As examples go for forums I really like the World of Warcraft site. This one here at Games Forum is close to the look and feel I’m going for and here is the forum of a related site to the game itself for Classic Battletech, but it doesn’t have that eye catching look I would like to accomplish. I think I can find a lot of examples of forums, I mean, I have found a lot. However, it’s more of how to create the forum that I’m really curious about.
Once again, I think my ideas are much more extensive than my actual abilities. I’m having a hard enough time fully understanding the full concept of CSS at the moment so nothing short of learning new kinds of scripting (which I’m sure will be coming in the not to distant future) like php, Mysql and the like, it would seem that downloading an open source forum, like the bbpress.org or ForuMotion is another option. More-so, the one I keep coming across and reading about at places like
Sitepoint is called phpBB and apparently they are the most widely used open source forum solution.
But I want to know how to make one!!! Though, I suppose…like Mr. Batchelder said, if it’s already been done, go with that as an easier solution. Yeah, ok…I can go with that for now, but eventually I’ll want to really know how to do it. On top of that, if I do go with these open source…how do I modify it with CSS to make it look like the way I want it too? Ahhhh!!!
It seems like such a pain in the ass you know? I don’t understand why I always have to make things so damn hard sometimes. Apparently, there are actually a lot of questions in my head, but I have a hard time getting them out. I really don’t like reading very much (but I like writing…go figure) as I am very much a visual and auditory learner. I get it better when I’m doing it…I’m a “scanner” so having to read about it gets on my nerves for some reason, especially if it’s long, and I seem to just block bits of stuff out.
I’m just not sure where to concentrate my design problem. Okay, not true…I want to do the community forum thing, it’s just that I have way to many other options that want to come out. I just don’t feel like I have any direction. I know what I want to do, but I am very unclear on how to get there.
Any suggestions or comments are gladly accepted and welcome.
Jedi, I did not mean that you should take a forum already created as an easy way out, only that in time you will have classes that will teach you to build your own. Actually the project at the moment is to create your own blog in PHP class, but you will gain the ability to create a lot of different types of sites with command of database oriented backend structure.
Work on the design aspects here and master CSS so that you will feel confident of what you can do with this step, then take the next one!
Wayne
I think that for this class you may be focusing to much on a single aspect of what has the possiblity to be a huge pretty kick ass site. If you focus on the layout of the whole site or atleast 15 pages of it for this class, the forum part will come easily in a later PHP class. so for a simple answer…find a slightly different “problem” of the site to focus on for this class and get the backend of the forum working later.
I have been having the same issues. Especially since I am not focused in interactive media, I feel like I want to get as much out of the few classes along this track as I can. This leaves me wanting to do entirely too much with the little time I have. That just leaves me with the same lack of focus. I finally nailed down a “design problem” and even though i feel like it is taking the easy way out, Im going to try my best just to focus on my layout in CSS… If I need to learn more stuff later, I will just have to pick up a book…