Just wondering what the best way to do an "article of the week" might be. Maybe I can do without a blog or portal! ;D
So, I started wondering whether or not to have an "Article of the week" forum that people can notify (Subscribe to). However, as the "Article of the week" could be about any of the topics in the other forums, it would probably be better there.
Hey, that's what newsletters are for right? So I just post the "Article of the week" under the appropriate forum subject (Constitutional Law reform, Abolishing the Australian States, Voting Systems, Activist activities, etc), and use:-
1. Newsletter / bulk email function (but do you think that gets a bit "spammish"?
2. News header on forum to advertise presence of new "Article of the Week"?
3. How should I designate the forum opening post / thread as a "Different" article being an "Article of the Week"? Are there forum markers that only ADMIN or Moderators can apply, and not have mere forum members copying that kind of marker on their own posts?
I'm just wondering what I can do with SMF RC1 in its most "Vanilla" state.
If you use the SimplePortal mod, you can actually turn a post into and article which you can promote to the very front end of your site, which basically makes people look at it.
I know... but isn't there extra styling? And it's not ready for RC1... I kind of just want to keep it "Vanilla". If we DID want to have a "real home page" I'd probably just add a button to the menu and link to Wordpress or something.
But.... just for the record... does moving threads change the url?
As long as the message is referenced via it's id #, I would not see a problem with moving topics from board to board. I just tested it on my forum and had no problem getting back to a message I moved using it's original link.
I think you've got most of what you want and can do worked out with 1-2. As for 3 you could create the very first category for the Article of the Week. Have a single thread in that board. Have that board call a different theme when viewing to make it even more obvious. Then create a child board and move all past threads to that one for archiving. You can then call that primary board in RSS or SSI feeds if you like elsewhere.