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Improvements to the current forum

see also http://www.bevolunteer.org/wiki/BW_Forum_Redesign (this page is more on brainstorming level)

Ticket query, forum-related tasks

affected build:

/build/forum

all related tasks:

#92: forum categories
#94: forum moderator tools
#95: forum rights system
#96: edit post - mark post as changed
#127: FAQ system
#223: Forum: pagination links on bottom AND top ?
#225: BW forum: icon for unread threads in list!
#252: Checkboxes for category selection, when starting new forum topics
#368: Undefined offset: 0 in forum thread
#382: URLs for Forum threads
#388: Forum notification comment and remarks
#417: Multiple Languages for the BW Forum
#432: Navigation links in top of forum message view
#460: Refactoring of forum application
#463: SQL error when editing a forum thread on test.bw
#466: Moving text fields in forum into forum_trads to make them translatable
#483: Forum Development bugs 1 - undefined index: IdMember
#484: Forum Development bugs 2 - Country/Region/City-Tags not working at all
#485: Forums: undefinied variable in singlepost.php
#524: tinymce broken on test.bw after changes to forums application
#526: Links in forum posts don't work
#537: db connection error (xml report) in forum on test
#646: BW forum - let thread replier add new tags
#648: Allow image-tags in the forums
#663: bug report - BW Forum
#668: Link in Forumtitle breaks link to forum post
#707: RSS-Feeds not working
#713: notice/warning on reply on forum
#714: Linebrakes get lost while posting in forum with disabled javascript
#717: Forumtitle gets tripled in link to forum post
#721: The green "last post" arrow does not work
#724: MySQL error on linkpage to my forum posts
#725: Formats for forum posts get lost
#726: Error in left side actionbar at forums (subscriptions)
#809: link in "post by member xxx"
#947: Forum new post : Not possibel to give a title to a post when using chrome

from the forum

Layout and Interface

links from member profile to "all forum posts by *"
remove the "path" part in reply box. Or put something useful inside.
when reading / answering a subject, all the tags should be displayed along with the headline. This is especially important as the tags are the only organization we have at the moment.
links to related stuff, from a navi box inside a forum thread.

Thread structure

threaded replies (but please, all replies should be visible at once! I hate these forums where you need an extra click for each reply)
connection (links, tooltip..) between posts which quote each other.
incremental wiki-like summary ?
- this thing could grow like a trac ticket! every edit generates a new post... For instance, a guest list could be updated by each person who writes in the forum.
- or similar: small area on top of each thread, used for up-to-date information, summary of arguments, and collection of links. edit rights defined by the thread starter -> can be limited to the starter himself, friends, members of a group etc.

Writing

should allow to choose categories and tags (see below, tags and categories).
if starting from a category page, this category should be preselected
posting system and interface has to be improved
- wysiwyg box is ok, IF IT WORKS !!! this box can still send bbcode to the server
- allow a bbcode-based plain textarea -> more solid and reliable, avoid lags.
- checkboxes to enable/disable bbcode, smilies, html, wiki markup
- database takes this code plus the checkbox values
- extensible parsing chain, to allow for other markups later.
- live preview, using a client side javascript-based parser
- most important, make it work.
ajax-based submit.
large enough reply box in the page itself
vertical resize of textarea, but no horizontal resize

Edit, history

edit posts (implemented in basic functionality but not activated) . Nota : a member can edit his post if for his post the database field OwnerCanStillEdit is to 'Yes'
Show history of edited post (and display who edited it), but the old version must not go under Google
-> some forum sites have a time limit on thread editing. This is to give some reliability to people quoting you. A compromise would be that a late edit can only add text, never remove, and that the new text is labeled as late edit.

Close thread

ability to close my own thread
-> do we really need this? is it still "my post", when others have already joined the discussion?

Unread / Read / Read x times

counting the number of time a post was read
displaying for a member the difference between his unread/read post (shiny lightbulb for unread threads..)

Translations

allowing to translate a post and make visible :
- who and when the post was translated (should be possible for owner of the post/ moderators/ another member the owner of the post granted right to translate)
- the fact that translations for a post are available

Tags and Categories

allow to choose categories when starting a new thread
- allow multi-category - we can later disable it, if necessary.
propose tags when starting a new thread:
- based on keywords found in your writing
- based on the categories you chose (tags which often combine with these categories)
- based on general popularity of the tags
- auto-complete in the tag textbox.
moderator tools to manage tags and categories
late tagging: Let readers add tags to an existing discussion. maybe restrict this in some way, to avoid tag spam. Often the starting tags are not chosen in an optimal way.
associations between tags? could be based on overlap count (threads tagged with
tag cloud! fonsize = popularity
- context-sensitive tag cloud will give those tags a higher emphasis that have a high overlap with the currently selected category or tag.
short description for (each) tag?

What else can a thread be associated with?

geotags with coordinates (point or region)
folders / categories
groups: start a thread inside a closed group, if it is not interesting for the public.
-> read/write access restricted to a dedicated group of people
connect a thread with a calendar event, a location, or other things (can be bi-directional).
blog article ("comment this article")

Notifications / Subscription #93

subscribe to tag
subscribe to topic
subscribe to a thread (=topic?)

smart agent waiting for a special criterion
display "my subscriptions" on member's start page (or in "personal toolbox" ?)
send subscriptions to newsreader / email
unsubscribe to a a tag/topic/thread with a simple link in the received mail (and a key to ensure the origin of the unsubscription)

Search/Filter criteria

(searching or filtering results in a list of discussion threads)

subject in folder or group x
posts / subjects with tags x, y, z
recent posts
unread posts
timestamp of starter / last post
written by member x
matching search term
combine different criteria
-> if not enough hits, show some "almost what you want" hits

Members (Rating)

honor medal for forum potatoes.
abuse tag on the profile, for not being nice in the forum.

Moderation, Volunteer Work

Tool to manage tags (rename, join, delete, group, set association between tags)
Premoderation feature (?) as describe in forum rules (?) (the post of premoderated members are not visible until a moderator allow them)
Moderation with scope for "All" or by "category/Tag"

Thread/ Post visibility

Full visibility
bw members only
group members only

Visualization of time

Relative time:
- Visual metaphors which make it more obvious how far two subsequent threads are away from each other in time
- Visual metaphors to tell how old a thread is in total.
World time features:
- Astro-geographic metaphors! (sun, moon phases, earth rotation / earth phases...)
- World time tooltips?

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