Forum Suggestions

[Bloggeries]

Looking for some suggestions here. We just overcame a huge spam problem and I've been kinda MIA. (My apologies).

As this community is built for bloggers as bloggers what would you like to see?

Also note a new design IS COMING and QUITE SOON so please stay tuned for that.

[QuirkyJessi]

Can't wait to see the new design.

[Nathan]

This is getting into the coding realm but my suggestion is that you use the following function to fix the titles in the recent post feeds beneath each user name:

function convert_smart_quotes($string)
{
$search = array(chr(145),
chr(146),
chr(147),
chr(148),
chr(151));
$replace = array("'",
"'",
'"',
'"',
'-');

return str_replace($search, $replace, $string);
}

I use curly quotes a lot and they always come out as ugly question marks in the recent blog link on this forum. If you incorporated this function to process each feed post title it would fix the curly quotes and also the long dash as well.

You may not want to mess around with the PHP code though.....

It would be good though if you could fix it.

[Ferox]

Good point Nathan.

I'm also missing the new templates that would be posted every other day. I liked browsing through them. Is there any way we could salvage that, but make it more user friendly?

Something like having many theme sub-forums for different groups (eg plain, nature, food, cars, poker etc) which are read-only, and one 'to be classified' which people can post new themes in. Then the mods can move the new themes into the appropriate sub forums.

I've used many a theme from here, and it was one of my favourite sections though dificult to use.

[Nathan]

That is a really good idea Ferox. We have already had a few people say they were leaving because the only reason they used this forum was for the themes.

It would be nice to have them back again, but categorized. Of course it would be more work for the mods to categorize them, but I think that we are up to the task.

[Ferox]

I'd volunteer. I looked at most of them anyway. It'll take a while to get through all the old ones, but some have broken links too.

[Bloggeries]

Ben was suggesting we add a theme database as another separate function to the forum. What do you think about that?

@Nathan - I will bring this to Ben's attention as it's beyond my capabilities.

[Ferox]

I don't mind how it's done if we don't lose these themes. The whole management thing isn't my forte, if there's an easier or smoother way to do it then why not?

[Ben]

Re: quotes in recent posts - I will need to look at the plugin we're currently using.

Re: themes - I'm working on this now.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by Ben

Re: quotes in recent posts - I will need to look at the plugin we're currently using.

Re: themes - I'm working on this now.

Great! It's nice to have positive feedback to know that you are working on these things.

I feel very pleased.