Trippy Chat

I installed the forum software today. It's phpbb, with which I'm already familiar.

My goal is to eventually replace my hand-made discussion lists with this.

Things I need to do first:

1) tweak the template
-- I need to make the styles consistent, and more unique

2) create all the forums
-- within appropriate categories (e.g., Music, Games, Travel)
-- I probably won't bother adding posts from the discussion lists to this forum

3) add links from each forum to the associated web site
-- e.g., from Cope forum to my Cope site
-- these need to be super-prominent

4) get some people to test
-- I want to iron out any bugs before I "go live"
-- I'll try to recruit people from the original discussion lists

When I am ready to "go live" with one or more forums, I'll:

1) add a link to each site directing people to the appropriate forum

2) post a message to the old discussion list directing people to the new forum
-- this should be the final post, assuming I do #3 quickly:

3) disable the old discussion list
-- I shouldn't allow new posts

4) remove all links to the old discussion list
-- but keep links to its archives
-- this can be done much later

I've tweaked the styles and added links back to the "parent" sites. So, I think we're ready to start replacing the old forums.

Today I replace the Comsat Angels forum. We'll see how that goes. If people are able to get on it, and like it, then I'll do some others.

I modified the post notification (subscription) logic. The changes are :

1) the post body is included
2) the subject is : [trippy chat] (poster's username) subject
3) every post is emailed, even if you haven't visited the forum recently

This makes the forum work more like the originals (where you can watch your emails until something interests you).

Please let me know if you like the way the notifications work.

-- Trav

I added a forum notification feature. It's based on an old "forum notify" mod, but I've modified it heavily.

Basically, it lets you receive email notifications for all posts in a forum. So, if you want to keep up to date with the Julian Cope forum, you can simply "watch" that forum.

The watch links are in the lower left of each forum (and topic) page. You'll only see them if you are logged in.