PKForum: first preview... an alternative to Orca

Here's a peek at a new fully functional Dolphin 7.1.x module called "PKForum" that was developed by Prashank and myself as an *alternative* for the default Boonex Orca Forum module.  By design, PKForum can be installed without interfering with how Orca works if you decide to run both.  That could be necessary for sites with a module that depends on Orca for special forum features.  Currently PKForum cannot be used with modules requiring "integration", however Prashank and I are very interested in working with other Dolphin developers willing to offer it in their modules.

One of the requests we received from early testing was for a mitration tool.  We agreed and PKForum comes with an option to safely copy Orca forum structure and contents to PKForum.  Most of the common features that we could find in popular online forums will be included in the first release of PKForum.  Now, after many hours of testing and fine tuning, we'd now like to invite 10 members from the Boonex Community to help us with a final round of "BETA" testing.  If you have the time, are more than a little curious about what PKForum can do, and promise to send us lots of constructive feedback, please contact either myself or Prashank to obtain a unique login name and password (send us your private email please).

PKForum first preview (in HD!)... http://youtu.be/arrMjVOpTeY

Thank you!
Paul

i launch my reef site march first,, and there is a reef convention here in houston feb 22nd  .. anyway to have these forums up and going before then on my site?

 RE:

 Does that mean it doesn't work with Boonex modules 'Groups', 'Events', and 'Store'?

Yes for now but a free update will be given to integrate with all modules later. Its not that we could do something easily without a code change in other modules to integrate with them, we also plan to make it compatible with 3rd party modules. So theres a delay in that. 

I think this is one of the biggest improvements to Dolphin that has come along; not to slight all the great add-on modules in the market that helps to add functionality.  Just about everyone feels that Orca is so lacking as a forum platform and this is going to make a big difference to those running social networks that focuses on forum activity.

Please private message me with your personal email and I'll send you some login info so you can take a "test drive".  The goal is to review and fine tune the module day-by-day until it's ready to launch.  We think we're very close but only a variety of testing will let us know it's working well.  I'd say there is a very good chance it could be ready for Feb 15th.

I have been helping a small bit in beta testing this for Paul and Pranshank, this is an excellent module, the work is amazing.

Been holding my breath too long on this one, glad it has finally "come" out.

Congratulation guys! GREAT work.

looks awesome, respect for that 

Well done. Excellent stuff.

Very Clever nicely done.. Congrats! :)

Question open to everyone... would site admins/developers like to see a strong integration between the Groups module and the Forum module whereby a Group's private forum would be visible in the site Forum listings, i.e. for those who are members of a group?

For example, if I have a website that's focused on Cars and Trucks with a private Group focused on off-road vehicles (open to any membership type)... then those who have joined that group will *also* see their group's private forum listings whenever they look at the general Forum's Recent Topics and Latest Posts listings.  

One criticism of this idea would be the possibility of too many items being listed if a member was involved in many of the site's groups.  Since the  Recent Topics and Latest Posts listings are ordered by date and paginated I don't see an issue.  I suppose it might help if there was a visible "flag" to indicate whether the member has viewed a topic since the last post was added.

Then there there is the question of group privacy that may get in the way.  I have run into a problem with a module add-on to groups.  The module developer included a block for the Home Page of the site to show latest entries.  I am seeing a privacy issues that is probably related to group privacy.  Private items from groups that I am not a member to are showing up on the Home Page.  When clicking to go view the item, I see the album it is in and some info on it but not the actual item.  A fix did not cure the problem.  The album was marked as a private album just for the group to view  Temp solution at the moment is to not have the Home Page block in place.

I throw this out so you can be aware there may be an issue with private groups with private content so you can test for it.

Interesting.  I would think the ideal situation would be for the Forum module to control what is being displayed in the homepage block, e.g. listing the last five most recent posts for forums the logged in member has access to.  If it's a visitor (not yet logged in) then only list items that are not private.

Outside forum postings, it would be up to the Group module to control how albums, etc., are being displayed.  For Group pages, the Group module would (does?) use a block that imports listings generated by the Forum module.  

