An idea for new mod ((content type with different display)) ...its major i think

[samozin]

i saw that in drupal in the default package

it enables the writer to choose  what cont he's going to write

forum post , blog post , image , file , document ... etc

i  already made it for smf 2.0 awhile ago ... by modifing that mod called reason for edit i put a selection options on post.template to add acolumn  near id_post that holds one number  1 or 2 or 3 ... with every post

and modified display template case 1 display something , case 2 display something different  and it worked with some issues cause am  not good at php

i think its major and gonna kill some old pro mods 

i hope somebody intersted with the idea also to see afree version of that

good luck

[Kindred]

thing is -- that's a CMS or blog thing -- not a forum thing

[Arantor]

Is that why your paid competitors in the forum space are doing it and have been doing it for years?

You're just defining types of topics for the purposes of encouraging discussion.

Hell, SMF does it - a poll topic and a calendar event topic are not the same fundamentally as a regular topic except when they are, except when they're not.

This suggestion is just about realising the reality and moving onwards towards functionality that people would actually use.

[live627]

- a poll topic and a calendar event topic are not the same fundamentally as a regular topic except when they are, except when they're not.

Schrödinger's topic xD

thing is -- that's a CMS or blog thing -- not a forum thing

but fora manage content, no?

[Kindred]

Meh....

Git off mah lawn!

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

It is more a CMS feature, yes, but I do see how it can also be valuable for a forum.
I actually semi-frequently visit a forum with something like this, where everything is basically just another topic in a forum, and you can browse the forum as is if you want, but you also have separate pages that display only certain types of topics with further options to search and sort within that type of topics and get the search results in a more content appropriate manner. For example, you can have a board that's just general chit chat, no need for fancy catalogues, and next you can have a board for downloads where every download is accompanied with a screenshot, size, system requirements etc, and you can have a nice searchable catalogue of these downloads on a separate page. That's sort of cool IMO. It's like integrating the modsite here to the forum itself, the mods are both a topic on the forum, and an item on the searchable modsite.

[samozin]

thing is -- that's a CMS or blog thing -- not a forum thing

so.. what
 the mod will give the smf admin the ability to have more functions with his own smf ..with no need for another cms .. even less mods ( i would not need for files directory .. or agalley or media gallery as i can show it by using ssi ...etc )..

that will level up the smf .... and it will be a simple mod .. if u want it >> its available.   if u want pure forum function its ur wish .... the main value  ......... you are smf user and
we are trying to keep u with us by making life easer on you and u dont have to do more integrations and coding stuffs ....
 ( i think thats what hooks do).. same concept i think

[samozin]

It is more a CMS feature, yes, but I do see how it can also be valuable for a forum.
I actually semi-frequently visit a forum with something like this, where everything is basically just another topic in a forum, and you can browse the forum as is if you want, but you also have separate pages that display only certain types of topics with further options to search and sort within that type of topics and get the search results in a more content appropriate manner. For example, you can have a board that's just general chit chat, no need for fancy catalogues, and next you can have a board for downloads where every download is accompanied with a screenshot, size, system requirements etc, and you can have a nice searchable catalogue of these downloads on a separate page. That's sort of cool IMO. It's like integrating the modsite here to the forum itself, the mods are both a topic on the forum, and an item on the searchable modsite.

u are reading my mind 
social media websites changed the way ppl look at websites .... i dont want somebody lookdown my site and say "its old fashion guys " yes forum style is old fashion  thats the reality ...... u have to admit that  ....  life is changing ... forums space also changing ... ( they add  more java, more responsive , more socializing functions , more compatible with other scripts and mobile apps and its notifications .... ) and
i want my site fashionable ,secure , widely  supported  and i want it powered by smf ..... thats the way u keep smf users .... new functions will dominate smf  in forum space ...( i cant get rid of nokia falldown idea of my mind)

[Arantor]

Doing it properly does require more than a simple mod, as XenForo proved when they added it, but that was because they built a proper setup to allow more than just tweaking a field or two.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Yeah, I wouldn't really expect it to be exactly easy and simple to make it a versatile one-size-fits-most solution, not to mention one-size-fits-all. But I do agree the idea has merit.

[Arantor]

Personally I'd suggest it was exactly the sort of refactoring that would be ideal for a major version bump.

So much code would be able to be cleaned up and decoupled, and it would make it entirely possible for new kinds of mods that aren't possible today without vastly more work.

But, honestly, Kindred's reaction is so telling about why it won't happen any time soon.

[Kindred]

Nah, I'm just an old fart in support. 

I let the devs and the PM decide on the bright new future....

[Arantor]

I'm not being funny but your reaction carries far more weight than you think it does. The "get off my lawn" reaction is why forums are being left behind: because users have higher expectations and needs than we did 20 years ago.

But if you're calling the 3.0 roadmap a bright new future, it's even more disappointing than ever because all I can think about are the conversations I had in 2013 about a release that isn't compelling. I do not for one minute imagine users excited to upgrade for the listed features, especially the ones that already exist as mods.

The only way to move into a bright new future is to be bold and do big things. Dare to dream. Dare to imagine users not you.

Controversially you could try talking to users who aren't the people here, who are already invested in the ecosystem. Find out why people aren't taking to SMF, why they're going to XF and even IPS. Find out what people are missing. It's a big scary world out there, but the rewards for being brave enough to try are... surprising.

[Diego Andrés]

An initial step could be to pass the board type to the topics, that way a board that is type 'downloads' can use a different subtemplate in topics too, similar to the board index.

Perhaps we're also missing this ability to define a type in categories, it could detach the traditional layout for each category too.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

@Sesquipedalian Thoughts?

[Sesquipedalian]

Interesting. I make no promises, but this idea is certainly worthy of consideration.

[Sesquipedalian]

The only way to move into a bright new future is to be bold and do big things.

Bold moves also have to be done one step at a time. Making massive new changes takes time, and I have no intention of letting SMF 3.0 fall into the same development hell that SMF 2.1 spent nearly a decade trying to escape. So instead we are aiming for smaller, more frequent releases going forward. SMF 3.0 is a major modernization of the internal code in order to give us the foundation for faster, easier, and more reliable development of new features in SMF 3.1 and beyond.

[Arantor]

The first problem is the user expectation. You give it a big bold number like 3.0, people are going to expect big new features. This was something we looked at a decade ago - before the dev hell really kicked in.

The second problem is that 2.1's problem was a lack of vision above all else. No-one knew what it should be, or what it should do or where any of the lines were. That is something 3.0 at least currently addresses but I'd be highly wary of people being underwhelmed and the move to 3.0 with a new theme and mod breakage causing people to re-evaluate if they want to keep running.

That's the danger of more frequent releases: you have to weigh up the costs of inconveniencing the users and pushing them for an update that doesn't give them anything *they* care about is a risky proposition.

Unless the plan is to encourage leap-frogging, which can be a viable strategy.