New forum - coming soon
By Joe on Monday, August 6 2007, 17:20 - SiteMaker features - Permalink
Since we didn't have a very exciting release at the end of July, we thought we'd post up some screenshots of the new forum feature that is in development and will be delivered over the next few months. It should allow a whole range of new features, plus making it far easier to browse and manage posts. So have a look...
Here are a few screens for you to see. They're not the final versions! But they should give you an idea of what to expect.
This first one is the new subject view.
Then we have a full list of topics.
And finally the posts themselves.
Like the comments, we should have an RSS feed on the topics, and the forums themselves will be searchable. Let us know what you think. Enjoy!
Comments
Looks AWESOME from those pics.......a huge improvement. I can't wait to test it out!
The forum examples look fantastic! I can't wait to start using those soon.
Like I mentioned with the Comments addition, this is just another effective way of getting visitors to return to our sites multiple times and more often. This should increase page views and unique visitors and should help everyone increase revenue if they are using Google AdSense.
I love it. Keep up the great additions!
Dj RyB
Thirsty13.com
I got a few questions Joe...
Will members be able to have their own avatar?
Will members be able to have their own profile?
Will the forum list which users are online, or just say the number?
Will the forum have a fixed heigh/width dimension or will we be able to stretch it to fit different shaped sites? For example, could I make the length of my forum page 1000 pixels and then drag the forum to fit that height whilst maintaining the same width?
Will we be able to have Sub boards? i.e. a board within a board
In response to your questions John:
"Will members be able to have their own avatar?"
"Will members be able to have their own profile?"
The initial release of the Forum won't have profiles, but we are hoping to add this in a subsequent update. This update will also hopefully include the ability to add an avatar.
Forum membership will be based on your existing site membership settings i.e. if a user is a member of your site, they will automatically be a member of any new forums.
"Will the forum list which users are online, or just say the number?"
Although the screenshot shows the number of users online, the initial forum release won't. However, we might be able to add the ability to show all logged-in users (usernames) in future (though it hasn't been planned for)."Will the forum have a fixed heigh/width dimension or will we be able to stretch it to fit different shaped sites? For example, could I make the length of my forum page 1000 pixels and then drag the forum to fit that height whilst maintaining the same width?"
There will be a minimum size, but other than that you will be able to resize the forum as you like.
The layout of individual screens within the forum will resize maintaining the scale of text, buttons, input fields etc. The last few widgets (Chat, Comment) will give you some idea, but the Forum builds upon that to a much greater degree. If you increase the height of the forum, the number of Subjects/Topics/Posts visible on a single page will also increase. This is all built on technology we have been developing for quite some time, which is why each of these new widgets has taken a little while longer to release.
"Will we be able to have Sub boards? i.e. a board within a board"
Each forum has the following hierarchy:
Subject -> Topic -> Post (Reply)So you can have multiple Subjects in a single forum (on a single page). You could however have multiple pages in your site, each with a set of Subjects (multiple forums).
thanks for your reply Ian, it sounds really good! The freedom to resize as we wish sounds great, i thought it was definitely a drawback of the old widgets, having to resize them in proportion
Hi i like the new forum feature, this will be very useful..
Also does Moonfruit have a white-label system? Cause i would love to sell your websites, but under my own banner with a "powered by Moofruit" tag.
I think doing something like this would do great for your website?
Please let me know is this service is available
Kind Regards
Marnny
sweet, iv been asking for this for about a year ... this is what will make moonfruit No.1 and no one else can even come close to it. great work
just one question ... will they do the same with a blog???
because i think thats the last real thing they need to make this sitemaker complete
From what i have heard the blog will be redone sometime after the forum.
nice .. am looking forward to it
Looks brilliant, I thought I'd check the MF news as I was going to create a free forum elsewhere for my site which is launching soon, but I think to save hassle and alot of messing around I'll wait till you have the new forums up and running =]
Looking very good, modern and smooth.
looks excellent.
i am using a free forum from another company on my site at the moment however this is exactly the sort of thing i am looking for as it will entice my users to look at everything on my site rather than just go to the forum address.
when can we expect this to be up & running?
Option to Sticky posts!!!
Please tell me it's going to make it in the first release, if at all.
Thanks!
wooow wonderfull
When is the official release?
I am just starting to design my web first site, and was deciding which online host to go with. A well designed forum will be essential to my site, and after seeing your screens, the decision is made.
When will the new forum be available?
Just wanted to say I have done my first website using your site and it's been great and quite easy to do!
Just wanted to know whether your forums will allow for pictures to be added? If so how do we do it?
Thanks
The new Forum hit the streets on October 24th...so please check it out and let us know your thoughts.