New Forum Package

[ashben]

Hi Guys,

I'm plannig to write a slim and effecient forum package. The final product might be free and/or open source. Ideally, it would be in PHP4/MySQL and/or ASP.NET/SQL-Server 7. Well, my decision to gather a team of developers/designers and start on the project depends on the following factors and I was wondering if you guys would help:

1. IS there a need for another forum package .. may it be *very* different from other scripts in terms of the look, feel and nature.
2. How much would you pay for it? (In US $)
3. Whether you would opt for remotely hosted or a self-configuration plan?
4. How important is the source code of the package to you? (On a scale of 1-5)
5. What features (new or updates to currently available in other scripts) would you like to see?

Any feedback from you all would be helpfull? Thanks in advance.

Have a nice day/night!

[gyrbo]

I don't really think that there is need for another forum. But hey, if it's good I will maybe download it (if it's free). PHP and MySQL would be the best cause there the widest supported.
Good luck!
[edited]
Some good (existing) features:
* Easy to install
* Highly configurable
* Multiple Categories
* Multiple boards
* All the other feature of phpBB
new:
* Easy to install extensions ex. Place a file in a dir and the new extension works

Source code: 3

[Edited by gyrbo on 04-06-2001 at 07:51 AM]

[ashben]

Originally posted by gyrbo
I don't really think that there is need for another forum. But hey, if it's good I will maybe download it (if it's free). PHP and MySQL would be the best cause there the widest supported.
Good luck!

Just wondering, how many registered members (i.e. active users) do you have for phpBB?

[gyrbo]

Registred: 3 :D
Active: 0 :D
Sorry, I get around 20-60 visitors a day, but none of them posts anything on my forum.

[LeX]

1. IS there a need for another forum package .. may it be *very* different from other scripts in terms of the look, feel and nature.
Basically, I don't think there's the need for a new forum, *BUT* if yours was faster and way cooler and easier to use (somehow), and most important, free/open source, then I'd use yours instead of all the current ones.


2. How much would you pay for it? (In US $)

Sorry, but I'd pay exactly $0.00. Sure, it'd be great to profit from this, and you'd love to get something in return for all your hard work, but with a bunch of other boards available free of charge out there, I'd rather get the free ones than your paid one.


3. Whether you would opt for remotely hosted or a self-configuration plan?
Definitely self-configurated. Besides, if you had it remotely hosted, it'll prolly eat up a hellotta bandwidth.


4. How important is the source code of the package to you? (On a scale of 1-5)
Well, since I haven't the time to study the language right now, I don't really give a damn. As long as it's easy to customize, I wouldn't really care. So... importance: 0


5. What features (new or updates to currently available in other scripts) would you like to see?
If you have another way of threading posts than the current biggies (like vB, iB, phpBB, tF etc.), and it's more efficient, then I'll most definitely give your forum a go. Well, you will need to setup a demo forum first.

Hope that helped a bit.

[ashben]

Thanks guys! Looking forward to more reply's before I can actually decide on anything. Meanwhile, I'll consult my ashben.net developer team as well.

[gyrbo]

Some good tips look on the phpBB forum and make a forum with all the hacks.

[Omari]

if you stay away from mysql way more people will use your board... while mysql may be good only people with money for hosting have it...

[Canuckkev]

Well, the poll feature in iB 3 is pretty interesting. Does phpBB have that? Um, for open source, I'd say that it wouldn't be that important to me right now, but in the future I may learn php, and others would like to have it open source.

[gyrbo]

Oh yeah, some verry need feature, not a single board has it: A board that remembers what posts you truelly readed! With cookies, it can't be that hard.

[Coolin]

Originally posted by gyrbo
Oh yeah, some verry need feature, not a single board has it: A board that remembers what posts you truelly readed! With cookies, it can't be that hard. I've always had that problem with this board. If I stay on it too long, it'll say that all the threads are read, even if I've never seen them yet. I hope this new board will actually fix that problem.

[gyrbo]

Originally posted by Coolin

Originally posted by gyrbo
Oh yeah, some verry need feature, not a single board has it: A board that remembers what posts you truelly readed! With cookies, it can't be that hard. I've always had that problem with this board. If I stay on it too long, it'll say that all the threads are read, even if I've never seen them yet. I hope this new board will actually fix that problem.
If you make a forum that has this feature, you'll have the best board ever:):):):):):):):):):)!

[LeX]

I also have the same problem.

What do you think about this feature? Implement the reply feature right on the page (like at the bottom) instead of on another page, and have it only show up when people press the reply button. I think it might be nice, because I can see what people wrote by simply scrolling up instead of having to press the back button or open up a new window. This way I don't have to switch back and forth just to write a reply (if needed). When you press the quote button, the reply feature should appear with the quote inside it.

Think you can do that?

[gyrbo]

Originally posted by LeX
I also have the same problem.

What do you think about this feature? Implement the reply feature right on the page (like at the bottom) instead of on another page, and have it only show up when people press the reply button. I think it might be nice, because I can see what people wrote by simply scrolling up instead of having to press the back button or open up a new window. This way I don't have to switch back and forth just to write a reply (if needed). When you press the quote button, the reply feature should appear with the quote inside it.

Think you can do that?
Good one, or like in here have the thread on the bottom of the reply page.

[ashben]

Thanks for your comments & suggestions. The first step I'm looking at is to recognize a new & improved schema for the forum (i.e. tree thread based, linked thread etc). I don't wish to design just a similar forum with 2-3 new features. That doesn't trigger. If it has to be, it has to be from the grass-root!

[Coolin]

LeX, the only problem I see in your method of posting is that the page will take longer to load on my, and others, 56k modem. That means that if I don't wish to post, but would rather just browse, I have to put up with the slow download speeds.