OK, now that I've got your attention with a  meaningless headline (didn't know how to phrase it). And this is going to be a long post, because I don't know how to make it short.

Something that I think would be a killer feature (I'd pay for it, quite frankly),  is the ability to change the format the forum interaction quite dramatically. And no, I don't mean the theme.

I think the main 'problem' with most forums is that they look the same as each other - even with skins on. SMF is wonderful because of it's functionality, features and SSI integration etc etc. But on entering a SMF forum, initial impressions are that it looks the same as all the others. Which is fine, of course. But having the flexibility to dramatically alter the layout (without complex programming) would be ideal. For example, I think that the most user friendly talk forum on the web is this one . It's based on WebX, which is horrible, but the layout format is so clear and poster friendly.

And then there are the 'threaded discussion' type forums, that are better for smaller forums possibly. What I am trying to say is that if, at the click of a few buttons in the control panel, an Administrator could switch between complete forum layouts, it would be very very cool and also distinguish SMF from all of the others (apart from WebX but that also costs big bucks and is a nightmare to administer).

Now I'm sure that some of you SSI wizards will come back and say that this is easily done (in which case please show me how), but I suspect that it's not that easy.


BTW, I do appreciate that I am asking for a lot here. 

Actually, you can more than just skin with SMF's engine. It lets you radically modify the layout, you just need to edit the template files. I'm not even talking SSI, although you can use it in your templates. With a little work you can have an SMF theme that looks like the forum you showed. The reason why the different themes you've seen so far are similar, is because there hasn't been a radically different one yet, not cause it can't be done.

One person used SMF to make a blog - from the index page .  Of course, that took more modification.

Indeed, exactly that every forum looks the same was WHY I put work into making the template system customizable.

As for threaded and other things... they are stored a bit differently, but it is possible.

-[Unknown]

SMF looks different to me, infact i love the default theme (check my site in my profile) and i dont care really if it looks the same, look at YaBB ever seen any real good theme's that are easy to find on boardmod, even still all the themes lack something. phpBB theres never variation just different header, Invision, ive seen that changed a few times, but SMF could do what your asking although to me i think it would be a little more than just basic editing, but if you ever do find someone or yourself that does it please let me know, it would be interesting. Good luck.

Quote from: [Unknown] on December 05, 2004, 03:10:27 AM
One person used SMF to make a blog - from the index page .  Of course, that took more modification.

Indeed, exactly that every forum looks the same was WHY I put work into making the template system customizable.

As for threaded and other things... they are stored a bit differently, but it is possible.

-[Unknown]

Indeed. And it is that commitment and unique approach to the customisation that made me feel able to post that request here. I wouldn't have bothered with Invision or the others. So, please take this as a compliment - because it is. If you hadn't done such a good job, I wouldn't be bothering you.

It's just that for WYSIWYG dunderheads like me, it is sooooo difficult to do the customisation that we would really like to do. I come from a graphic design background and have learned a certain amount about IT, web, HTML and so on. But I am only ever going to learn up to a certain amount, there simply isn't the time.

But people like me are the kind that will often be responsible for producing projects taht have forums, large web sites, content management systems and the like. OK, if there's a budget we can hire a PHP expert to write some bespoke code and achieve what we (or the client) want. But that costs time and money.

If I hadn't had a look under the bonnet of SMF, I would never have realised that it is so adaptable, unlike most of the others. But it is still far from being customisable to anyone without a lot of confidence with SSI and PHP. And the big point is that many people would never notice that this functionality exists! Which is a crying shame.

All I am trying to say is that if you were to build on your - already established - SSI system, to implement 3 or 4 distinctly different forum layouts at the click of a checkbox. You would have something that would be immediately obvious to be way above what the competition has to offer.  The more advanced user would still be able to do whatever they wanted with it, and the less technical dunderhead liker myself, could simply take 3-4 different layouts to my clients and say 'which one do you want'. That's something that is not possible with vBulletin and the others. In fact, if you could supply SMF with an install option that looked like the Guardian site (and perhaps one or two others), it would probably make WebX start worrying (even techies I know, hate having to code for WebX).

Obviously, I've no idea how much work would be involved in implementing this. But hey look, I'm willing to wait until version 2.3 for this all to be implemented.

Seriously, this is so not a criticism. You have a great product with the most potential of any of the other forums.

Quote from: Trekkie101 on December 05, 2004, 05:33:05 AM
SMF looks different to me, infact i love the default theme (check my site in my profile) and i dont care really if it looks the same, look at YaBB ever seen any real good theme's that are easy to find on boardmod, even still all the themes lack something. phpBB theres never variation just different header, Invision, ive seen that changed a few times, but SMF could do what your asking although to me i think it would be a little more than just basic editing, but if you ever do find someone or yourself that does it please let me know, it would be interesting. Good luck.

