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Erkki

Should I do it?

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Yes. I employ a white list strategy. If I trust your site, I'll let you run javascript; otherwise, GTFO.

Auto-refresh you don't really want to do because it's too invasive. What you want is a notification that new posts have been added, with a reload only on user request. Something along the lines of what the Twitter and Tumblr dashboards do (or, hey, the above mentioned YayHooray).

I was actually thinking just loading new messages immediately into the existing page, not refreshing. But a notification would also work, and clicking on it would load the messages.

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I was actually thinking just loading new messages immediately into the existing page, not refreshing. But a notification would also work, and clicking on it would load the messages.

Yay. Just got that working in a very very basic way. I'm trying these things out using the somewhat awesome but horribly messy Lift framework. I'm not sure if I'll use that in the end.

But it has jQuery and Comet (aka "reverse ajax") stuff built in, and Actor-based messaging on the backend, which lets you do this continuous loading practically in real time (as soon as someone posts a message to a thread, the people watching the thread will see it).

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Would it be annoying if new messages posted by others popped up at the bottom of the page even as you are replying? (of course it wouldn't automatically scroll to those, so you probably wouldn't see them unless you scroll down yourself.

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they should pop above the message you are writing

But that would be annoying if you are reading the previous post (the replying would happen on the same page so the previous post would be visible right above the reply editor).

Also I'm thinking of adding a notification on a different layer just above the browser status bar that tells you that new messages have arrived at the bottom of the page. Or something like that.

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Totally offtopic: This topic got me an idea. It sounds crazy and it is crazy. What do you say, if some of the forumers from diffrent countries would write together a book, but everyone would use his first language(mother language I belive is the term)-lets say every chapter in diffrent language? It sound imposiblle prom logic perspective, but that is the whole point of it.

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Totally offtopic
Don't be afraid to create a new thread. It's better for everyone.

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The newfangled AJAX (or AJAJ, as I assume is the most popular thing among today's youth) might make it a bit too tempting to make something closer to a chat, or something like Google Wave. I think I would prefer the more "static" way of not having shit appear while you're typing, but limiting it to a notification or something like that.

Also, something that just hit me that would be awesome for every forum: The post could be inserted after the post that was the last one when you hit reply and start writing, rather than at the end of the tread as it is when you post the message. Sort of like placing a token in the thread when you hit reply.

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The newfangled AJAX (or AJAJ, as I assume is the most popular thing among today's youth) might make it a bit too tempting to make something closer to a chat, or something like Google Wave.

Yeah, there is the danger of it becoming too much like a chat, but I think if the messages will be displayed traditionally like forums usually do, it won't feel like chat.

Also, something that just hit me that would be awesome for every forum: The post could be inserted after the post that was the last one when you hit reply and start writing, rather than at the end of the tread as it is when you post the message. Sort of like placing a token in the thread when you hit reply.
I think that would require a completely threaded display mode. I might give it a try once i've got a first prototype done... There will be an "in reply to" field for every message that will store the id of the message where you pressed the "reply" button so the threaded structure will be there in the database.

I'm also thinking of allowing completely custom modes for threads too, such as interactive fiction mode etc. But that might require too much work.

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Also, there should be an absolute fuckton of buttons for sharing a thread on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. Also, everything on the front-end should be done with JavaFX.

EVERYTHING should be linked to twitter.

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I got a very basic and half-complete prototype of thread viewing, replying and editing implemented but now it'll be a while before I have something usable as I'll have to spend some time on some of the more complex technical parts. Once I got something up (have to look for a cheapish Java hosting provider) I'll post a new thread and ask if any of you want to try it out and give feedback.

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Ah fuck it, I'm not going to do this.

I realized there are just too many boring parts to writing awesome forum software. In other words, it's too much work for a side project done on my free time and I'm not planning on quitting my day job just now. Also I wanted to do it with a technology stack that doesn't even fully exist yet -- Scala 2.8, Lift on Scala 2.8, OSGi in web apps etc.

Maybe I'll resume the project some day or tinker with it now and then but it's not really something I want to spend a lot of my free time on right now.

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I still might put up an incomplete, but working version of the forum somewhere, in a not too distant future.

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You know what I'd love in a forum, is the ability to have 5 or 6 (or infinite, whatever) variations on my avatar, which I can choose from per post. So I can have a sad/happy/winking/angry avatar, depending on the mood of my post, and you can see everyone else's changing through the thread as well.

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You know what I'd love in a forum, is the ability to have 5 or 6 (or infinite, whatever) variations on my avatar, which I can choose from per post. So I can have a sad/happy/winking/angry avatar, depending on the mood of my post, and you can see everyone else's changing through the thread as well.

That could be done. I also made signatures different from usual: a copy will always be stored with the post so if you change your signature, it won't change for old posts. Doing that for avatars would be a tad more difficult since storing the image with the post would waste a lot of space, but it can be done through versioning.

Also, the forum would (eventually, but probably not in the first version) allow linking your account to Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, gravatar, Steam etc. so you could immediately get a collection of avatars from there and just choose a default one.

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You know what I'd love in a forum, is the ability to have 5 or 6 (or infinite, whatever) variations on my avatar, which I can choose from per post. So I can have a sad/happy/wanking/angry avatar, depending on the mood of my post, and you can see everyone else's changing through the thread as well.

That's an awesome idea.

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You know what I'd love in a forum, is the ability to have 5 or 6 (or infinite, whatever) variations on my avatar, which I can choose from per post. So I can have a sad/happy/winking/angry avatar, depending on the mood of my post, and you can see everyone else's changing through the thread as well.

Or you could post like SignorSuperdouche, so that your post always matches the mood of your avatar.

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Damn you guys, you* inspired me to work some more on this. Won't promise anything though, but I'll try to get a basic version up in less than a month**.

--------------

* and a snapshot of the Lift framework just becoming officially available for Scala 2.8

** unless I get bored

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You should play games instead.

That's what I do when I'm not at work. Or watching movies, or watching series.

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Or you could post like SignorSuperdouche, so that your post always matches the mood of your avatar.

Is that not just his avatar tainting his posts? I always read yours to be rather stoic... much like your avatar.

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Is that not just his avatar tainting his posts? I always read yours to be rather stoic... much like your avatar.

I see you're jumping right on it... much like your avatar

Avatars are like pets, you start to look like them as time passes

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