Is there a mod which turns your homepage into a blog?

[levely]

Is there a mod which turns your homepage into a blog?

I'm looking for a mod which allows me to add blog posts and images to the homepage while setting the forum up under /index.php

[Kindred]

you would be looking for a portal mod...

However, the rest of it depends on what you mean by "turns your homepage into a blog"

If you just mean "displays a post (or posts) in a block" then a portal mod is all that you need (and there are at least 6 options)
if you actually want a real blog, with blog functionality for your users as well, then you would need a separate mod in addition.

[levely]

if you actually want a real blog, with blog functionality for your users as well, then you would need a separate mod in addition.

What type of separate mod? What would I search for?

[Arantor]

There isn't really a separate mod; most people that do this use a portal.

Going more complex requires serious code and is usually custom to the site in question. I've done it a couple of times but both times used unique code to those sites, rather than anything off the shelf.

[levely]

Okay, thanks. So, out of the 6 or so portal mods, is there one that users seem to prefer or recommend?

[Arantor]

SimplePortal is the one most go for on the basis that it's generally considered the easiest to use.

[levely]

Thanks.    Just out of curiosity Arantor, are you retired or does SMF compensate you? Obviously you spend a lot of time here.

[Arantor]

I'm not retired, and I don't get compensation. I just like it here.

[levely]

I'm not retired, and I don't get compensation. I just like it here.

Well, thanks for your contribution. So, do you make your living from forums?

[Arantor]

Currently working on that, yes

[Gwenwyfar]

There isn't really a separate mod; most people that do this use a portal.

Going more complex requires serious code and is usually custom to the site in question. I've done it a couple of times but both times used unique code to those sites, rather than anything off the shelf.

By the way, did you write the code for those keywords by yourself (I saw one of your forum-blogs) or you got some mod for that part? I made a blog-theme for one of my forum sections, and that's all that's missing of important now.

[Arantor]

For crossingoverland.com, the only off-the-shelf mod was Pretty URLs, the theme is a modified WordPress theme, everything else is mine, including the tagging (which also includes the not so obvious functionality of geotagging posts which is partially what makes the map feature work)

[Gwenwyfar]

Ahh. That's already something completely out of my skills for the time being

Must be a breeze for you I imagine

Gave a look on some tagging mods but leaving the testing for later... not particularly fond of the idea of adding more js/ajax and etc on the forum.

[Biology Forums]

Arantor and PrettyURLs, did I read that correctly? :p

[Arantor]

I did it to be pretty and I tweaked it to actually work properly on my configuration; it wasn't for SEO purposes.

[Biology Forums]

True, I do like the uniformity that the mod adds, but that's about it.

[Gwenwyfar]

Wouldn't it be easier to just make a change through htacess to do that, though?

(Admittedly, I tried that to remove the "index.php" part from all the pages, but knowing nothing about it it was a total failure. Didn't want to install something that changed files just for that).

[Arantor]

To a point - but you still have to have SMF output the relevant links everywhere.

Removing index.php from the URL on its own is fraught with excitement where you have to outmanuever the PHPSESSID buffer though.

I like the pretty factor of pretty URLs and I was sort of building the site as a blog rather than a forum, so having the pretty factor was kind of more expected.

[Bruce the Shark]

Best way and easiest would be to put links on your navigation bar and to point it to a website and then have the web page similar in appears as the theme in smf pointing back again.
But you can setup a web page/forum to do almost anything using portals.

[Bloc]

For crossingoverland.com, the only off-the-shelf mod was Pretty URLs, the theme is a modified WordPress theme, everything else is mine, including the tagging (which also includes the not so obvious functionality of geotagging posts which is partially what makes the map feature work)

Geotagging? You mean the tags on the right side, for types of places? I can't see any maps in the posts - member only perhaps.