Interesting new forum feature ideas?

[warz]

This would be a neat feature. If I do pursue making a forum, I'll incorporate this feature. Shouldn't be too difficult.

[MyndFyre]

(since myndfyre's example is a bad link)

The second one was fine.  Wonder what screwed the pooch on the first.  But fixed.

[warz]

I was thinking. What about a forum that were based entirely on "shoutboxes" similar to web bot's channel text? The conversations could be displayed in an irc, or bnet like fashion. They could be saved post by post in a mysql database, just like other forum software. basically, the forum would have sections, and topics just like any other forum, but instead of threads/replies in each topic, it'd all be in one, screen-sized shout box kind of thing. i know of a very smooth shuotbox that reqiures no page refreshnig at all, and does all of this already. it could probably be made to work like i have described pretty easily. the forum could still have support for nice, clean looking quoting, code, formatting, etc. itd be kind of like irc or bnet with stats :P

[Ersan]

So just a forum with significantly less features...?  Because that's what a shoutbox is.

Need an AJAX forum (which is basically what you're describing).

[warz]

Well, after reading up on Ajax, I don't think I'm going to to be using their toolkits. I think this can be done easily enough on my own.

[Rule]

Post modification history.  Basically, when somebody edit's/deletes a post, have the ability to go back and see what they changed, and maybe restore a previous revision.  Useful in some cases. 



Source: Rule in private forums, March 2005.

Fixed :P

[iago]

Post modification history.  Basically, when somebody edit's/deletes a post, have the ability to go back and see what they changed, and maybe restore a previous revision.  Useful in some cases. 



Source: Rule in private forums, March 2005.

Fixed :P

Haha, when I saw you reply I wondered if you were going to say anything -- I knew it was on vL forums, but I didn't remember who suggested it and the forums were down when I tried to check.

[iago]

Another feature (again stolen from vL :P) is to invisibly ban a user.

Basically, they can still post, but their posts are invisible (except to them).  So they think they're still posting and everything is normal, but really they aren't.

We discussed this because of BSD (and other children) threatening to DDoS and such if they got banned.  It'd be nice to be able to ban them without them knowing.



Another idea (still stolen from vL :)): automatically banning IPs.

Basically, you mark a username as banned.  After that, any IP the user connects with is also banned.  That way, as long as they still have the cookie for the username (or even just a 'banned' cookie), changing their IP won't help. 

[Chavo]

I really like the "quick edit" feature of IPB.  You can modify and resubmit a change to your post without ever leaving the page or sending an http request.  I don't know if its any lighter on the server, but its certainly much faster for the user on a slow site and more convenient.

Along those lines, a notepad of sorts would be nice.  Often in a long thread I find myself writing a portion of my reply and then waiting to submit it until I have read other replies (and then often modifying or adding to my original reply).  If I had a javascript window anchored at the bottom of my screen, it would be very handy.  Granted I can do that with notepad and my dual monitor setup now, but just a suggestion.

This is more of an annoyance thing for me and probably not feasible, but when I'm skimming a topic I never really glance at signatures or usernames.  I quickly keep track of who is saying what by glancing at their avatar.  When someone changes their avatar it always takes a day or two to get used to it so that I don't have to check the name to figure out who is saying what :)  I'm not sure what the best solution would be, maybe a more graphical user identifier that doesn't change or including the avatar as part of the post instead of part of the user surrounding it.  I'm just trailing off now though... :P

[Sidoh]

See the little icon to the right of your post?  It's an AJAX edit routine. :)

[Chavo]

There is still an associated http request and I'm moved to a different page.  Perhaps I'm not being clear, but if you've used the newest versions of IPB you should know what I'm talking about.

[Ergot]

There is still an associated http request and I'm moved to a different page.  Perhaps I'm not being clear, but if you've used the newest versions of IPB you should know what I'm talking about.

Bottom right. Slightly above your IP address.

[Sidoh]

There is still an associated http request and I'm moved to a different page.  Perhaps I'm not being clear, but if you've used the newest versions of IPB you should know what I'm talking about.

I know exactly what you're talking about.  It's an AJAX routine.  It still requires a http request, but it's transparent because it's done through a javascript object without redirecting the browser.  Look to the bottom right of any of your posts.

Here's a screenshot

[Blaze]

Mercury doesn't have that feature, Sigh Dough.   :-\

[Sidoh]

Mercury doesn't have that feature, Sigh Dough.   :-\

Why are either of you using outdated themes? :P