How can I turn boards into mini-Blogs?

[gemigene]

Hi,

I'd like to integrate very simple Blogs for my members and after looking at the available mods, I find them to be overkill for my needs plus according to the support threads, problematic if certain other mods are installed.

So, what I'd like to do is create a "Members Journals" category then have a board assigned to whoever wants one. What would be the best way to go about this, create a new permissions group for Bloggers with similar permissions as moderators but for their board only and set the boards to "reply only"? As far as having the latest post show first, I'd be using the Custom Board Sort mod.

Any tips would be appreciated,
Gene

[ottoman1990]

You may use SimplePortal by (by [SiNaN]) Actually it is a portal mod but you can use it as if it were a blog.

Link to mod: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1104
Link to the topic: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=227599.0

[gemigene]

Looks interesting but I don't want to turn the whole forum into individual blogs, this would only be an option offered to my members.

Thanks,
Gene

[lordtron]

Then this mod should be able to do the trick. Blog: Community

[gemigene]

Thanks Lordtron,

I've looked at that one too and this is what I meant by "overkill", all I want is to turn a category into very simple Blogs but with no bells and whistles (categories, links, etc.).

Cheers,
Gene

[lordtron]

How is it overkill, please explain?

[gemigene]

How is it overkill, please explain?

As I mentioned "with no bells and whistles (categories, links, etc.)" plus I find that Admin doesn't have enough control over the blogs (I don't want the mini blogs to have sidebars sidebars, etc.).

Cheers,
Gene

[gemigene]

So, does anyone know how to do this without blog mods?

Thanks,
Gene

[gemigene]

Could it be as simple as creating a board (for example, Bob's Journal), setting Board Access to reply only and making "Bob" the moderator for his board or should I create a new membergroup with some moderator rights?

Cheers,
Gene

[gemigene]

Sorry but, bump...

Cheers,
Gene

[Shellius]

I think I want to do something similar only within a block. I would like to put a blog into a Center block somehow.

I'm using SMF now as an all-purpose website with Tiny Portal and oddly enough, no forum, but I'm using the features of  SMF and TP more or less as a blog, and I don't want to switch to another system. I would like a blog within my front page somehow though. I tried putting a super-simple Wordpress blog right in a block and that of course didn't work.... but if I could find a way to make blocks behave more like a blog, that would work too. In other words, add comments, but not columns, headers, etc. within a block.   The reason I don't want to switch to a blog is I already have a year's worth of stuff in SMF and I don't want to mess with the layout I've made, which I really like.   If you figure out how to get a very simple blog within a board or a block please let us know... the less mods the better but I'm willing to try anything as long as it would show up the way I want it to on my main center block.

Well.... I tried the blog Mod mentioned above in a new board, and it doesn't seem to be working. Does it not work with TP turned on?

[Shellius]

I got this to work and it looks pretty good. Now how can I move this blog-board above the center blocks?

[Rumbaar]

I don't know of any way to do this without a mod.

I'm not sure if this would work, but you could try install this theme:
Bloggy!
Then set a bog board and have that theme as the theme for that section.  Then when people visit that section they get the blog view and it might/should operate as a blogger section.