My Project Site/Message Board

[echnaret]

I'm still looking for a good tagline for my website. It's currently a conglomeration of a few different projects I've been working on.

Originally, my website consisted of static text pages and a message board I coded myself (you know, just because I could). It worked, but the backend was a complete mess (lots of large, mixed arrays being passed around, and phpMyAdmin was my admin CP).

A couple years ago, I decided to start over from scratch. I wanted to make everything as modular as possible, and I had learned a lot from my comp sci classes. I decided I wanted to make the website as modular as possible. If you check out my website (link below or in my sig), you can see how that has played out.

The website is divided into parts, called "subsites." There are three types of subsites: general subsites (basically just a collection of text pages), message boards, and something I've called the Abandoned Project (click here to read my full description of that project). Once you register, you can start making subsites of your own. If you want to check out the demo sites, click here.

I included in my website a few features I haven't come across in other sites I've been to (please let me know if you've seen them elsewhere): first, instead of each subsite (or message board) having its own userbase, the userbase is shared throughout the entire website. Second (and this is a lot smaller), the navigation bar at the top of the page is customisable (similar to your browser's bookmark toolbar, except just with subsites).

Just like my website, my thoughts are a bit scattered, and I'm still trying to figure out what it's market is (if there is one). One day, I may open source my code, but for now I'm keeping it closed source (I am providing a service, not a product). If anyone is curious, I have some demo subsites located here that you can use to check out the admin CPs I'm working on.

I just stuck the site online a few days ago, so may encounter bugs as you check it out. Any and all constructive criticism is appreciated. I'm currently trying to pick out a good name for it, so if you think of anything, let me know.

My website is located here: echnaretspage.com
You can find the message board support board (the only active board at the moment) here: echnaretspage.com/messageboard/support/

[echnaret]

A few random comments I want to make:
- Permissions are great, but they triple the size of your code
- Making my own message board software has given me a real appreciation for the existing software makers out there. I have yet to figure out a good way to mark posts as "new" (I usually get overwhelmed every time I try to think of a solution)
- If you've never used distributed revision control software, check it out. Personally, I use Mercurial (and store my code on Bitbucket. Basically, it stores the changes you've made to your code, so if you make a mistake and need to undo significant changes you've made, or if you accidently deleted a file a few weeks ago and need to get it back, or you're wondering how your code now compares to how it was last month, now you can do it (and that's just if your working on your own!).
- Mods, If there's a better place for this post, feel free to move it/let me know. I initially thought I was posting this in a different forum.

[Cam]

That message board script looks good!

[russellr]

It does look very well organized, i'll take a longer look later but that's nice.

[echnaret]

Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any other sites that have what I'm trying, aka. one community/userbase for multiple message boards?

[echnaret]

By the way, I encourage everyone here to go and see what bugs you can find. I've tried to defend against everything I can think of, but I'm pretty sure you have ideas that I don't.

If you don't feel like registering, guests have access to the admin CPs in all of the test forums:
echnaretspage.com/messageboard/support/topic/33/