How to set up a dynamic forum site

JR1210

I want to set up a forum style site, but not the staic type PHP forum where people post and respond
It would be good if people could log into a website and they could click on a topic (e.g. U2) and it would automatically bring up all posts from all topics related to U2 (not a search)
When people click on a given topic I want it to be arranged as I want it and not as people post by date
Does anyone know whats the easiest way to achieve this? It would be good if there was something simple rather than programming portlets

MagicRon

JR1210 wrote: »

I want to set up a forum style site, but not the staic type PHP forum where people post and respond
It would be good if people could log into a website and they could click on a topic (e.g. U2) and it would automatically bring up all posts from all topics related to U2 (not a search)
When people click on a given topic I want it to be arranged as I want it and not as people post by date
Does anyone know whats the easiest way to achieve this? It would be good if there was something simple rather than programming portlets

The forums of today work by showing you threads/conversations that are recent/active. By making people click on a topic first, you are 'controlling' what people talk about? Also by choosing the orders that posts will appear, you are again choosing what users will see.
I wouldn't use your forum, and I can't think of a crowd that would?

MagicRon

That aside, I don't think it would be too hard to take an open source forum project (e.g. http://yetanotherforum.net/ ) and change it for your specific requirements. Have you a dev background?

JR1210

I dont mean that I want to control the flow of conversation

What I would like to do is have a section under the static topics area that is dynamic e.g.

TopicA
TopicB
TopicC

and underneath

TopicX where all the posts related to TopicX from TopicA, TopicB, TopicC will automatically be populated

Also if someone posted a link in a topic it would automatically rise to the top of the topic given pre-defined attributes (e.g weblink) ... When you search for a link in a topic sometimes it may be on page 3 where it should be on page1 or reply1

MagicRon

OK, I understand you better now.

Question for you then; Users who want their post to appear at the top, could 'cheat' by putting www.example.com in their post?
What *could possibly* be better here is a filter box or check box on a paste to "Only show posts containing links" ?

JR1210

That would be a solution using a standard forum, but I want the server to process the request for the user

In this Post (thread) we could have pages of replies (responses) and at the bottom someone may post a link to a community or site that could solve this issue. The aim would be to surface that response to the top of the post so that people that click on this post will see the link first, everything else will be as is... Like If I post about a radio show... 3 pages into the post someone might post the link to the show, not everyone wants to read 3 pages to find that link

Also If this Post is regarding "Dublin" then when I login to the home page and click on Topic "Dublin" this post should be listed in the link without the end user searching for Dublin

I havent worked on websites for years, so just wondering is there something that can do this?

MagicRon

What you are looking for doesn't sound too difficult.

First thing you need to decide now is the platform (phpbb, yaf, etc) and then look for a developer who knows the language that the forum you've chosen is written in.

I'm a C#/.Net developer. YetAnotherForum is C# so if you were to decide to use it, I'd be happy to help you out. ( http://yetanotherforum.net/ ).

Drop me a PM if you want to discuss further.