A better forum.

[Qlip]

This thread isn't about TypoC, it's about the software. I just finished a two week coding spree on a low-fi internet app that allows you to deface a bathroom with graffiti (I'll post it up later, it still needs some tlc), and I came out of it wanting to code something useful. More than anything on the internet, forums have impacted my life. But they can be such a bitch to use, cobbled experiences built up on old technology.

I've been collecting my own ideas about what an ideal forum experience would be. Tell me, what frustrates you most about the forum software experience? What kinds of things would you want to see on a forum that you've never seen before? I want to make these things happen in a new forum software implementation.

 

[Lord Lavender]

This thread isn't about TypoC, it's about the software. I just finished a two week coding spree on a low-fi interenet app that allows you to deface a bathroom with graffiti (I'll post it up later, it still needs some tlc), and I came out of it wanting to code something useful. More than anything on the internet, forums have impacted my life. But they can be such a bitch to use, cobbled experiences built up on old technology.

I've been collecting my own ideas about what an ideal forum experience would be. Tell me, what frustrates you most about the forum software experience? What kinds of things would you want to see on a forum that you've never seen before? I want to make these things happen.

A list of ideas.

. Games section that you can play with other members or by yourself (Flash game type things, board games e.t.c).
. An counter that tells you how many words in total you have typed on this forum.
. An instant messaging system that is for private convos and far faster than PMs.
. (A bit insane and unpractical). Have a world map with active members shown as light dots and inactive as dark dots.
. A onsite tool to Photoshop stuff and memes and stuff.
. Installing a programme on the computer to act as a pop culture figure. (Probably annoying in debates and stuff though but funny).

 

[Qlip]

A list of ideas.

. Games section that you can play with other members or by yourself (Flash game type things, board games e.t.c).
. An counter that tells you how many words in total you have typed on this forum.
. An instant messaging system that is for private convos and far faster than PMs.
. (A bit insane and unpractical). Have a world map with active members shown as light dots and inactive as dark dots.
. A onsite tool to Photoshop stuff and memes and stuff.
. Installing a programme on the computer to act as a pop culture figure. (Probably annoying in debates and stuff though but funny).

Thanks for participating. FYI, this is actually not a super difficult feature, and are exactly the sorts of ideas that I'm looking for. I really like the in-app photo editor idea.

 

[highlander]

Thanks for participating. FYI, this is actually not a super difficult feature, and are exactly the sorts of ideas that I'm looking for. I really like the in-app photo editor idea.

Member map exists as a plugin already. I have thought about installing it a few times.

Member Map - DragonByte® Technologies | Premium Mods & Addons

 

[1487610420]

Main thing is elastic search tbh, the rest is just gimmicky

 

[Qlip]

Member map exists as a plugin already. I have thought about installing it a few times.

Member Map - DragonByte® Technologies | Premium Mods & Addons

I know phpBb has a ton of features, it's a very mature product, but I feel like it's turned into too much of a bazaar of conflicting jumbled plugins. I am hoping to write based off of newer technologies, from ground up to support a lot of the more requested features in a more seamless usable manner.

Main thing is elastic search tbh, the rest is just gimmicky

Right-o. Core search, thread/topic management, and privacy are #1 here. Although I do think photo and video management are severely lacking in current phpBB implementations.

 

[1487610420]

I know phpBb has a ton of features, it's a very mature product, but I feel like it's turned into too much of a bazaar of conflicting jumbled plugins. I am hoping to write based off of newer technologies, from ground up to support a lot of the more requested features in a more seamless usable manner.



Right-o. Core search, thread/topic management, and privacy are #1 here. Although I do think photo and video management are severely lacking in current phpBB implementations.

I'd guess current stacks have freely available options to hack together things fast, AWS, GCloud, Docker even.

 

[Lord Lavender]

Maybe a more dynamic search system where you can type in a thread type and it can bring up a list of similar topics things together with a similarity meter attached to it as some like to get exactly what they are looking for while some prefer a more broad search to get all the possibilities, a alternative history section or a writing section (I know blogs and all but an area where people can come together and be creative).

Maybe an area dedicated to just being social without any topics in mind with more of a group focus and a random discussion approach. Maybe have a music video of the day on the home page (I know members wont agree on what to have but just throwing bullets out there and seeing if any hit the bulls eye so to speak).

