Comments on articles

[George]

Any chance we could see the ability to comment/leave feedback on articles in the future?

[Bjørn]

Yes, I think a simple comment system could be good. As for when I am not sure currently.

[rapture]

Yes, I think a simple comment system could be good. As for when I am not sure currently.

I've been researching the article system in TP - that's why I've dug up this old topic.

I don't think this is currently possible:

I would like to be able to promote ANY forum topic to the front page from ANY forum.  It would be nice to also assign any catagory to that said post.  Doing so would take care of the OP's request.   Drupal as this feature.

Unless I'm missing something the Article system this a way for Admins to posts catagorized articles to the front page without posting to the forum.  Can any user submit articles?

[Bjørn]

Yes, as long as they belong in a membergroup with acess to do so.

As for showing a single topic/post or even a category..that would partly be done with the aid of SSI.php functions. It doesn't sound to bad...but I need to see how this can be done though, before I can say this or that. The option of selecting a single post/topic would have to be a partly manual operation I suspect, since setting up a select box with all topics would be...not good.

Maybe just inserting the topic number/id...anyways, I will think more on this.

[eldacar]

I think all articles should be topics, especially if they have comments. SMF already is such a great engine, why make something more for probably more limited commenting. Just use what we know is great.

As for multiple categories, I think that is very possible.

[Bjørn]

Articles was never intended to be part of the forum in that way..its a way to provide content without going into the forum at all.Commenting would be simpler than reply function in the forum, because its just a comment - you are not discussing anything. For that you would use the forum. Or this is how I think anyway.

The next release now has the ability to have blocks instead of articles on the frontpage - meaning any/multiple block(s) can be shown in the middle as well. And the range of block types is expanded with 2 types: one for several of the ssi function, and one for modules that will be in. Things like stats from a download manager or latest picture from a gallery etc.

For the ssi type block you can choose (for now) recent poll, top poll, top posters, top topics + top topics by view. Of course recent topics is a blocktype as before, and I will probably provide a single post blocktype.

Combine several single-post blocktype with the frontblock option, and you can essentially show posts from very different portions of the forum - on the frontpage.And add your own things in between as well. And since they follow the block scheme - you can specify which membergroup(s) they will appear to.

[hwfanatic]

I have to step into this discussion even though it seems to be an old one. I tend to agree with eldacar on this matter. Designing a new system for articles and article comments is,.. redundant, inpractical and from my point of view - not logical. I can learn to respect your idea of articles being a separate entity from the boards, but I don't understand it, nor will I learn to appreciate it. I am kindly asking you to reconsider.

Here is what I think is wrong with articles:

• Article organization.
• Inability to search through the Articles' subjects or body!
• Lack of integration, that is to say straying from the original idea of TP which was to make good hand of existing SMF facilities.

Here is what I think is good:

• Ability to exploit all the html tags, which could not be available inside a post's body.
• Intro.

Go figure...

Once again you should accept this as constructive criticism, which, once again, it is. Very few people are providing any kind of feedback on your project, and it is my impression that more oppinions would help you in configuring your project into it's final shape.

[Nokonium]

OK the articles and the menu have some rough edges but they are, for me, a way of creating web pages and wrapping them around a forum.

The direction that would be of most use for me would be able to have matching buttons in the 'Content', maybe even consider moving the existing menu buttons down with them so that the 'Menu Bar' is vertical and can be used to call articles, pages, other modules and the forum into the center.

[Bjørn]

hwfanatic:

I always consider constructive criticism. I am not too worried about not too many people giving feedback though...this is a fav project of mine, and was never meant to be the "next big thing". Themes is what I primarliy do, and since the theme system is so versatile, it was too tempting to make more use of it. Geeklog is also a big inspiration.

As to your points..yes, the article system is a bit rough, but I am working on it. But you are wrong in assuming TP original idea was purely to make use of SMF functions. It wasn't. And isn't. Its meant to make as much use of internal functions of SMF as possible, yes, but thats to avoid duplicate functions doing the same thing.

I know "Tiny" is a bit misleading..but it still holds water I think, the system is "tiny" = simple.

Articles will stay..but they needs polishing. Search should also be in, that will expand the possibility to find things in addition to the forum.

nokonium:

Thats a template thing really..because the function template_menu() can simply be called in a phpblock. You would need to adjust the template to make sure it won't be on top...but other than that is already quite possible.

I have added in the next release the option of blocks in the middle too..not the "centerblocks", but "frontblocks" that will only show on frontpage, and can be used to tailor the frontpage even more.

[zuma]

Articles will stay

Gee, that's good to hear. Articles are one of my favorite TP features.

My siites are about technical stuff - 75% of the content is discussion which takes place in the forum. 25% are articles written by experts. They need to use tables and other html features for formatting.  TP's Articles system is perfect and provides the means to categorize and link to them.

I've tried Mambo and MkPortal - for me TP is the perfect companion to SMF.