Thanks. Yes, absolutely my thoughts. Even I can see that what I'm after could possibly be done with SMF, but my brain hurts to even think of the task involved.  Believe me, if I do find a way of doing this (or find anyone else to do so), I'll be screaming it from the rooftops.

It was interesting to read this - I have had similar thoughts when I started using SMF from YabbSE. The php parts of this new system looked so daunting that I thought I never get around it. But I did. And a large part of that was ditching using any WYSIWYG program. Just a graphics program of course, but beyond that a simple text-editor was hte ticket. Laerning the basics of PHP and taking with me the HTML parts, instead of thinking pure design, one have to think half design, half logic.

To have a forum change with a button, is already there really. (index.php?theme=xx) Its more a matter of coming up with themes that look and act differently, throwing away all known "forum" behaviours. Its really ideas that are lacking...your example gave me some , but often enough people have great ideas - just not the skill( yet ) to put them to use.

So maybe one should talk about these ideas and wishes of design - and in the end create outstanding and different themes. For the software is capable, its just not realized yet.

Hmmm. OK, I see what you're saying. If someone did come up with a new design then adding that theme would only require teh click of a button?

I'm not completely convinced. And even a couple of posters indicated that it might it might take a bit more than a a simple Theme and SSI tweak. But even then, my thought was that if there was a skeleton 'starting point' of two or three variations, it would be easier to build on those.

Glad you got some ideas out my post though. I think that the Guardian forum has won awards - so you won't go far wrong. It achieves what so many others don't, a very very clean simple layout, but a functionality that is unsurpassed. IMHO. It appeals to both the graphic designer and aspiring techie  in me. 

And if you manage to realise any of those ideas into a theme, do let me know won't you?

Some things are very simple, and could be done with the click of a new theme.  Other things, like threaded messages, are not as simple and would require changes to the software.

-[Unknown]

Quote from: destalk on December 05, 2004, 08:06:42 PM
Glad you got some ideas out my post though. I think that the Guardian forum has won awards - so you won't go far wrong. It achieves what so many others don't, a very very clean simple layout, but a functionality that is unsurpassed. IMHO. It appeals to both the graphic designer and aspiring techie  in me. 

And if you manage to realise any of those ideas into a theme, do let me know won't you?

Sure, I will let you know if something comes out if it.

On a less ambitious area (I don't want to start a separate thread?).

How difficult would it be to keep the initial post (i.e. the thread starter) at the top of each page (again, I'm referring to the Guardian website as an example)? Could that be done with SSI, or would that require a software hack? I think it woud be a good way of keeping a thread on topic.

I'll shut up now, I think I've made enough requests from you good people.

Sticky the thread, its in the moderation options in the boards, plus if you dont want to post here feel free to email me, pm or MSNM me  im always willing to help.

Quote from: Trekkie101 on December 06, 2004, 11:40:52 AM
Sticky the thread

Since destalk appears to be talking about displaying the first post of each topic at the top of every topic page (like polls are done), I don't think that's the answer at all. But it should be a straightforward mod.

Quote from: Trekkie101 on December 06, 2004, 11:40:52 AM
Sticky the thread, its in the moderation options in the boards, plus if you dont want to post here feel free to email me, pm or MSNM me  im always willing to help.

Thanks Trekkie, I may take you up on that one day. But yes, it's what Peter said. It would be nice to be able to have the thread starter's post always displayed at the top, so that people can keep refering to it. Ideally it would also stand out by having a unique appearance in some way (perhaps reversed out text, or a bold or....). The Guardian do this by making he text blue (they've disabled nearly all BB type code including color posting), so that's less appropriate for SMF probably - I guess it would have to be implemented quite carefully.

Actually there was a post like this a few days ago, it spilt the topics into a new sorta section.

Infact i just got it after like 10 mins of searching, anyway is this any good

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=17230.0 

Thanks Trekkie, but no. That's not what I meant at all. I'm probably not explaining this clearly enough. 

It's the initial post of a topic that I am referring to. Not the thread itself. I'm after being able to always view the thread starters initial post at the top. As I say, the Guardian board is the example I was thinking of.

Oh sorry this is my fault, i just never actually opened the thread in the guardian. The only thing i know off by heart isnt that great but use the colour bar that would do it sorta if you wanted but otherwise im sorry.

No probs. Thanks for trying.