Mini forum

integrated into existing site

[adamnichols45]

We are looking for a mini forum so to speak.

We dont want users to subscribe if they dont want to.

We just want users to be able to post there comments onto the bottom of an article that we have on the website.

Is there anything like this out there?

We also want our visitors to be able to vote on articles and write new articles of there own etc.

[JustMeAgain]

Maybe a blog software, like wordpress, will fit your needs better.

[tsheridan]

Good call, JustMeAgain, it does sound like the exact description of a blog, doesn't it? :-)

[Casethejoint]

There is a multiuser version of wordpress that might be more handy if you want your users to be able to actually submit articles. Not sure about the voting part though.

[adamnichols45]

Maybe i could explain this abit better!

I want to write articles and publish them in a html format.

then have an include file below every article that users can post a review and have that show below the article that i have written.

Any suggestions?

[HoagieKat]

Still sounds like a blog!

[adamnichols45]

I have downloaded all the programs that people suggested but they seem to have to much so to speak....

I just want a simple format.

review article..
then display comments thats it.

also i tried the diggclone and it would not work..

[adamnichols45]

Have alook at traveladvisor users can submit reviews on articles already posted thats what i want.

I want it to blend into my site

[Casethejoint]

hmm, *still* sounds like a blog :) wordpress can be bent to perform a wide range of tasks - requires some hacking of the skin/loop code to get it just how you want.

[adamnichols45]

I actually found something - exactly what i want.

Only thing is that its been coded to handle mdb database and i use mysql

phpRteIt! Script v0.50

Just want that but be able to handle mysql

[Beagle]

ETA: The OP added the previous post while I was typing this one, so I haven't checked out that option. I'd still be interested in any comments on the blog questions, though. (And I'd also be using mysql.)

---------

I'd like to find something similar to what the OP is talking about, too, if I understand it correctly. Maybe I don't understand blogs well enough to know all that they can do, but my main problem with the ones I've seen is the linear way they're set up - one article at a time, then getting displaced by the next one. I have a regular article section, where I'd like readers to be able to leave comments on any or all of the articles at the same time. I don't need the "dailiness" of a blog; The articles are research-intensive and I usually add two or three a month. At the moment, they're discussed on a separate forum set-up, often with ongoing discussions on more than one article at a time, but it would be nice to be able to have comments on the same page with the article.

Is that possible to do with blog software, considering that when I say I'm "hacking," it means I need a coughdrop? I've looked at the WordPress site and still don't really know.

OTOH, if the discussions are going reasonably well (not terrifically), maybe it's better to leave well enough alone?

[MrSpeed]

I was looking for the exact same thing. I kept thinking blog for a while and it really isn't what I wanted.

I almost though of modding a guestbook script to have a guestbook on each article so users could post.

I have seen sites embed Vbulletin into article pages.

All I want is the ability to have a comments section just like a blog but without the blog software.

I'm not anti-blog. I have two of them but it just doesn't fit into the model I want to do.

[Beagle]

I've thought about the guestbook idea, too, but haven't found one that did what I wanted it to and that I felt was secure enough. My other thought has been to simply put a link at the bottom of each article to a thread in the forum for discussing it. IMDb does it this way, and most of my visitors are familiar with that site. Only problem I can think of would be empty threads if no one has comments (which, come to think of it, is pretty common at IMDb).

[rogerd]

I think a blog could be used in this manner, but instead of displaying the linear blog home page you could use a custom HTML page in the format you want. (That would require using an HTML editor, of course, and you wouldn't be able to post new content from any browser.) You could strip out the page elements that aren't needed, and be left with your content and the comments area. You'd be able to handle trackback comments, too, which may be a plus.

I'd lean toward the blog software simply because it can function like a CMS and get you away from hand-editing links, etc., when you add content.

[Beagle]

rogerd - Would your suggestion mean basically setting up each article with a separate blog?

[rogerd]

No, each article would be a blog post. The blog software will allow comments to be posted in linear order.

[Beagle]

Comments being linear for each article would be fine, but what I'm trying to get away from is having the articles themselves sequential; I'd like to keep each article on its own page, the way they are now, but be able to have a comment section underneath each one - which is the reason I asked about having each article as a separate blog. So, at least for what I'd like to do in this instance, I don't think this would work. Thanks for the idea, though, rogerd; it could be useful in a lot of situations. And there may turn out to be some way to use the blog software even here, if I play with it enough.