Well I am sure somebody already said this but I am too lazy to read what everybody typed right now.

#1.. What is the point of removing the query string? (stuff after the ? in the url).. That would be nearly impossible (not with out pretty much a complete re-write of how the pages interact with each other)...... also it would mean you can't link to specific forums or posts.... so WHAT would be the point again? remove the query string to make the forum LESS of a community?!?! (sorry to be harsh, but I just can't figure out why somebody thought this was a good idea?!?!)

#2. So basically turn the forum into a mailing list with an archive & web interface?! well.. decent idea, but I dunno. It's already possible to an extent.. You cant send emails and then have them appear on the site, but if you had that then what would be the point of the forum again? Neat feature, but not really a must if you ask me. Just get some good mailing list software. There is plenty of it out there with addons to do exactly this..


What would I like to see? How about a rewrite of the forum... Create an API in Perl AND PHP that allows *anybody* to write their own front end using that API (no, not HTML front end.. I mean real code + html etc..).. The software could come with a default front end (that looks like this existing one) but anybody else could write their own if they wanted..

This way people could write their own interfaces and COOL plugins for the forum easily by using the API AND give their interfaces away over the internet with out actually giving away the forum.. People who download the new interface still require to have the API(set of classes) for the forum (that they paid for) in order to use it.

This way the back end work can stay in screams hands while the front end junk like HTML templates, cool new layouts, plugins etc can be focused on more by other people..

It would also make it easier to write more community like features into the forum... Or even make it easier to embed it into your existing site (since everything is laid out how you want)

I dunno maybe I am living in a dream world. hehehe

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Jeremy 'PeelBoy' Amberg

No it means you nearly defate the purpose of using a database driven forum..

Can somebody please explain to me why moving the query string is a good idea? smaller urls = tighter community? since when.

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Jeremy 'PeelBoy' Amberg

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

Create an API in Perl AND
PHP that allows *anybody* to write their own front end using that API

[/quote]


You mean an api that can read templates, similar to stylesheets? I don't get what you're envisioning (I get the idea, but how does the API make it easier for the user?).

You can already alter the front-end if you know perl or php, so I'm assuming you're talking about anyone who knew html and such could easily make their own front-end?

6
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://myth.jccc.net/wwwthreads2/index.pl>Screamers</A>

i am all for the use of email to the board, but most people don't have access to that. only dedicated servers and people like me who have a good web host that allows that type of stuff.
i think the people above are talking about how search engines can't index wwwthreads. but google and other search engines can now search thought ? , = & . the only reason for archiving old posts is that there is no need for a user to post or reply to the post and the post won't get much use. so why not take it out of the database and put it in html.
i was reading my creatonline, probably the greatest design magazine around. if you are near a magazine stand i recomend that you go buy this magazine. anyways, they were talking about how cool it would be if a user upploaded his/her own template. this would be cool, but kinda far fetched.
templates, templates, templates.....w3t is only lacking on that.

<font color=red>--------------</font color=red>

<a target="_blank" href=http://extremeforums.org>http://extremeforums.org</a>

Jeremy--
Well, it looks to me that each of these two things would increase community:
1. Making the threads themselves visible on search engines and directories will attract more people, some of whom will want to stay around and become part.
If you make it hard to find the community, you make it hard to grow the community. No?
2. Making the forums accessible by e-mail is also bound to increase the sense of community. Why does anyone have to "come" anyplace for there to be community in cyberspace? None of us leave our desks either way.
And if we can make it easier for the person who uses primarily e-mail, then we increase the universe of those who can be part of our community.
That said, it is not my point to argue whether it would or not. Simply to say let's have at least a rudimentary tool available for the e-mail access (I have been pretty well convinced I don't need or want the removal of the "?"s), so those who want to try it can do so and let the rest of us know if it works or not....

:-Doug.
Doug@FootprintsintheWind.com
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com>www.FootprintsintheWind.com</a>

I always come up with links, haha!

So here are the ones on this subject:

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wwwthreads.com/php/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=wishlist&Number=22848&Search=true&Forum=All_Forums&Words=search%20engine%20friendly&Match=And&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&O ld=6months&Main=22848>Thread where this was once debated</a>, some links to scripts that claim to do it.

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wwwthreads.com/php/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=wishlist&Number=28523&page=&view=&sb=&vc=1>More on it...</a> -another script link in there.

Here is a very interesting one..: I think <a target="_blank" href=http://gossamer-threads.com/perl/forum/>Gossamer Threads wwwthreads forum</a> has come up with a partial solution to this... If you go for example to <a target="_blank" href=http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/forum/resources/Forum9/HTML/000334.html>this link</a> (before clicking notice in the bottom bar that the link has no "?" sign in it) you then find yourself <a target="_blank" href=http://gossamer-threads.com/perl/forum/showflat.pl?ubb=000334:Forum9>here</a> (notice it now has the "?" sign). Their wwwthreads results are therefore found in search engines.
And as for the "better search engines" now indexing the "?" sign not everyone uses them. Not only that, but though I know Google claims to do so (I have even seen results), I am quite doubtful about to what extent. There are results with the "?" but though I would have to investigate it some more, it seems to me like they dont go very far in indexing these, maybe just four or five pages deep... I dont see enough results with the "?" as to really believe they are fully indexing them.

Mateo Byler

<a target="_blank" href=http://crucedecaminos.com>CruceDeCaminos.com</a>

Hum... <a target="_blank" href=http://searchengineforums.com/bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Dynamic+Pages,+Frames+and+Stuff&number=21&DaysPrune=20&LastLogin=>Here is a forum</a> dealing with dynamic pages... specially <a target="_blank" href=http://searchengineforums.com/Forum21/HTML/000246.html>this specific thread</a>.
You might notice this second url is "search engine friendly" as well even though it is a from a vBulletin (and Infopop) generated page.

Mateo Byler

<a target="_blank" href=http://crucedecaminos.com>CruceDeCaminos.com</a>

We shouldn't take 2 steps backwards just because of search engines.

I've writen a tool in Perl using LWP that can spider and index database driven websites that use query strings in the URL.. If I can do it I'm pretty sure Yahoo can do it. :-\

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Jeremy 'PeelBoy' Amberg

When I say API I mean a set of classes that provide forum funtionality with out actually having the forum? (of course a default one would also be provided)

It's hard to explain.

In other words it would be a set of pre-written code that helps assist you in writing your OWN forum. Kinda like a set of libs.. It's all of the backend code needed in order to write a forum. Add posts, remove posts, add users, etc etc except that it's up to you to put it all together in a working script.

So in other words you could create your OWN perl script and put something like this in it:

use w3t::Forum;

my $forum = new w3t::Forum;

$forum->connect();

$forum->addpost( name => $name, date => $date, title => $title, body => $body);

$forum->displaypost(post_num => 12345);

$forum->disconnect();

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Jeremy 'PeelBoy' Amberg

This is something that I have thought about for a very long time. Pretty much everything else on the net has some standards to build upon, email, html, etc. Forums don't follow this at all. There are hundreds of different forums available and every one of them has their own set of routines and form/scheme of data storage. This type of API is something that I had originally imagined when first writing the w3tapi module for the PERL version, but it hasn't been realized yet.
So, this is something I would like to see if it can actually work given the time.

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Scream

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.wwwthreads.com>WWWThreads</a>