I am having trouble deciding among what should go first, site integration or templates.
- If wwwthreads is to move into Templates, it might as well be done as soon as possible, so as to save time in redoing new features (new features converted into templates). I do want templates to change the layout, the design, and so on... have more control of the design and emails sent (yes, not just page templates, email templates as well).
- Then there is Site Integration. I guess each one of us might think of something different, as we have different web pages using different programs. I think it would be nice to choose free open source programs and integrate with them, for example, there is that calendar thing... I dont see Scream working on all types of plug-ins, developing calendars, pop email checkers, and so on... its too much work, Scream specializes in board forums, if he moves into developing more areas then he wont be able to spend as much time with the forum software itself, of the best to be found. Meanwhile, for example, there are others who develop open source calendars, specializing in them, tons of features. Why not work integration with them? It makes more sense to me, I think it would be more productive and bring better results. So my idea on this would be to choose free open source programs to integrate with, sharing the same database of users, I hate it when my users have to log into different areas of my site with different nicknames and passwords.
Another integration aspect is that one I suggested time ago, and that Simon Wolf and others have brought up as well. I would love to have articles, outside of the forum, but that could have a threaded replies to it on the bottom of the page, all this, using the same database of users... Here again, if working on this from scratch is too hard, there are open source programs that do this and what could be used if you share the same database of users so they dont have to relog in.
The main advantage of this kind of integration is that they could almost be seen as plug-ins to wwwthreads, meaning that Scream could concentrate on the development of the forums, while there are others that continue concentrating on the other scripts.
What do I want first? Templates or site integration? Templates are very welcome, and site integration can help our sites grow... I would probably lean towards site integration, though both are very very welcome.
