Why no "true" forum interface on the WSB?

[schwaggy]

I’ve been wondering for a couple of years so it’s time to ask…

WSB, why don’t you run a “true” forum here, meaning forum plug-ins for WordPress to add cool features to the Forums?

A couple major benefits would be the ability to subscribe to threads, and picking up where you left off reading thus taking you directly to new posts.

Vanilla, Simple:Press and bbPress all seem to be pretty popular.

Thanks

Share This

[WSB]

This *is* on bbPress. It has been agonizingly difficult to work with (when we launched this in late 2007, it was in alpha mode, which wasn’t pointed out to us by the person who recommended it, and it became beta after a few YEARS) and we’ve had developers trying for a month now just to upgrade the bones to the newest underpinnings – not so we can add cool features, but so we can fix some problems. We may abandon it in the future and move everything to something more workable (which in itself would be a herculean effort and costly too, but it’s on our list) but for now, this is the best we can do. Thanks – TR

Share This

[hopey]

Uh, you can subscribe to threads. See the text below where it says “RSS feed for this topic”, just above the blue bar saying Reply? That lets you subscribe to the RSS feed for the topic you are reading. It works in any RSS feed reader.

Similarly, you can subscribe to any individual forum, such as “Rants & Raves”. Just look for the RSS feed link at the bottom of the forum’s page. I rarely read the forums while actually on the WSB website, since I get all the posts in my RSS feed reader. If I want to reply or comment, I just click through to the site.

Share This

[WSB]

Thanks, Hopey. I have to use the actual website for obvious reasons so the RSS features are almost invisible to me, but of course they are there – same thing with WSB news coverage categories – there’s a full list in the lower part of the right sidebar, with RSS links. Also, you can use the “notify me of followup posts via e-mail” feature on any thread, too. When we do have the capability to add more, we will still be judicious about it … though we are almost net natives (despite our advanced age) since we’ve been online since the earliest days of the consumer Web, I still hate the way various discussion areas, commenting and forums alike, have been gummed up with TOO many features on too many sites. – TR

Share This

[Author]

Posts