So give me ideas, what do YOU want to see in a forum??

[DannyBoy]

I'm going to start work on designing and writing a new forum and I am interested to know what sort of features are most important to you.

It will be open source but I want to get as much done with it as possible to get it off to a good start.

So, are you more interested in simple ease of use / administration? Or are you more interested in layout and looks etc, just general feedback of what you look for in a forum.

I'm not intending to rival IPP or vB in anyway, as they are already *great* things, this is just a small venture that I would like to try out and see where it ends up

So help me out and get brainstorming for me

 

No one under the age of 21 allowed to post.

Now that would be SWEET.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Roger
No one under the age of 21 allowed to post.

Now that would be SWEET.

LOL is there a law similar to COPPA that would allow that? Perhaps I could create my own for you :beer:

 

You would have my eternal gratitude and free vehcile repairs for life, well my life.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: Roger
No one under the age of 21 allowed to post.

Now that would be SWEET.

Along with that, of course, comes the understanding that pics of boobies would be allowed.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Roger
You would have my eternal gratitude and free vehcile repairs for life, well my life.

I wonder how long it would take to right a system that analyzed the content being posted to tell what sort of maturity the person was

 

[Chaotic42]

Good post/poll editing abilities
Speed

I can't stress this enough:

No personal avatars or pictures allowed in posts or sigs at all ever ever ever.

 

[LordJezo]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Roger
No one under the age of 21 allowed to post.

Now that would be SWEET.

Along with that, of course, comes the understanding that pics of boobies would be allowed.

No boobies = worst forum ever!

Who wants to live in a world like that? What are you, a Taliban who wants women covered?

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: LordJezo

Originally posted by: Astaroth33

Originally posted by: Roger
No one under the age of 21 allowed to post.

Now that would be SWEET.

Along with that, of course, comes the understanding that pics of boobies would be allowed.

No boobies = worst forum ever!

Who wants to live in a world like that? What are you, a Taliban who wants women covered?

There seems to be a particular forum where we all hang out that is just that....

 

[Brutuskend]

So give me ideas, what do YOU want to see in a forum??

Bewbies, lot's and lot's of bewbies!

 

[DannyBoy]

Back on topic now

Err, off topic, um..

 

[dullard]

Biggest thing: critcal user mass. If there aren't enough users to answer my average post within 30 minutes, I'm never coming back to your site again.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: dullard
Biggest thing: critcal user mass. If there aren't enough users to answer my average post within 30 minutes, I'm never coming back to your site again.

Hardly controlled by the forum software used is it

 

[MikePanic]

so you'r gonna try to tackle writing your own forum code? best of luck w/ it.... let us know how far you get and when we can beta test it

 

[gopunk]

t&a

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: MikePanic
so you'r gonna try to tackle writing your own forum code? best of luck w/ it.... let us know how far you get and when we can beta test it

sure thing, it's something i've wanted to do for a while but never actually had the chance to get round to doing, I will however be doing it now though

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: DannyBoy
Hardly controlled by the forum software used is it

Actually it is in quite a few ways.

Obvious reaspm: If the software sucks, there won't be users.

Much less obvious reason: If the forum is too fragmented, then even with many users, the individual fragments are worthless. When was the last time you posted in this Anandtech forum? Look 7 out of the most recent 35 posts went unanswered. Zero replys even after 5 days on the front page is common. The software has a major impact on the usefulness there.

If my first Anandtech post was in the Peripherals section, I'd probably have not stuck around since I would have gotten no answers.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: gopunk
t&a

?

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: DannyBoy
Hardly controlled by the forum software used is it

Actually it is in quite a few ways.

Obvious reaspm: If the software sucks, there won't be users.

Much less obvious reason: If the forum is too fragmented, then even with many users, the individual fragments are worthless. When was the last time you posted in this Anandtech forum? Look 7 out of the most recent 35 posts went unanswered. Zero replys even after 5 days on the front page is common. The software has a major impact on the usefulness there.

I see your point but that is not due to Fusetalk that is due to the fact the higher powers don't appear to want to merge the peripherals forum with the general hardware forum like many of us have suggested

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: DannyBoy

Originally posted by: gopunk
t&a

?

tits and ass

 

[DaveSimmons]

- Search, both titles-only and titles-plus-body. Allow admins to disable post body search if too much load on the server

- integrated Spell Check, bonus points if it also has a phrase checker to catch incorrect phrases like "here here", "mute point", "roll model".

- Ad hominem filter to empty out the P&N forums

 

[FrustratedUser]

(.)(.)

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
- Search, both titles-only and titles-plus-body. Allow admins to disable post body search if too much load on the server

- integrated Spell Check, bonus points if it also has a phrase checker to catch incorrect phrases like "here here", "mute point", "roll model".

- Ad hominem filter to empty out the P&N forums

Noted

 

[DannyBoy]

^^

 

[nbarb99]

Good luck, sounds like a fun (but challenging) project.

My $0.02: I think that a clean, sharp, intuitive interface is very important for a discussion board system. :thumbsup: