Quarter Page Forum

[Tubby]

With screen sizes growing I have been considering placing a quarter sized forum on some of my webpages.
A full forum, but designed to be compact.

I am not interested in merely placing forum posts on a sidebar.

Is there anything about that I could be looking at ?

[kgun]

There may be modifications for existing forum software.



With screen sizes growing I have been considering placing a quarter sized forum on some of my webpages.

I interpret that as integrating a forum within your existing sites.

The easiest way to do it is of course to implement a forum in a sub folder or on a sub site and use an rss feed to show some (for example 10 most recent) posts on your home page or on other pages where you think it is semantic.

When a user click on a post (s)he is automatically redirected to the forum.

[Tubby]

Hi Kgun

I do not want to re-direct people away. . . and Iframes are not useful because current forums require scrolling etc. I guess what I need is something like phpBB Open Source Forum - re designed in compact form.

I would simply like to present different topics on different web sites/pages where a user could simply log in to a topic that was relevant to the pages they regularly visit. (stay on that page)

It occurred to me that my users would appreciate an actual forum on the page that they visit (without leaving) If I had a topic on say Stationary engines - I could simply redesign a page like southern-cross-register.sumpy.com/ and plonk the relevant page of the forum on it

If I had topic on early Chevrolet's I could simply wedge the forum into pages like - restored-classic.com/chevy/1930.html

Any site could be able to "insert" the mini forum on to a web page So for example you had a page about your own classic car you could simply start a thread - and present it on your blog - (shared forum?)

It needs more thought. . . But my users would like it - even if they only read whats relevant to the topic they are viewing.

[Tubby]

I have Hastily put together This
http://www.restored-classics.com/quarter-page/

Just to give an initial visual impression of what I am looking for

[kgun]

From your second answer I understood what you were looking for.



I do not want to re-direct people away. . . and Iframes are not useful because current forums require scrolling etc. I guess what I need is something like phpBB Open Source Forum - re designed in compact form.

I don't know how easy it is to integrate your site with the phpBB platform. If there is not a modification that you can plug into the phpBB platform to integrate it with your own site, you may need a person that knows the phpBB styling engine very well. That person may be able to deliver what you ask for.



Any site could be able to "insert" the mini forum on to a web page So for example you had a page about your own classic car you could simply start a thread - and present it on your blog - (shared forum?)

Now you open the possibility for blog solutions. So http://bbpress.org/



bbPress is forum software with a twist from the creators of wordpress.

may solve your problem.

I know that Drupal can be used as a forum / blog platform and integrated with your own site. That requires a person that know that platform good enough to solve your problem.

Another solution may be to look for a minimalistic forum platform and integrate the code with your code.

phpBB is a fairly large platform that I know a little. There are smaller platforms like:


http://fluxbb.org/
http://xenforo.com/
http://vanillaforums.org/

Google: minimalist forum software

[AciveLite2k]

You could have a full forum in a sub-domain, then do one of two things through your sites template...

1. reformat the forums RSS feed so it can be placed in your side bar and look like it's part of your site. Then when they click the link it goes to the forum post?

or

2. Edit your existing site's backend code to access your forums database, then you can template the data and use the functionality of the actual forum scripts. PHPbb or vBulletin could possibly work well for you in this regards.

[Tubby]

1. reformat the forums RSS feed so it can be placed in your side bar and look like it's part of your site. Then when they click the link it goes to the forum post?


I have tried that on a couple of forums - the result I had was that users will often go and read the post. Getting them submit is another matter.

Getting users to submit on the page they regularly view is quite easy.

I have tested this with the "questions" section of my regular submission forms - people will submit on the regular page. Currently I place these submissions onto blog pages . . people read these blog pages but the same thing occurs. Users prefer to submit on the page they regularly use.

I have tested by listing a few posts with a separate submission and log in on the regular pages. People submit, but these arrive manually and I have to convert the manual submission and upload it - (not automated)

A full blooded quarter page layout forum is what I am looking for It would not matter if it was placed into an Iframe. the main user feature required is that it is simply always there on the page they are going to view.

Most of my users are not 'forum ready' testing (and feedback) tells me they will use a forum if it is presented in a less formal nature. It seems to me that simply reading and regular presentation create an acceptance. The moment they jump to a new format . . they shirk away.

I do have other websites that could share the forum - example southern cross engine register. This site has members that could moderate their own threads and membership - and be capable of bleeding traffic to and from from other sections of the forum.

I do have some extra funds due around Chrismas . . I guess I might need to find someone who can re-design a forum to suit my needs.

P.S. I personally think something like this would make a good alternative to my users that also use face book and the like -