This is an initial stab at a feature list that I wrote a couple of months ago. It's mostly a brain dump and needs to be gone over, improved, and worked into a proper roadmap.
FORUMS
Forums can be categories (containers), normal forums, or link forums with the ability to add new forum types. Forums are entities and fieldable.
Categories and forums can be nested with post information from all subforums aggregated and shown on the front page.
One thread type included but more can be added.
Forums can allow multiple thread types and which types are allowed can be set per forum.
Unique icon per forum with alternate to indicate new posts.
THREAD LISTS
Per forum
Threads with unread posts
Unanswered threads
Watched threads
Participated in threads
THREAD DISPLAY
Linear - oldest first
Linear - newest first
Linear - highest rated first (VotingAPI)
Threaded - oldest first
Moderator view (shows additional moderator controls for inline moderation)
(Optional) Posts in a thread are listed by Views so tweak view to suit
POSTING
Thread icon
Tagging
HTML / BBCode (BBCode) / Markdown (Markdown)
Editor (BUEditor or WYSIWYG + 3rd party)
Quoting (Quote)
Smileys (Smileys)
Add poll (Pollfield)
Add images
Fast reply
Anonymous posting, including starting threads, by visitors or logged in users
Start spin-off thread
USER GOODIES
User dashboard / control panel to access user specific forum settings, watched threads, etc. Can be turned off if site already provides user dashboard.
Stores the following information about the user:
* Post count
* User title
* Last access time of current visit
* Last visit (Before current one)
* IP address(es)
Integration with Author Pane if installed
User badges (User badges)
User profile (APK)
PERFORMANCE
Option: Calculate new posts based on time thread last read (more accurate) or time of last visit (faster)
Option: Display number of new posts (more accurate) or just an indicator of new (faster)
Stores last post of thread information in thread entity.
Stores last post of forum information in forum entity (negated by access control)
MODERATION
Moderator role(s) control access to moderator tools.
Moderators can be assigned per forum.
Discrete permissions allow for different levels of moderator.
Moderator tools:
* Split / merge threads (VBO)
* Edit any thread / post and optionally opt out of last edited message.
* Delete any thread / post.
* View / revert post revisions.
* View IP of post author on post
* View IP reports: IPs per user, users per IP, users with IP of banned user
* Ban user from site, just from a forum, or from all forums by account or IP
* Delete, unpublish, or anonymize all posts from a user.
ACCESS CONTROL
Normal users:
View forums (forums completely hidden if not given)
View just titles (set per forum)
View titles and teasers (set per forum)
View threads (set per forum)
Start new threads (set per forum)
Reply to threads (set per forum)
Post anonymously (for logged in users)
Edit own posts
Delete own posts (rest of thread remains, dummy post inserted for top)
Delete own threads
Moderate own threads
Moderators:
Edit any post (set per forum / grants split/merge access as well)
Exempt edit from "Last edited" note (set per forum)
Delete any post (set per forum)
View IPs (set per forum) & IP reports
Ban user from forum (set per forum)
Ban from all forums
Ban user from site
Unpublish all posts in forum by user (set per forum)
Unpublish all forum posts by user
Anonymize all posts in forum by user (set per forum)
Anonymize all forum posts by user
Delete all posts in forum by user (set per forum)
Delete all forum posts by user
Administrators:
Administer Artesian Forum (keys to the castle)
Administer forums (add, edit, delete, and re-arrange forums)
THEMING
Makes use of the Drupal theme system for complete integration with your theme
Theme functions / Template files for all HTML
5 included styles, each with a stacked version
Naked style with minimal markup provides a base for easy subtheming
Style can be set per site, per forum, and per user.
Graphics set in CSS for easy replacement.
Optionally style non-forum entities with the forum style.
Organic Groups
Attach one or more forums to a group.
Adds tab for forum(s) to group page display.
Optionally list group-specific forums in main forum listing.
Uses OG's access control to control forum access.
Comments
I think we need to first
I think we need to first integrate Advanced Forum into the core forum module. I'm not far into D7 (used it a little during testing phase), so if AF is already integrated with core forum module, I apologize. Beyond that, I think the forum theme options need to be easier to understand. It took at while to figure out how to change the statistics and so on.
The Smileys module is so useful, too. I agree that we need to integrate it, but some forums will want to disable it. I find it gets in the way of my theme a little, so I set up a modified version of it that works better with the look of my site. Having to modify core files is a hassle when applying updates, though.
Visit my under-construction site. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
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Advanced Forum uses core forum for its foundation. Artesian Forum will not.
Michelle
Access Control and Notification
I would suggest adding the ability to show/hide a particular forum or group of them to your suggested being able to hide the forum completely. While a site might want to have a public forum, it might want a private forum for some issue or set of issues (like site security).
Also, allowing one to subscribe to a thread (or forum) so that notifications of new replies (or posts) are sent (either immediately or after a period to cut down on the number of messages).
Other than that, seems like a nice feature list.