I need a forum style site with some "Facebook Group" abilities.

[elindo]

I like the features of a forum.. RSS feeds, email notifications... specially for brand new topics...

I also like the setup on the way visitor can read up to 20 topic headings before clicking on a topic to participate.


However, in order to make a forum more "social", I need the ability for user to open their own categories (or groups), and let them be able to moderate their own groups.


The main screen view of a forum would not be a listing of categories and topics, but maybe a list of latest conversations or most popular groups.... or just a search tool to search for category names or topics words...


Do you think we could accomplish these functionalities for the forums?? Basically just need to let user to open their own categories and allow them to moderate their category to make it more social.


Any feedback would be appreciated.

[glennrocksvb]

Check out vB5's Social Groups feature.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/social-groups

[elindo]

Hey Glenn..

It seems like the "Groups" section might work.

But I don't see a way to respond to any topics within that group, or create my own group..

If you don't mind checking out some porn, you can check out fetlife.com and see how they handle their groups, that would be the same setup that I need, which is very close to forums.

Only difference is that I would not list any groups on the main page, instead I would just do a search for names on groups, or just post the most recent discussions from any group...

[BirdOPrey5]

As an unlicensed user you don't have permission to create your own group (because it would be abused by spammers) but if you were a licensed user you would see the option to create your own groups.



You could then create a custom main page with site builder where you can use a Search Module to show the content you wish to show. Note that the content will be the same for everyone viewing the site, you can not show content specific to the user logged in.

You might want to try our online trial at https://www.vbulletin.com/en/vb5-trial/ and see if you can get it to work how you want. We have had reports of an issue when trying to create the trial, if you have a problem please try a different browser- our developers are looking into the issue.

[elindo]

Yep...

Seems like there are problems on accessing the online trial.

I tried Internet Explorer and Google browsers.

Question:

Can you get RSS and/or email notifications on new topics only? Or would it be setup for all comments?


Also, if you create a group, can you create a "facebook page" like in which only the owner can open a new topic?


Now, you mentioned a search module in which I can include the information that I like... in this case maybe search of group name, or search of topics within a group... that would be exactly what I would like...


Also.. you are saying that you don't have the ability to show like an activity stream of friends or groups to specific user.. is that correct??


A user specific activity stream would be great, but not a deal killer at this point.... you think that would be something to integrate in the future?


Other than the search module to find content.... could you have a general stream, or static presentation of latest topics or most popular groups?

[elindo]

I left a voice mail on your general mail box with my phone number with Michigan area code.


I would like to discuss these features plus pricing options...

[BirdOPrey5]

As a moderator or administrator you can setup to get email notification of new topics only. It is a setting in Admin CP -> Channel Management -> Moderator Permissions. Each Admin and moderator will be listed and the option to be notified about new topics and new posts are the last two settings on the page.

RSS is also an option.

As for Group permissions, you can get a group to be viewable by everyone but only Group Member's can post. You can also set it so that the Group owner must approve new members, so if the group owner is the only member, they are the only one who can make posts in it (forum Admins can of course always make posts as they are generally above any rules.) It's not quite Facebook like but it would work. Generally VB5 does not try to imitate Facebook. Forums are fundamentally different than Facebook and we're not trying to out Facebook Facebook.

As for activity streams, the more I think about it, I suppose you could show different streams to different usergroups, as you could place multiple search modules on a page, but then set them so different ones display to different groups. It would get a bit tedious but it would be possible.

The stream is not "real time." It will refresh when the page is reloaded.

[elindo]

Thanks Joe,

Looking to buy the software.. I think the "group" feature would do the trick for what I want.

With that said... It would be nice to add the feature in which only the group owner can post a new topic, while the members can answer that topic. With all the tools you already have and your current visual setup, that feature alone would blow any social media out of the water.

[BirdOPrey5]

If you'd like to make an official feature request you can do so here- http://tracker.vbulletin.com/secure/...91&issuetype=7

Don't be intimidated by all the boxes, the only important ones are "Summary" (which is the title) and Description. The rest our staff will fill in for you after submission.

(Only people logged into the forum as licensed users can use the link above.)