=Forums= (old school)

Forums are places to banter about topics.  It is hard to find what you want and searches thrash the database.  Great threads die, and are hard to find again. Annoying users bump their threads too much.  Topics diverge and threads need to be trimmed to keep them on topic.  Moderation is high maintenance.  In the end, you gain some users, but it is hard to accomplish anything over time. 

=Wikis= (new school)

A wiki is a way that a community can create a knowledge repository.  To hit it home for you, this site needs a "Manual" about ccBoard.  Could a ccBoard forum make a great manual ... NO !  Could a wiki ?  Yes.   Are there drawbacks of wikis ?  Yes - your users need to know wiki syntax.  Sure it's not that hard but, well, users are users.  Not all forum users are wiki users. 

Ideas:

Wiki linking - every forum post should allow linking to a wiki entry.  Forinstance typing this [Forum Styles] once posted, should link to "Forum Styles" in the wiki.

Wikis are so much more useful than Forums.  Please think about making a "PseudoWiki" out of your forum, you'll be glad you did.  FYI, a simple but effective wiki is definitely a viable paid for Joomla! plugin venture. 

I will make some screenshots for the idea of "the simplest wiki possible" for ccBoard.

Hi,

I think this is one of most interesting idea I have heard till now. I'm very much interested in this. I shall wait for your screen shots. 

Once again thank you very much.

Thanks

thms/-

Believe me, this combo "half forum, half wiki" thing is brilliant.

The most important thing to remember is "Forums suck" and "accomplish nothing".

You want people to be able to comment and discuss things, but there needs to be a more structured context for this discussion to allow OVER TIME, all this good discussion to not go to waste and even worse, not just come up AGAIN AND AGAIN !.

:)

There are lots of ways to do this ...

Want to see a great wiki :

http://sandbox.jspwiki.org/Wiki.jsp?page=Main (editable, see edit tab)

sample page: http://sandbox.jspwiki.org/Wiki.jsp?page=SuperCool

added - http://www.wibokr.com

BTW, if you really want to make a SIMPLE but killer wiki, I could think about it more and show you "My Vision".

Here is my first Suggestion

I see the people who bridged Mediawiki and Joomla! got tired of providing free support !

http://www.joomlawiki.org/

However, this will create even more demand for a Joomla! wiki.

Hi,

I too had some problems with integration of mediawiki, though it is not straight forward process.

Now Im seriously thinking about writing a Wiki component altogether.

All are welcome to contribute their ideas.

Thanks

Thomas

A hybrid Wiki/Forum is a fantastic concept. You are likely to get better community participation in a forum, and the wiki would provide a great way to collect the useful postings. Unfortunately, the link to digitaldoctors first suggestion is broken.

 The trick is to be able to push forum postings into the wiki in a controlled manner. I'm thinking of a forum tag that looks like this:

[wiki id order]
id = page name or number
order = sequence that it appears on the page. Allow decimals for easy insertion between other paragraphs.

To use the same text in multiple wiki pages allow repeat of the parameters, ie [wiki id order id order id order]

On the wiki side, provide the ability to modify the tag to change or add parameter values. Pushing changes back to the original forum post would be necessary. Is that possible?

A few other thoughts come to mind.

• On my forum, I'd only allow moderators to insert wiki tags, or at least require moderator approval. Once a moderator puts in or modifies a tag, the original poster should not be able to edit it.
• I much prefer the wysiwyg interface because too many people are uncomfortable with bbcode. Can a tagging system be used in wysiwyg?
• Entries that originate in the wiki, including section headers, would require order tags.
• Auto link between the original post and wiki in both directions.
• A point system for text used in the wikis would be useful to encourage forum postings.

Hi,

I think digitaldoctors idea is totally different from yours. Though, all sorts of ideas are welcome. We shall continue to discuss on this further and come to a final design.

I have fixed the broken link as well. 

Thanks

Thomas