Strider: Bloggo, sounds like a drain cleaner. You need a bacos, because everything is better with bacon.
You are more than correct. Bacon and Monkeys.
Bloggo was the steroidal result of my first PHP "Hello, World" program. The catch phrase for Bloggo was "You're Soaking In It."
Strider: Ahh, the good ole front page. You get into the trap of making it too configurable, and thus too database heavy since it has to 'create' the page for each request (which is fine if you want to stay small/cheap) or static (after each update, create a static page so all 'browsers' can view it w/o using any processor power. Or both, only display dynamic for signed in users. I'm sure this is all old news to you... just rambling.
A static page isn't bad if part of the posting process creates the page. But you'd need to create multiple pages -- one for each possible if users can turn off the visibility of modules as you suggest below (and I think it's a good suggestion). The other option, now that I think about it, is to just have WITHIN that dynamic page to turn off the visibility of modules based on user prefs.
Fortunately, database *reading* isn't that resource intensive. So unless I find someone using Spork for a high traffic site and they start having issues, I think I'll just to do the dynamic creation each time.
Strider: All seems pretty general. I would suggest making everything a template. RSS is pretty standard and just uses a different template than the general pages. This allows you to easily add rss feeds for comments, individual threads, or whole weblogs, etc.
I didn't express it specifically, that's what I was thinking. Most of it, other than that pages specific content, is pretty much from one source.
Strider: As mentioned earlier, might be good to make a module that 'creates' static pages. This would help lessen the load on commonly hit pages. You can also have a grim reaper module that 'kills' old threads and converts them to static pages. This way there's no information lost and people can't raise the dead.
Yeah, the module would create static pages, so the user doesn't have to do anything but put in the unique info.
I could call the module "whitenoise."
The grim reaper module sounds fun in the sense that it uses "grim reaper" in its name. But it seems redundant. It occurs to me that in a forum, you could just have a function that locks old threads. If we're talking about comments on a post, well, my personal feeling is there's no need to lock it. But i suppose if SOMEONE wants it it's worth having. It could just be an admin switch to say "don't make commenting available on post more than X seconds old (using, of course, standard Unix time stamps)
Strider: Recent posts sounds like the same thing as the homepage. A chatterbox might be fun, depending on your tastes. Most sites show online users at the bottom of the page in a footer of some sort, so you might just want to keep them there. The tag cloud/categories/search/calendar are all good.
Something else I haven't said specifically is that the front page will default to just "blurbs" or a short outtake, with a "read more" link. The recent posts would be more of a list of just titles as links, in smaller print.
I do like the idea of a chatterbox at least being available.
and there area few variations on it, like user tweets, that bear considerations.
But yeah, when I say sidebar, I kind of mean, that it's interchangeable between the header, side, and footer
Strider: Games that give points that are tied to your title might be fun. It would definitely encourage people to spend time on your site. The problem is getting/creating the games. Also, make the website/links field expandable. It's annoying when a site only has a couple options, but forgets a site I like. (In this case, nanowrimo user page would be a site relevant to these forums)
Wow, there's a whole section that I forgot to put in there. I want to make it a site capable of hosting RPGs, so it could store character stats and adventure information. The actual rp would happen over Skype or chats or in forums, but the dice and records could be in the site. But now that you say it, on site games, like scavenger hunts. It bears thinking.
yeah, need to be able to add on additional sites, with labels, good thinking.
Strider: Another system that I've seen work well is a rank/power system. The users who post the most can moderate the system (temporary until approved by a real mod.) This helps quickly remove dangerous links to viruses, child porn, etc. Of course, this power can be revoked by the gods if abused.
Admin undoable user moderation. Nice. Yeah, I can put that in.
Strider: And javascript to move pages around similar to the photo gallery. In fact, if you could make the system react just like a gallery, that would be awesome. I get annoyed when I'm reading a comic that has been around for a while and after each comic I need to search for the "next"/"Prev" link... if I could just hit the left/right arrow on they keyboard and continue reading, that would be awesome. Alt-Text is somewhat annoying since some browsers don't display the whole string, some people don't even know it's there, and it vanishes quickly. As much as I love XKCD, I wish they just displayed the text as a caption.
Yeah, i can see that. JS navigation is something that bears thinking. My comic site had rather large navigation arrows, so it was hard to miss, but so many people use different options, so that could be useful
Alt-Text is pretty much somethign that needs to be in. So many webcomics artists use it, to good effect. In addition to XKCD, Dr. McNinja, Dinosaur Comics and Overcompensating all immediately come to mind. It's common enough that when I bump into a new comic one of the first things I do is check for mouseovers. And when they're present, it makes me feel like I just found a little easter egg.
Strider: One thing I'm working on with my webpage is making a system for each major category. For example, I have three section: Blog, Writing, and Programming. I want it to show a personal theme for my blog, a fantasy theme for writing, and a techy/coding theme for programming. I think it would bring personality to each page. As for person tags, how do you decide where it goes? Does each user get the option? Also, the ability to export the page would be good too. Allows you to do custom backups or move to another system later on if you wish (blasphemy!)
So it's one site, but looks like three. Hrm... I have considered different specific features, like variations on the headers and stuff, but still fitting within the general theme. But making it possible to use multiple themes, that's probably as easily doable as user preferred themes.
Do you mean like the admin exporting the pictures to an XML file? or quick exporting the whole database to a file? I never think of things like that because I tend to do my backups just using phpmyadmin, which makes it quick and easy.
Strider: Zoom, option to save image, mark offensive (depending on who is allowed to post).. or even just moderation ability.
yeah, the obvious features I should have thought of quickly
Strider: Ugh, I had to make a shopping cart system for my Masters Project... and it was a pain in the ass. Make sure you have a module system here so they can add the type of cart they want to use (paypal/google checkout/yahoo checkout/msn checkout/local credit card system/etc). Don't forget: User Ratings, Comments, Price, Sale Price, quantity, etc.
Yeah, it's clear I haven't thought through the merch section very quickly. Shopping carts irritate me. I don't think i've ever finished one.
Strider: Modules should supply user searchable database rows with friendly names.
Yeah, I don't think the searches will be difficult to write. Just hitting the right fields for near matches.
Strider: A theme editor is hard to write. Ideally, it should just be adding/removing modules and editing CSS. I'm not sure creating a WYSIWYG editor for themes is very efficient if it'll just be used by the site administrators. If users can create their own themes, it might be worth the effort though. Also, (as much as I hate saying this) you might want to include a Advertising section. Need to recoup operating costs somewhere. Alternatively, a donation center. Donate for no ads?
Strider: Allow the user to hide/block modules. Some people won't care to see the comic or to play the games. Privacy settings as well. Allow them to choose how much information is displayed, who it's displayed to, etc. Friends lists, or even friend groups.
This is where I start thinking in terms of putting things in "blocks" like Xoops does. I was thinking you could mark them with tags when you put them in the bars, and then depending on how you've marked the users, they show or not. But if you did them in blocks, that could just be an option for the block. Ads would be a switch only the admin could change, but modules would be changeable by users for themselves.