Maybe even a dating service for people to seek online relationships and to learn typology in relationships (I have shall we say experience with this due to my thread ENFP-ENTP fetish thread). I dont really understand the technical side but I can still throw out ideas.

 

[Qlip]

I'd guess current stacks have freely available options to hack together things fast, AWS, GCloud, Docker even.

Yeah, I am not very familiar with phpbb as far as scalability is concerned, but it's been in my experience that in these older server software is that they were written to run on single servers and performance up to a point can only be improved with increasing CPU/memory. Modern scalability now relies on distributed processing, dynamically increasing nodes. It's hell to adapt legacy stuff to it, and there's so much else that can be improved with a rewrite. Imagine, for instance, real time notifications without page refresh, or click and drag thread/post management, just out of the box. There's soo much to improve.

 

[Qlip]

Maybe a more dynamic search system where you can type in a thread type and it can bring up a list of similar topics things together with a similarity meter attached to it as some like to get exactly what they are looking for while some prefer a more broad search to get all the possibilities, a alternative history section or a writing section (I know blogs and all but an area where people can come together and be creative).

Maybe an area dedicated to just being social without any topics in mind with more of a group focus and a random discussion approach. Maybe have a music video of the day on the home page (I know members wont agree on what to have but just throwing bullets out there and seeing if any hit the bulls eye so to speak).

Maybe even a dating service for people to seek online relationships and to learn typology in relationships (I have shall we say experience with this due to my thread ENFP-ENTP fetish thread). I dont really understand the technical side but I can still throw out ideas.

I may be assuming too much, but I understand you're a younger user? I was wondering, when did you start foruming? And what was the learning curve involved for you? What felt strange about it? I imagine that a lot of this is non intuative, especially for younger users who are used to more friendly experiences.

 

[Lord Lavender]

I may be assuming too much, but I understand you're a younger user? I was wondering, when did you start foruming? And what was the learning curve involved for you? What felt strange about it? I imagine that a lot of this is non intuative, especially for younger users who are used to more friendly experiences.

Oh I do get carried away with my ideas at times as it is fun . I have had no trouble using this site. This is my first forum and is far freidler in tone than those science and politics forums plus there are lots of awesome users here so I joined this site and stuck around. Its just at times it feels like you have to like talk about one topic when at times people will just want to converse ramdomly in a group. I have also looked at PerC which to me I dont like because its not as close knit as I like getting to know people.

As for the learning curve the only problem was sticking to topic but I have learnt that now.

 

[Qlip]

Oh I do get carried away with my ideas at times as it is fun . I have had no trouble using this site. This is my first forum and is far freidler in tone than those science and politics forums plus there are lots of awesome users here so I joined this site and stuck around. Its just at times it feels like you have to like talk about one topic when at times people will just want to converse ramdomly in a group. I have also looked at PerC which to me I dont like because its not as close knit as I like getting to know people.

As for the learning curve the only problem was sticking to topic but I have learnt that now.

Hah, you are living up to your type.

 

[Lark]

If they site allowed [MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION] to execute roosters it would be better.

 

[Qlip]

If they site allowed [MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION] to execute roosters it would be better.

I will never advocate cock snuffing.

 

[Lark]

I will never advocate cock snuffing.

And if it could make [MENTION=1180]miss fortune[/MENTION] into a "real man"

 

[Qlip]

*Just to clarify, I'm talking about writing forum software in this thread, not STARTING a forum. Very different things.

 

[1487610420]

 

[Peter Deadpan]

[MENTION=30122]Brain in a Jar[/MENTION] - Great suggestions. I'm down with instant messaging and promoting romance or more laid back topics of convo. I also checked out PerC but was put off by how busy it is and some other minor details. I do, however, like that they have casual threads like "show your art" and "poetry," even though I don't understand 90% of poetry (or maybe I just hate it). I like TypoC much better. It's user-friendly, visually appealing, and has a sense of comradery.

And yes, add the map

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Smellvatars.... that is we each get to choose a scent that represents us. We can have songs play on our profile page and choose visual avatars. Why not olfactory avatars?

 

[Qlip]

Smellvatars.... that is we each get to choose a scent that represents us. We can have songs play on our profile page and choose visual avatars. Why not olfactory avatars?

That's the the kind of institutional disruption I'm looking for! We're going to overpower the competition with odor.