Story 2.3: share threads to stories, report them and add polls
Story 2.3 lets members share threads and posts as XenForo stories, sends reports to the report centre, and adds polls and new text styles.
On this page
Story 2.3 brings XenForo stories closer to the rest of your forum. Members can now share threads and posts as stories, reports go to XenForo's own report centre, and stories can carry polls. It came out in three steps between 28 August and 11 September 2026, and it needs XenForo 2.3.
If you haven't met Story yet, it adds the short, visual stories people know from Instagram and Facebook. Members post images, short videos and text, and they show in a stories bar above your forum list. By default a story disappears after 24 hours.
What's new in Story 2.3 at a glance
| Release | Date | Main changes |
|---|---|---|
| 2.2.1 | 28 August 2026 | Polls in stories, more font styles for text stories, and a tabbed options page. |
| 2.3.0 | 8 September 2026 | Sharing threads and posts to stories, reports through the report centre, and clickable avatar rings. |
| 2.3.1 | 11 September 2026 | A fix for server errors on edit and delete alerts, and clearer moderation notices. |
The sections below go through each change and what it means for your members and your moderators.
Share threads and posts to XenForo stories
The biggest change in 2.3.0 is sharing. A member can now share a thread or a post into a story. The story shows a preview of the content with credit to its author, and the member can add a caption.
This links XenForo stories to your discussions. A member spots a great thread, shares it, and people watching their stories see it too. Stories stop being a separate corner of the forum and start pointing readers at your threads.
Shared content always follows the forum's own permissions. A thread from a staff-only forum stays hidden from anyone who can't see that forum, even inside a story.
Sharing has its own permission, Share discussions to stories. Like every Story permission, it starts switched off, so grant it to the groups you want.
Reports now go to the report centre
Before 2.3.0, moderating stories meant checking them apart from everything else. Now members report stories and story comments with XenForo's normal report button. The reports land in the same report centre your moderators already use for posts.
A few details make this safer:
- Reported evidence stays protected while the report is open, so moderators can see what was reported.
- Moderation notices now include the reason, as of 2.3.1.
- Those notices stay readable after the story is deleted, so a member can still see why it was removed.
Version 2.3.0 also strengthened privacy and permission checks. Each story can be public, for members only, for mutual followers or just for its author, and those choices matter more now that stories can hold shared threads.
Version 2.3.1 fixed missing edit and delete notification templates. Without them, sending those notifications caused server errors. If you saw errors like that on 2.3.0, this update is the fix.
Polls and new text styles
Version 2.2.1 added polls. Members can add a poll to an image, video or text story, and viewers can vote on it. It is a quick way to ask the community something without starting a whole thread.
Polls come with two permissions: Add polls to stories and Vote in story polls. Grant both to your members if you want polls to work.
The same release added more font styles for text stories. Story fonts are kept separate from your forum's own fonts, so a playful story font never changes your theme's text. Version 2.3.0 fixed a few conflicts with forum fonts too.
Admins get a redesigned options page as well. The settings now sit in tabs, so finding story length, upload limits or polls takes less scrolling.
Smaller changes worth knowing
Version 2.3.0 also brought a list of smaller improvements:
- Clicking an avatar ring now opens that member's stories.
- Comment reactions and action menus work better.
- Widget errors, broken grids and stuck loading were fixed.
- Translation issues were fixed, along with avatar alignment, the text cursor and scrollbars.
None of these need any setup. They simply work after the upgrade.
How to upgrade to Story 2.3
Upgrade the usual way, from the Add-ons page in your Admin CP. Upgrade an add-on walks through it if you haven't done it before. Your stories, highlights and settings stay in place.
After the upgrade, check three permissions under Groups & permissions > User group permissions, in the Stories section:
- Share discussions to stories, for sharing threads and posts.
- Add polls to stories, for members who create polls.
- Vote in story polls, for everyone who should vote.
New features stay hidden until those are set. That is the most common reason a new option "doesn't show up".
Story 2.3 needs XenForo 2.3. If your forum is still on XenForo 2.2, version 1.0.4 was the last build for it. The 2.x releases were a full rewrite for XenForo 2.3.
Every Story release is on our changelog, and the Story setup guide covers permissions, video limits and widgets in full.
Questions about XenForo stories
How long does a story stay up?
For 24 hours by default. You can change that in Story's options, and 0 means stories never expire. Expired stories are kept for 30 days before they are deleted for good. Stories saved in highlights are kept.
Can guests see stories?
Yes, if you give the Guests group permission to view them. Guests can open a few stories, three by default, before they are asked to register. It is a gentle nudge toward signing up.
Why can't members post video stories?
Two switches must be on. One is the Can upload video stories permission. The other is XenForo's own setting for video and audio uploads, under Setup > Options > Attachments.
What to do next
Upgrade Story, grant the three new permissions, and share one good thread to a story yourself. Members copy what staff do first. If you are looking for more ways to get members posting, read our XenForo member engagement ideas.