51 Reply by trevor

(2 replies, posted in Feature requests)

I'm thinking more like moderators could enforce it, if they chose. it would be really valuable for support boards in particular. so, if the board was configured to do it, you would just see the option to post your message in an existing topic, like with radio buttons. so, say you post something about "merging topics", maybe your entire message (or just the topic title?) would be searched, and then you would see something like a draft screen, with radio buttons like so:

~ post this message to one of the following existing threads, instead of starting a new topic
     ~ blah blah blah
     ~ blo blo blo

~ this subject is not already being covered with an existing thread, post a new topic

...

i dunno, it might not be feasible, but it certainly is an interesting idea worth considering, no?

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52 Topic by trevor

(2 replies, posted in Feature requests)

for support sites that use punbb, a lot of time is spent with the moderators trying to redirect people that start topics to existing threads. i wonder if there is something that can be done about this...

first, there is a thread in feature requests about merging topics, which i think is a cool idea.

but, i'd like to suggest something off the top of my head. what about a feature that would be enabled by a moderator and could be disabled in the Options section under the Post New Topic textarea... a feature that would, upon the user hitting submit, would actually search the forum for similar posts. then, the user would be taken to a draft-like screen that (i mean, if there were any results) would give them the option of posting their message to an existing topic instead.

wadayathink?

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53 Reply by trevor

(15 replies, posted in Feature requests)

this would be a really cool feature to make it into the core, i think. would help a lot on support forums where people have to just post links back to the exisiting threads all the time.

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54 Reply by trevor

(4 replies, posted in Feature requests)

I see... That's a lot of pages! What about a drop-down for the pages (showing the current page), surrounded by a previous/next?

So, it would be like: << Previous [Page 1] Next >>

Or, to save space, it could be << Last [Page 1] Next >>

Because I think that the current way doesn't really let you choose pages very gracefully anyway.

Waddaya Think?

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55 Topic by trevor

(4 replies, posted in Feature requests)

I would like to see a Previous/Next link for navigating through pages, instead of just the page numbers. I think clicking the page numbers is hard because they are small, and it seems odd not to have previous/next links. There seems to be enough space... Just a thought!

Thanks,
Trevor

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56 Reply by trevor

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

maybe it would be best to worry about the PunBB and Wordpress end before any photo gallery integration?

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57 Reply by trevor

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

You know my vote is for Wordpress/PunBB. I'm not into Folderblog because license is terrible:

LICENSE
folderblog is copyright © 2004 Donald Tetto. While you may edit folderblog's source code for personal use, you may not redistribute modified versions of the folderblog code.
http://folderblog.tetto.org/

I really like the look of SPG, especially the "special wp" verison:

This is a special version of Simple PHP Gallery that is pre-configured to pull the gallery into a Wordpress template. Be sure to peruse the readme.

The license isn't GPL, though, which is a bummer. It's CC by-nc-sa, which is OK, but not as nice as GPL. Here are two more gallery-type programs to consider:

http://phpthumb.sourceforge.net/

http://photostack.org/

I agree that the first hurdle is just css and php, integrating the front-end isn't going to be easy. What do you think about a Wordpress plugin that automatically creates a new thread in a specific directory per post? That would be a pretty non-invasive integration option, I think. You could also show the activity of that thread in wordpress, as a secondary 'comments' type indicator.

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58 Reply by trevor

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

Man, I don't know about integrating them at that level. I feel like a good start would be getting a single install, and a unified theme.

Even getting there would seem pretty tough, much less integrating the databases, etc. Don't get me wrong, I think that would be a GREAT idea - but I think it would be better to start with small steps.

As for choosing the programs to integrate, I like the idea of using PHP/MySQL/GPL software as a bundle. That means, to my mind, PunBB, WordPress, and Coppermine.

I think it would be a mean feat to even decide on what programs to tackle! But I'm up for ideas. What I imagined is a single ZIP file to download, a single install script to run, and a unified look when it's all done. Choosing a set of programs to install and getting that far seems like the best first step.

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59 Reply by trevor

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

That's a really interesting point. I think in the case of Wordpress, the new 'theme' and 'plugin' systems they came out with might help with the upgrading process. What I should look into would be a way to use the same 'theme' between Wordpress and PunBB. Maybe that would be the first step in getting PunBB to work with other programs - trying to use the same 'themes' or whatever they're called in different CMS programs.

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60 Reply by trevor

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

I've actually thought about this a lot as well. I set up a site at http://www.newathens.org for me and my friends, and I found myself wishing for an 'integrated' solution to a community site. I'm SURE I'm not the only one.

The way I see it, most people (nowadays) do what I do - install punbb, wordpress, and coppermine.

I've read a couple of posts about integrating the look/theme into one cohesive site (even though it might be 3 different dbs, etc), and I think there is room for a combo install that would do all three in one shot.

As touched on, I think the thing holding that back is bbpress. I'd much prefer that Wordpress used punbb, but it seems that the original verison that relied on tables scared off the devs. (http://codex.wordpress.org/Release_Philosophy) and (http://codex.wordpress.org/IRC_Meetups).

Taking it one step farther and using punbb for comments on wordpress would be awesome, but might be a bit over ambitious for the time being.

Maybe the best solution would be (like macrumors.com) to set up a thread per wordpress entry automatically, with a link to that inserted into the wordpress post (in addition to the comment link?).

I'm up for trying to make this happen, if anybody else thinks it would be a good idea.

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