I'm in the process of planning a site that will primarily be a directory site, so I'm using WSN Links. However, I can see how a simple, stripped-down discussion forum might be useful at some point.
Would it be possible to create a simple forum just by adding some new category and link types, etc.? It seems like a forum thread would just be like a link, and then replies to the thread would be the same as link comments.
Seems like the same thing would be true if I also wanted a simple CMS to post articles or even photo galleries, etc.
As long as I could figure out the details (templates, etc.), would there be any reason not to do things this way?
WSN Forum does use virtually all of the WSN Links source code, and shares most admin panel templates and a few user-side templates, but there are various control mechanisms involved in the PHP to make things behave differently so that it's a true forum. It's certainly more complicated than just template customizations of Links.
Seems like the same thing would be true if I also wanted a simple CMS to post articles or even photo galleries, etc.
As long as I could figure out the details (templates, etc.), would there be any reason not to do things this way?
Because you'll be spending dozens of hours reinventing the wheel I've already created with WSN Knowledge Base (articles) and WSN Gallery (photo galleries), and you'll end up with an unsteady unreliable wheel by overlooking some obscure detail which rears its head later. And your wheel will lack the features which I consider to be KB/Gallery/Forum-specific and thus can't be enabled in Links. Unless your time has no value, it would seem a poor plan. Even if your time has no value, at the moment (though this will change very soon, I'm going to make them all $99) it's considerably cheaper to buy the other scripts than to buy extra licenses for WSN Links.
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Comments on Adding small forum to directory site?
Member
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Joined: Dec 12, 2005
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I'm in the process of planning a site that will primarily be a directory site, so I'm using WSN Links. However, I can see how a simple, stripped-down discussion forum might be useful at some point.
Would it be possible to create a simple forum just by adding some new category and link types, etc.? It seems like a forum thread would just be like a link, and then replies to the thread would be the same as link comments.
Seems like the same thing would be true if I also wanted a simple CMS to post articles or even photo galleries, etc.
As long as I could figure out the details (templates, etc.), would there be any reason not to do things this way?
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Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7868
WSN Forum does use virtually all of the WSN Links source code, and shares most admin panel templates and a few user-side templates, but there are various control mechanisms involved in the PHP to make things behave differently so that it's a true forum. It's certainly more complicated than just template customizations of Links.
Seems like the same thing would be true if I also wanted a simple CMS to post articles or even photo galleries, etc.
As long as I could figure out the details (templates, etc.), would there be any reason not to do things this way?
Because you'll be spending dozens of hours reinventing the wheel I've already created with WSN Knowledge Base (articles) and WSN Gallery (photo galleries), and you'll end up with an unsteady unreliable wheel by overlooking some obscure detail which rears its head later. And your wheel will lack the features which I consider to be KB/Gallery/Forum-specific and thus can't be enabled in Links. Unless your time has no value, it would seem a poor plan. Even if your time has no value, at the moment (though this will change very soon, I'm going to make them all $99) it's considerably cheaper to buy the other scripts than to buy extra licenses for WSN Links.