Prashank is thinking about adding a simple tool where Forum Moderators will manage (add/remove) who is part of a private "group" forum.  If there are a lot of members with a lot of groups then the workload for Admins and/or Moderators managing groups specifically for forums could easily become a huge burden and disorganized mess. I was thinking that using Groups could help significantly since it has options for inviting members, letting members request to join, and just letting members join directly... then removing them if there are issues.  However... fully integrating PKForum with the Groups module would require extra work.  Prashank and I would like to know if there is a serious demand for it before committing to it.  Hence the request for feedback :-)

With Orca, there is "integration" with Groups but it is not really a group forum.  It allows topics to be added but the admin of the group can not set up sections in the group forum.  When I installed groups I was hoping for a group blog as that is what I was familiar with coming from the now defunct Multiply social network.  The group forum was actually more like a group blog.  I installed a market module for blogs with the intention of eventually writing a plugin to import blogs into the group blog.

A group forum should be just like the main forum.  Group admins should be able to set up categories in the forum.  For example, I operate a gardening group on our social site.  A real group forum would allow me to set up categories such as Annuals and Perennials and so forth.  Now if you could pull that off, and I have no idea how, you would have real group forums.

However, even if PKForum integration with Groups is the same as Orca, it probably would be a good thing.  We have groups on our site that are using the forum as well as the group blog module from the market; we would be leaving Orca in place for those groups.  If you do this integration for groups, then being able to migrate current group "forums" will be nice.  Otherwise we would just keep the current Orac in place, hide the main forum menu and switch users of the main forum over to PKForums.

By the way, I appreciate the hard work you and Prashank are doing on this.

This looks really great.  Does it do notifications, which would allow updates to show up on the timeline/wall?

That's what Prashank and I were thinking for the initial release of PKForum, i.e. that admins would continue to use a "hidden" Orca-Forum for modules that are using "integration".  And thank you for expressing your appreciation! This project has been very demanding at times... with the occasional disagreement as to what should be added now, later or never ;-)

 Thanks Newton... your feedback has been very much appreciated :-)

how much is this module going to cost?

 Good question... I will need to finalize that with Prashank before I provide an answer.  Also, we are planning to offer package deals for those purchasing more than one copy at a time.   

 Yes :-)

JUST WHEN I THINK I AM OUT... THEY PULL ME BACK IN!!

Why do I see this just prolonging me breaking my Dolphin addiction??.. isnt this called enabling? just last week I was saying how Dolphin was dead this and that, and now you guys got me ready to buy a huge package for multi-sites .... how does this always happen with me?

IBDWs Evo and Mobile wall integration would be awesome - that will bring site activity to another level 

Is 7.0.9 left out in the cold?

 RE:

 No!

I would love to see  the group admin have an option for each Topic - whether or not to display in main forums. something that is discussed in a Groups forum may be beneficial to the whole world. So it would make tsense to at least have an option to allow posts or threads to be displayed. But not by default though.

Good question... especially since my first Dolphin site is based on D7.0.9 and could make good use a better Forum.  To limit our work for the initial release of PKForum we decided early on that we'd focus on D7.1.x sites only.  So unfortunately we both have to wait for a future release... hopefully it will be included as part of the next major update.  I'll message you when we need testers ;-)

 +1 for Prashank then... he correctly guessed it was not what you're looking for.  Then I'll assume that you're simply looking for a replacement for Orca's "integration"... nothing more.  Thank you for your feedback :-)

A very interesting idea... I had not thought of it from that perspective... it makes sense.  Prashank and I will keep it in mind for a possible option in a future release... depending on how PKForum will be integrated with Groups.  Thank you for mentioning it :-)

 I'll be waiting. ;)

 RE:

 For a site with a lot of groups. that could generate an awful amount of clutter... possibly enough to bury all the main forum activity.  If you do it though, it definitely needs the option to be turned off completely.

 OMG exactly my point. We do "this" and "that" where "this" will be turned off mostly, so we will do "that" ;)

One thing that bothers me about the current Boonex group forum, is that it needs an additional group forum privacy selector titled "View Forum" to augment "Post in Forum".  That way, group admins can allow non-fans to view group forum posts even though they may not be permitted to post in the forum.

