Consummo - Custom Forum - Need Opinions

[esgarrouth19]

I have written a few custom forums in my time (all from scratch or based off of my previous code) and have decided to start one that will hopefully give everyone else a run for their money... even if they are released for free.

 

The General Idea

I am talking to everyone I can to find out what they like (or would like to see) in a forum/community. This includes PHP developers who may, someday, install my forum and create add-ons/templates for it. I believe this will give me a good idea as to how to build it (front-end and back-end). If you can provide any information as to what you like/dislike in forum software (code-related or not), it would be greatly appreciated. If something specific comes up that I would like to have a vote on, I will place it below.

 

The Question (repeated for the lazy)

What do you like/dislike in forum software? It can be related to the front-end or back-end.

 

Template System

My template system will use a mix of PHP and cf-variables (consummo forum). I am trying to decide on the syntax of these variables.

 

{example-variable} - Personal choice
{example_variable}
{exampleVariable}
{ExampleVariable}

 

Which would you prefer?

 

 

 

 

[Quadar]

I don't know if this already handled in some fancier forums or not, but this problem with time has always annoyed me on the forums I use. 

I think it would be great if a forum system allowed someone to view the time someone put in their post in their own time zone.

 

For instance I say I will reply at 6:00 PM and I am in Central Standard Time (DST) -6 GMT

And the person reading it is at +1 GMT. 

 

It would be nice if there was a button or something where the time could be entered in such a way that it would handle the timezone difference, and so me using the tool to enter 6:00 PM would show up as 1:00 AM on the other readers display because of the 7 hour difference.  It would probably be good if the tool did date/time as it could easily be the next day etc.

 

Just an idea, and you said you were asking

 

Good Luck

 

 

[esgarrouth19]

Thanks for posting! I already planned on having user-chosen time zones for displaying all times. :-) All times would be entered into the MySQL database using gmdate (single timezone for all posts then changed by PHP based on the viewer's profile (or use the default timezone of the forum if they aren't logged in)). Thanks for the idea though! Keep em coming :-D

[corbin]

"I don't know if this already handled in some fancier forums or not, but this problem with time has always annoyed me on the forums I use. 

I think it would be great if a forum system allowed someone to view the time someone put in their post in their own time zone."

 

 

Uh, that's been around for a long, long, long time in the major forums.

 

 

OP, don't take this the wrong way, but don't you think the already established forums listen to people too?  Listening to communities isn't a new concept.  Maybe I'm just jealous because I would never bother coding a forum my self ;p.

[esgarrouth19]

From what I've seen, they create the program and then ask the people who come to their site what they want most. That usually means developers and people who already prefer their product over another. The way I see it, it's best to ask everyone, not just the people who already use it. That's like Microsoft asking Windows users what they would like to see. By doing that, they'll get biased answers and tend to go in a direction that makes the non-windows users hate the product even more. By asking everyone, however, they get a broader audience. Sure, in the future, I will probably tend to pay attention to reviews on the products website more, but I will always try and get a new perspective.

[Acs]

I have to say, go for it! I try to do things myself too. There are loads of already made forum applications but it doesn't hurt to have one more! I know there are a lot of frameworks but that didn't prevent me from starting my own

 

In your forums try to use ajax wisely! It can be a plus if you don't overdue with the ajax stuff!

[esgarrouth19]

@Acs - I plan to do everything free of AJAX and then add in AJAX as add-on functionality. That way each person can choose what to use AJAX with and what not to use it with :-D Thanks for the suggestion/heads-up!

[Acs]

Actually that's the right way of doing it! Make sure everything works without ajax and then add it!