB4 & others.

When buying vB4, did you question why you were being given a product with a weak search function? After all, as you know, vB4's own search needs a little help sometimes as well...

Yes, that is for VB 4.x but we know VB 5.x uses now Sphinx search, Vbulletin learned what would be best to use for search results and they've integrated Sphinx into VB 5.x moving forward.

On the other hands, XF is selling a product with a weak search built into its core and if you want the product to perform better, you have to buy a search addon that should have been part of the core function of XF not a plugin in the first place. That tells you a lot actually, that the XF developers think that by spending an x amount of time developing a proper function, they had the right to separate it from the main software and sell it as a plugin. I would never encourage this scheme.

I would encourage seeing new and complex solid features being sold as an addon like a "Gallery" for instance but not something that should be part of the core software.

This is like how Xbox 1 said we will start applying a new policy for those who bought used games, they would have to pay a certain fee to play those used games. Guess who won later E3 ? Playstation 4. That is how the market is, customers doesn't like it when they are being taken advantage of. They look for what is best and cost effective.