I think I understand what you are saying HL; if I read this correctly, you are talking about the OutLine and Spy.  I don't see groups forums being added to those areas; only locally to the group's home page.  Even if you just have the one forum group posts being added to the outline, with a thousand groups you are going to see a lot of forum topics on the Home Page; then again, that holds true for all other content.  Think of your Pages idea; each Page is basically a site until itself.  The same holds for groups.  Seriously though, you have to admit that Groups really don't have a forum.  a forum needs to be broken down into sections to better present the topics.

So no, there really would not be any clutter; no more clutter than you have with any other module, any other content on your site.  Why would there be any more clutter than that coming from the main forum, or from members blog posts, or adding photos or videos.  Perhaps I am misunderstanding you.

The truth is, Groups, using Orca, really don't have a forum.  I don't know what you would call a single board forum but it is not a forum.  It is more like what is called a "wall" in many platforms.  All the posts are on one area so that there is no structure.  My example of a Garden group is a good one;  Posts may be about mulching, flowers, fertiliser, annuals, perennials, borders, etc all jumbled together on one board.

I can understand HLs perspective, and admit, I did not think that far ahead. If you have a site with say 5000 members, and 200 groups. In each group there is an active Forum in which users talk about whatever in that group. Well, then - you get some arsehole who decides he wants all posts to be displayed in the main forums as well. Multiply that times the number of groups, and your Forum would be a nightmare to go through. But at the same time - since there is some sense of organization within the Forums, then it should not be too bad an issue.

 RE:

 That's OK.  Prashank understood perfectly, and that's what counts.

Each member could have final control for the option whether to display their group forum content along with the site's general forum content on both the home page or with the site's main forum page.  A member of a huge site with a huge number of groups (think of meetup.com) would in theory only be interested in the few groups their involved in.  For anyone that wants to join lots of groups, they can still decided which of those groups they want to see listings for (mixed in with the main forum's listings).

 And how would you "fix" this?

 RE:

 I've already stated the 'what'... the 'how' is up to someone else.

 Basically, no, it would not create clutter.  However, there is a solution of the lack of a forum in Groups, just rename "Forum" to "Wall"

 Okay... next time I'm tinkering with the Group code I'll see if I can add it :-)

 RE:

 I'm afraid you just don't get it, however I'm not going to be the one to explain it to you.  Perhaps you should read the pertinent posts more closely.

I have a site under the final stages of development/early beta testing phase.  I took a look at the demo vid and I'm VERY interested to say the least.

I'm curious what exactly you mean by " modules requiring "integration".  I would most likely run it as stand alone Forums but (like someone else mentioned earlier) would like for evo wall to be able to pick up and post about the activity.  What other sort of integration with other modules, 3rd party or otherwise, would be problematic? (I ask because I don't really see an issue in the functionality, but you kids have MUCH more knowledge than I do).  I have the advanced Blogs and Groups marketplace mods installed but would just run them as is with no cross-forum functionality).

I'm also curious how this mod would interact with templates.  If a template came with an Orca skin, would that work with this?  If not, how difficult would it be to adapt a template for use?

Also, it probably is already there but the posts in these forums need to be searchable by keyword.

A couple of other (minor) things not mentioned earlier this thread that I'd like to see are easy additional emoticon addition and integration with the Points and Achievement mods from modzzz (so that members could earn either/both from posting in the forum).

Also, if you need another click monkey to help with beta, plz hit me up through PM.  I'd be happy to help.

....and make this available for sale yesterday plz.

No, you are the one that don't get it. I see you are the same old HL that we all love to peices. Big Huge Hugs HL

Maybe we just have different definitions of clutter,  I'd bet you're a hoarder of some sort, and enjoy looking at huge piles of debris for no reason.

Moderators, why do we have to continually put up with HL's trash talk that is directed at individuals on this forum.

Surely this is not in the spirit of this community?

 HL is and has been an asset to this community for a long time. If you don't like his attitude, ignore him. It's simple.

 RE:

 Now you went and hurt my itty bitty feelings.  You big meanie.

 RE:

 Word.

 Where's the ignore option?