Request for forum "mods"/customisation to be added

What features/apps/bugfixes needed in a future Puppy
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ecomoney
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Request for forum "mods"/customisation to be added

#1 Post by ecomoney »

Something that puppy linux really stands out for is the quality of the people on the forum. An active and friendly community is an integral part of any linux distribution, especially one aimed at "linux newbs".

Recently a thread we had started diverted temporarily for a short yet passionate "discussion" about image sizes, I will re-post what I put in off topic reply there.
Ive always had the philosophy that technology when used correctly can overcome any problem, and make sure that all "minorities" (i.e. the majority) are catered for. As former phpbb board designers Ive often thought that what would help the puppy community considerably is if we added some modifications to this board. I did mention this some time ago when I first joined. Phpbb message board is an open source project and like firefox can have a great many customisations added to it, including one that will allow photographs to be uploaded easily, with a setting in the users control panel to let individual users choose to see only previews of an image if they require..
The current forum is to my knowledge practically un-modded. Adding a few modifications to customise it to suit discussing puppy linux would inevitably filter down into a better distro, and a better experience to puppy linux's users.

I realise that posting this I have violated a forum norm by not posting it in the "suggestions for forum improvement" stickie at the top (I have seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9q2jNjOPdk which covers forum basics...a great watch). However I think the topic of forum modifications as a technical topic would be better discussed as a separate thread from the stickie, which deals more with "social" forum management. Flash, I will understand if you choose to merge this topic with that one if you disagree. You are the one that at the end of the day puts the effort in for free.

A great selection of phpbb modifications that would be useful on this forum can be found at http://www.phpbbhacks.com
Puppy Linux's [url=http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=296352#296352]Mission[/url]

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Pizzasgood
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#2 Post by Pizzasgood »

The current forum is to my knowledge practically un-modded.
There are in fact two mods. One drastically changes the admin panel and lets us have subforums, and probably a couple other small features I've forgotten about. The other lets us have attachments.

I have nothing against previews, nor the 'quick reply' thing somebody mentioned a while back. Not up to me though. JohnMurga is the only one who can install mods. The most I can do is change settings in the admin panel (such as setting that 600px wide limit).

Oh, and good to see you're still going strong, by the way. :)
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
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ecomoney
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#3 Post by ecomoney »

Oh, and good to see you're still going strong, by the way
Neve better, good to be back....what doesnt kill you makes you stronger ;-)

I understand this forum is phpbb version 3.00, which has subforums by default (it was a mod for the previous 2.xx release).

One thing I think may be useful is a "special skills" field, for example, our could be "usability, commercialization" (lol) whereas tempestious could be "wireless internet guru". Probably best make it 256 characters (just for MU :-) ). This would make it easy for forum newbies to know exactly what everyone on here does if theyre not familiar with the members.

The ubuntu forums also have a "thanked xxx times" which would reduce the amount of "that worked for me thanks!" posts about and would give an indication as to who provided the most solutions.
Puppy Linux's [url=http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=296352#296352]Mission[/url]

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Pizzasgood
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#4 Post by Pizzasgood »

No, we're still using the 2.x series.

It would be cool if John updated us to 3.x, but I don't know if that's possible due to those two mods. They might have modified the database too much. Though, John seems like a smart enough person that he might be able to manually correct things if he studied the current database layout and what it would need to be for phpbb 3.x.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
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ecomoney
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#5 Post by ecomoney »

Ahh, rite, its version 2 with the subforums mod added, I hear it does make adding further mods a bit difficult, although themes should work easily enough

Ive found a forum where they have modded their phpbb style to suit puppy's! the theme is called "doggonit"
Puppy Linux's [url=http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=296352#296352]Mission[/url]

Sorry, my server is down atm!

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