66 replies to this topic

[DZComposer]

I am willing to add some mods as stock phpbb doesn't really have the feature set as many other forums such as SMF or the commercial forum softwares.

So, which features do you guys want?

Please keep it reasonable.

The following types of things will not be added:
Anything that would bloat the database (IE music charts, integrated picture galleries, etc.) If for some reason we need to restore the db, I want to be able to do it in a reasonable amount of time.

Anything that would be more of an annoyance than an asset (IE different color for each letter in your username, karma (DEFINEATELY NO KARMA!), zodiacs, etc.)

Keep in mind that not every feature will be added. There have to be mods available that work with the version of phpbb that we run, and it can't be too laborious. I'm not going to spend 6 hours, which would likely result in 6 hours of downtime, to add a feature to the board.

[Steve]

a shout box, perhaps? XD

[DZComposer]

No shoutbox. It invites spam, and it was how the KLA was "hacked." The so-called hacker dropped a JS redirect into a shout.

[Ramuza]

what about one of those birthday box's? that tells whose birthday is on that day, people can just put their birthdate in a input in the profile or something and the server can just tell the birthday in the box at the bottom of the Forum screen. I seen stuff like that in other forums.

[brotheroffalco]

umm how about a special forum just for those who have been here since the beginning (say within 5 months of startup). I came to this idea because I'm starting to feel like the forum is over saturated. IMO it is getting closer and closer to being (as LS put it) just like Arwing Landing, and I don't know about you but I don't want to go down that road. This place is losing its intimate feel to some extent and I want to stop that from happening as much as possible

[DZComposer]

While that suggestion requires no modding, I'm not too fond of it. It sounds like something that could create more harm than good.

It would make this a "tiered forum." Having it exclusive to only those who joined during a certian period of time is not going to work as it will create jealosy among newer members and my PM box will become floodded with requests of how to get in.

Even if I established ranks and allowed people to enter it after a certian post count, it won't stop anything if there was a problem.

Also, what would be discussed in these forums? It would likely either be a dead forum or it would have duplicate threads, for the most part, of ones on the main boards.

Exclusivity (coupled with corrupt admins) is what killed lylat.net.

SFO will only grow once the site is back up and SFDS comes out. I want to welcome new members, not make them feel like they don't belong because they discovered SFO too late and can't join an "exclusive club."

It makes newer members look like 2nd-class members and I do not approve of discrimination like that.

[Dark Fox]

Quote

While that suggestion requires no modding, I'm not too fond of it. It sounds like something that could create more harm than good.

It would make this a "tiered forum." Having it exclusive to only those who joined during a certian period of time is not going to work as it will create jealosy among newer members and my PM box will become floodded with requests of how to get in.

Even if I established ranks and allowed people to enter it after a certian post count, it won't stop anything if there was a problem.

Also, what would be discussed in these forums? It would likely either be a dead forum or it would have duplicate threads, for the most part, of ones on the main boards.

Exclusivity (coupled with corrupt admins) is what killed lylat.net.

SFO will only grow once the site is back up and SFDS comes out. I want to welcome new members, not make them feel like they don't belong because they discovered SFO too late and can't join an "exclusive club."

It makes newer members look like 2nd-class members and I do not approve of discrimination like that.

I totally agree with you, DZ, as it is, the XG, DZ,ESF uber-poster (The folks in the first pasge of the memberlist, whenorder by post) group felt like the first familiy, and I was in the tour group up untill reecently.

what was nice was that I never did recive that feeling in return, and before too long, I wondeerd why i thought that in the first place.

new members can be easily daunted by whole "new guy in a platoon of vets" thing a tired forum wouldn't help, unless the fourm where invisible. one for the admins and mods would, convesely, be a great idea.

you could use that to discuss all of that fun stuff who guys need to cover like: new toips, add. mods/admins, bannage, and so forth.

this way you can discuss these things without fear of upseting any of us. and that is a good thing.(you could tepoarally allow certain members acesss if you need thier expertise or somthing)

custom titles a nice, but they take an army of manpower.........
(I herby voleenteer, for what it's worth.)

