-ChaoticJune27's Bucket of Suggestions-

[ChaoticJune27]

Dear Nabble team, I noticed that you are working very hard on this forum program. So to make this forum program even better, I would like you to help you out In making this an awesome forum program. So to help you out, I will posts links to forum that use ppoular forum programs. The reason I am linking to them Is that you can perhaps emulate the layout of the forums and use bits and pieces of the layouts to make your own special layout. Anyhow, here are the examples:
phpBB forum program example: http://nucleusweb.net/forum/
SMF1.1.4 forum program example: http://www.thedigiport.com/forum/
Proboards forum program(free) example : http://hpzr.proboards61.com/
Invisionfree forum program(Free) example:
http://z10.invisionfree.com/Chaotic_TCG/index.php?s=d68476e206d0d364b8af7dd050e18d37&act=idx
vBulletin® Version 3.6.8 forum program example: http://www.pokecommunity.com/

I will add more of my suggestions when I am not as tired.
-ChaoticJune27

[Hugo Teixeira <Nabble>]

Hi ChaoticJune27,

Thank you for your set of suggestions.
Our team is working hard and we will deliver several new functionalities soon.
A "Classic" forum view is among the next items to deliver and soon our users will be able to view forums like the ones you have listed.
We still have a lot of work to finish, but 2008 will be a great year for Nabble.
Stay with us and you will see!

Best regards,
Hugo Teixeira
Nabble.com

[Hugo Teixeira <Nabble>]

Hi ChaoticJune27,

We have just delivered our first version of the "classic" forum view.
You can select it in the "view" dropdown above.
We are glad to inform you that we will soon add support for avatars!

Please let us know if you have questions, comments or concerns.

Regards,
Hugo Teixeira
Nabble.com

[Cordilow]

I like the classic forum view.  I think it might be nice to make the defaults for before you register switch to something like this (or at least one of the new views), seeing as most people expect something of this sort.

Now, although I like this, I'm not a huge fan of the way other forums tend to outline topics (i.e. a flat page without seeing the parent-child thing going on).  However, I do think the aesthetics of the Nabble method could be improved; I'm not sure how, quite, though.

Also, on the topic of how other forums do things, are you planning to implement polls?  I really like how they do this at http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/ though I might suggest also letting people use checkboxes (instead of just radio buttons), as these would be rather useful for cross genre polls and such.  For instance, someone wants to see what people think on a subject; they make a post with a poll included; people who view the post will see the poll there above the message and will be able to take it; any user can see the results of the poll.  The poster could determine how long the poll would go for (or whether it would go indefinitely, or until stopped by the poster).

[Cordilow]

Another nice thing other forums usually do is they set up a community feel for their forums.  They allow users to add friends and such like that (i.e. like other Nabble users).  I think the avatars will help for this, as well (and the new themes).

Plus, depending on the number of posts the users have made (and maybe other criteria, as well: I might say posts that are not spam, for Nabble), they obtain various ranks.  Take a look at how Lemma Soft works for that; it's pretty nice for the atmosphere, I think.  It would be nice if forum owners could customize the ranks, though (and child forums would inherit from parents, as with the themes), although a set of Nabble defaults would be great.  The ranks could be analogous to ranks in a clan in a MUD, too.  For instance, a technical forum might have different ranks than another forum.  Of course, your rank would change from forum to forum (except for the Nabble-wide rank).

Hmm, it seems it might be good to have a Nabble-wide rank, as well as a rank for a particular forum (but list the more specific rank if that particular forum has specified ranks names).  This would be pretty easy to do, complex as it might sound.  It would definitely could the atmosphere more aesthetically pleasing, methinks (though in more of a mental fashion than a visual fashion).  All you would need to do is use some algorithm to count posts and assign the rank for the forum and for Nabble.

I suggest making the ranks inherited from the parent, unless they are specifically specified in a child.

Thanks for all the hard work!

[Cordilow]

Actually, I think the new threaded view would be nice for a default.  Well, it's actually hard to say, for sure.  You guys are the professionals, though.  I just don't want to sound like I was adamant about the classic view I mentioned earlier.  The view now is good, though.  I'm just trying to think of what would be most appealing to new-comers.

[David Beaumont]

avatar upload is not working yet.  I can't even upload the default avatar file I already have! - errors include 'must be more than 100 pixels', 'x coordinate outside raster' etc..  the crop function doesn't seem to do anything.  

[Hugo Teixeira <Nabble>]

Hi David,

Could you please send your avatar image to hugo(at)nabble(dot)com?
I would like to investigate the problems and improve the avatar feature.

Thanks in advance,
Hugo Teixeira
Nabble.com

[David Beaumont]

will do.  Actually it was simply a download of the default one.