[campingrhino]

For the past few weeks I've been planning out a project that is going to be quite hefty. I've always wanted to create my own forum platform and share it with the world and now I've got a bit more spare time on my hands, I thought now is as good a time as any.

Introducing... Blither.

I've made a blog post on the website explaining my plans so far for the project and will update it as a sort of devlog. I'll also post here with more off-the-cuff updates.

Note: I'm not saying any current solution is in any way bad, I just want to try making my own.

[Lain]

write it in rust actix-core desu

[s3_gunzel]

I've always wanted to create my own forum platform...

It would, ideally, be better to allow us to physically see what it is you're working on. A blog post that is a wall of text does nothing for me.

[Guardian]

Would definitely be interested in seeing how this operates.

[campingrhino]

I'll keep everyone updated. There's nothing visually to show yet as my notes and plans are yet to be digitised but when they're finalised I'll be sure to share.

[s3_gunzel]

Oh I see, you haven't actually started yet.

[campingrhino]

Oh I see, you haven't actually started yet.

That's not the case at all. This is a devlog to document my progress, starting with the announcement of the project.

If you've got no interest in a project unless you can see a full working demo within 2 days of it being announced then that's no concern of mine. I'm just using this as a medium to share my progress for those who are interested and for those who aren't, you're in no way obliged to get involved.

[s3_gunzel]

If you've got no interest in a project unless you can see a full working demo within 2 days of it being announced then that's no concern of mine.

I said nothing about a full working demo, I would just like to see it 'as it happens', you know, seeing as you're yet to actually post a screenshot, even. Your blog post implies you want to have all this done, but that you haven't started to cut any code yet. Given I've done the forum software thing twice now, I think I'm in a position where I can make this comment.

[Thomas]

Forums are dead anyway! You'd probably be better off devoting your time to something else.

[Darth-Apple]

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors! My advice is to start small and to expand upon it. I learned that lesson when I attempted a huge file exchange software project many years ago. I learned a wealth of how to do things doing it, but I wound up never completing it because I kept expanding it until it became too large. Lesson learned, on my part. Still glad I did it, I learned a lot in the process.

If your aim is to get a working prototype as quickly as possible and to expand upon it incrementally, you'll be able to keep track of a growing project much more easily. My personal advice is to start small and expand (as I've said before, only because it gets something working quickly). We have a lot of developers here who are happy to help, test, and provide feedback. Please do share further ideas and progress.

[campingrhino]

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors! My advice is to start small and to expand upon it. I learned that lesson when I attempted a huge file exchange software project many years ago. I learned a wealth of how to do things doing it, but I wound up never completing it because I kept expanding it until it became too large. Lesson learned, on my part. Still glad I did it, I learned a lot in the process.

If your aim is to get a working prototype as quickly as possible and to expand upon it incrementally, you'll be able to keep track of a growing project much more easily. My personal advice is to start small and expand (as I've said before, only because it gets something working quickly). We have a lot of developers here who are happy to help, test, and provide feedback. Please do share further ideas and progress.

Yeah this is definitely the way I'm going. Planning to ship basic features with 0.1 and keep expanding until everything I have in mind is done for 1.0. I've been working my way through the features that I think are the most necessary first but I'm making sure I plan ahead so that it'll be easier to slot new things in as I go along without causing myself any headaches.

I've been working some more on the default theme today which I think is going to be a nice general fit for most forums and am excited to share when I'm happy with it.

[Kyng]

Wow, this sounds very ambitious .

Best of luck with it!

[campingrhino]

Small update. I'm almost at a point where I'm half-happy with the default theme. I've also spent some time working on the theme structure and template renderer today which has been interesting. I'm using Twig to allow all of the frontend to be easily themed.

Here's where I'm up to at the moment with the default theme:



The colours will probably change as I refine it all but this is an early preview.

[Darth-Apple]

I love the header! Very nice IPB-style menu.

I think it would look good to switch the user login menu with the search box in the header, or to keep it as is and to put a dropdown for alerts, etc. and have it vertically centered.

Very nice work so far.

[campingrhino]

Thanks for the feedback, I completely agree with the user profile box. It was the last thing I coded in as I genuinely wasn't sure what to do with it. I'll have a go tomorrow at switching some things and see what you think. In other news, authentication is almost done!

[s3_gunzel]

Feels like 2001.

http://web.archive.org/web/2001112715182...ol.net.au/

Ah well, what's old is new again!

[campingrhino]

Exactly the look I was going for!

[s3_gunzel]

I miss the old days where there wasn’t tonnes of JavaScript so that’s good.