[DZComposer]

We alread have a hidden Mod/admin forum.

In fact, it was there before SFO.com went down.

[Inuyasha]

Most forums with vague administration forum sections usually do.

Anyway, might I suggest a Fast Reply option of some sort? Most forums I go to have one, and I've always thought it to be a bit nifty and, well, useful.

-Inuyasha

[DZComposer]

I know there is a mod for that out there, AL uses it. I'll look into it, it may be worth having.

[Kal]

So does KP.

[Dark Fox]

Quote

We alread have a hidden Mod/admin forum.

In fact, it was there before SFO.com went down.

I wondered if you did....
how bout the "attach file" mod
that'd be handy for the art section....

I think it might be space hungry, though.

[DZComposer]

Attachments aren't so much of a disk space issue as they are a database issue. It would add at least one more table to the database, and I would like to keep the fourm db as small as possible.

I'm thinking about doing an image gallery seperate from the forum for that, but maybe with shared usernames if some pre-exsisting coppermine-phpbb combined authentication is availavle.

EDIT: Coppermine appears to come with support for phpbb connectivity stock.

I like this idea better because it keeps fanart/images in their own database instead of inflating the forum database.

[Ludvig11]

I dunno if this is a rigth place to say this but..
It seems that the forum is slower nowadays then usual for some reason...

but it maybe is only a few times..

[Dark Fox]

Quote

Attachments aren't so much of a disk space issue as they are a database issue. It would add at least one more table to the database, and I would like to keep the fourm db as small as possible.

I'm thinking about doing an image gallery seperate from the forum for that, but maybe with shared usernames if some pre-exsisting coppermine-phpbb combined authentication is availavle.

EDIT: Coppermine appears to come with support for phpbb connectivity stock.

I like this idea better because it keeps fanart/images in their own database instead of inflating the forum database.

dual authentication is avalible, i saw it somwhere, for logging into 2 things at once(or it COULD be custom-written)

that image gallery would be nice b/c you could cross referance art like keywords, or somthing.
inface you can integrate the phpbb right into your website, too.

[Inuyasha]

I should've come up with this one before:
Is there any way for Flash content to be viewed ON the board? I'd like to be able to do that, as I've got a few Flash banners that'd save some sig space. I've been on a board that had BBCode tags for that, but even if I could just use an iframe or something...
Or would it be too database-heavy?

-Inuyasha

[DZComposer]

bbcode is all php, no db.

The only problem is that it could potentially open a security hole since flash has some scripting abilities. I'd have to check what the bbcode in the mod actually does.

[Dark Fox]

you would only whan't to do that if you had some extra security stuffed in. i think.

[Bill Winters]

I think that you should include Star Fox emoticons. I frequent a Resident Evil for and they have emoticons of Jill, Chris, Rebecca and other Resident Evil characters, I would also like to see mabye a better color scheme to keep within the Star Fox theme.

[DZComposer]

I had called for some, but no one has stepped forward to make them (I will not steal them from other sites)

[james mccloud]

I would make a template if you want, i just need to know how the phpbb templates actually work. Ive made templates before, but i dont know exactly how phpbb ones work.


For the emoticons: ask kuragari Krazoa. he can sprite so he could probably make some for you.

[Ludvig11]

Travis Fox can sprite to.

[Ramuza]

um.. maybe you guys can add a gender feature that shows each users gender.. since most of the time I get confused with genders on forums.... well not most of the time but sometimes I do get a little confused with some users.. *Experienced gender confusion on other forums, only once on this forum, not saying who*

[Kal]

That could be a good point...I always thought Sol was a dude, and you have no idea how many people think I'm a chick.

[Sol-Ratcht Saporro]

Hence my sig.

Yeah, Gender features would be nice as well. >.>; I get confused for a guy alot of times.