message boards / forums

[bobmurphy]

does anyone know where i can get general information on messageboards and forums - i'm trying to figure out why it seems that all the cool looking ones haven't got the capability to display the threads expanded -

i want a forum that displays the threads expanded by default but has the capability to include emoicons and bold text etc ( much like this one ) --

i know that this forum may not be the ideal place to discuss this so if anyone knows of a good place to i'd be happy to take it there.

thanks

[PeOfEo]

what do you mean by expanded?

[spufi]

I agree that most of the message boards I have seen aren't threaded anymore. Having a board being able to go from threaded to non-threaded has been a pain sometimes though so I do recommend picking one way and sticking with it. Anyway, here's an example of a forum that uses the threaded style of posting.

http://www.grassrootsmusic.com/discussion/

UBB.threads has a forum that uses the threaded view although the one I recently looked at I wasn't too fond of. Maybe if the admin changed enough settings then things wouldn't be too bad.

[PeOfEo]

active data online has a very basic one that I have looked at that is xml driven. You can add in more forums, emoticons, and custom codes like the img stuff with very little extra scripting though. The bare bones are there you just need to mod it. http://www.activedataonline.com.au/ThreadedComments/demo.aspx But its in asp.net
:D

[bobmurphy]

thanks guys - i think the proper term for what i'm looking for is a message board which uses recursive threading - in other words, displaying all the replies at once - the one at grassroots is more what i'm on the lookout for, but it still seems strange to me that there is a heap of the 'other type' of boards available but only a small handful of the recursive threading type - idealy one like the grassroots one but with the availability of icons and bold/italics etc is what i'm looking for - and i'm on a unix server so asp is not an option ( i think )

[PeOfEo]

asp might be, but asp.net most definatly isnt. They are very different technologies and asp.net requires an nt os.

[spufi]

You'll most likely want to try a forum that uses PHP/MySQL. I have a book called "PHP and MySQL Web Development" and they make a threaded view type forum in the book. It's in chapter 29 and since I'm so not there, I can't help you out just yet. If you do want a premade forum though, do some searches on threaded forums, PHP, and MySQL.

[bobmurphy]

hi all i think i've found something like what i wanted in the FUD forum -- it gives me the ablity to select 'thread view' if i want -- except that i hope to set that up as the page default somehow:D

[KeithMcL]

Have a look at www.vbulletin.com/forum

View one of the threads and look on the right hand side at the top of the thread and you'll notice three different layout options "Linear", "Hybrid" and "Threaded". You can choose either of them.

I think you're talking about the "Threaded" mode.

[PeOfEo]

But that is only doing that display for the thread its self that is not for the whole forum where you can see all the individual threads from the main forum page like the like I presented above and the ones others had.

[iBold]

what exactly were you looking for....and where were you looking for it at??

[bobmurphy]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
But that is only doing that display for the thread its self that is not for the whole forum where you can see all the individual threads from the main forum page like the like I presented above and the ones others had.

that's right - the one i'm trying to use now http://fud.prohost.org/ gives me that option on the whole forum :D :D :D

[bobmurphy]

i must have hit new thread by accident - it was a response to a different thread - message boards / forums in this section - maybe a moderator cound remove this as it's pointless :eek:

[pyro]

I'll do one better and merge the two theads. :)

[bobmurphy]

.... well the wonders of modern technology !!!!! :D