The blog attached

[Loki]

Thanks for the offer. I'll get back to you once we get this thing up and running.

[RandBlade]

Might be confusing but possibly have Blog posts appear as Forum Threads, Comments appear as replies in the thread, but thread replies not appear as comments. Does that make sense?

Best if it can be coded probably is Thread Replies and Blog Comments being the same.

[Loki]

Wraith, is that doable?

[earthJoker]

Just a suggestion (I didn't read the whole thread). In the case the Blog is also written in php I can change it in a way that it uses the same Database as the forum. Then each blog entry and it's comments will alway be a Thread and it's post (while the first post is always the Blog entry). I did this already once for my own Homepage.

Best if it can be coded probably is Thread Replies and Blog Comments being the same.

Oh I see you have the same idea.

[RandBlade]

Sounds good earthJoker!

Would anyone be interested in me doing some blog posts about the upcoming election? I was thinking of more background pieces than anything else.

[Loki]

earthjoker, can you send that code to Wraith?

[Flixy]

Sounds good earthJoker!

Would anyone be interested in me doing some blog posts about the upcoming election? I was thinking of more background pieces than anything else.

I am interested!

[earthJoker]

I can just post it here. This was one of my few codes I wrote with php. It just goes into a special Section of the forum defined by '$phpbb_newsforumid (one could change the name of the variable into blogforumid) thenit gets the first post of each thread and displays it. Looks like this: http://www.earth.ch/main.php?page=news
The forum attached to id doesn't work anymore I disabled it because it wasn't used and some stupid bots always spammed it.
In this version you can't read/write comments through the frontpage. When you click on Kommentare lesen/schreiben you would have been redirected to the forum. But it would also be possible to integrate this as well.

Also you need to have the phpparser plugin installed on the server (which is free).

<?php
	require "parser.php";
    if(defined('IN_EARTH')) {


		$webdata_link = mysql_connect($database_host, $database_user, $database_pass)
						or die("Datenbank fehler: " . mysql_error());
																		
		mysql_select_db($phpbb_database) or die("Auswahl der Datenbank fehlgeschlagen");
	
		$topics = mysql_query("select * from phpbb_topics where forum_id = '$phpbb_newsforumid'  ORDER BY topic_id DESC");
	
		while ($topic =  mysql_fetch_object($topics)) {
				$posttexts = mysql_query("select * from phpbb_posts_text where post_id = '$topic->topic_first_post_id'");
				$posttext = mysql_fetch_object($posttexts);
	
				$postinfos = mysql_query("select * from phpbb_posts where post_id = '$topic->topic_first_post_id'");
				$postinfo = mysql_fetch_object($postinfos);
				$time = date("d.m.Y G:i:s", $postinfo->post_time);
	
				$posters = mysql_query("select * from phpbb_users where user_id = '$postinfo->poster_id'");
				$poster = mysql_fetch_object($posters);
	            
				//$text_parsed = earthBB2HTML($posttext->post_text);
				$text_parsed = $posttext->post_text;
	
	
				echo "<hr> \n";
				echo "<font color=\"#eeeeee\" face=\"Verdana\" size=\"1\">$time, $poster->username</font>
 \n";
	   			echo "<font size=\"2\" color=\"#eeeeee\" face=\"Verdana\">$posttext->post_subject

 \n";
				echo "$text_parsed 

 </font>\n";
	           	echo "<font size=\"1\" color=\"#eeeeee\" face=\"Verdana\"><a href=\"http://$domain/forum/viewtopic.php?t=$topic->topic_id\">Kommentare ({$topic->topic_replies})lesen / schreiben</a></font>
";
		}
	}
	else {
	    echo "Hacking attempt!";
	}
?>

Edit: Another thing, the sql tables probably have changed, so you need to adapt them to the current phpBB version.

Edit2: One more thing. in phpBB there is an option that only Moderators can open new threads in a certain subforum, this option is perfect for the Blog subforum. Normal users can still answer on existing topics.

[wiggin]

Okay, sounds like things are shaping up. So: I suggest we put together a post/sticky in whatever forum is appropriate with posting rules/format/etc. for the blog. To be honest, I'm not entirely clear on the consensus myself. Let us take an example. I've had a piece germinating in my head for a couple of days; I'll probably have time to write it intelligently in a couple of days. When it's done, do I:

1) Post it straight to the blog, with a link at the end to a B: labeled thread with an identical opening post?

2) Send it to an editorial group (e.g. save in Wordpress without publishing) for approval prior to posting as in (1)?

3) Post first to the forum, then follow up within, say, 12 hours with a published blog post (upon no significant corrections)?

Is there a specific format desired (e.g. titles, authorship, etc.)? What about style (contractions, capitalizations, spelling, etc.)?

On a different note, it sounds like a number of people are interested in writing posts - I count myself, Loki, Randblade, Flixy, potentially Hazir, and others (Steely Glint - you've mentioned on multiple times your interest in RN procurements, operations, etc. Are you interested in elaborating on that in a broader policy context?). Once we've got a streamlined system, should we aim initially for an average 1 post per weekday? I can probably be relied upon for something interesting once a week on my usual interests (I'm sure you can figure that out). If readership picks up, I'm always thinking of interesting things.

Ender

[Hazir]

Okay, sounds like things are shaping up. So: I suggest we put together a post/sticky in whatever forum is appropriate with posting rules/format/etc. for the blog. To be honest, I'm not entirely clear on the consensus myself. Let us take an example. I've had a piece germinating in my head for a couple of days; I'll probably have time to write it intelligently in a couple of days. When it's done, do I:

1) Post it straight to the blog, with a link at the end to a B: labeled thread with an identical opening post?

2) Send it to an editorial group (e.g. save in Wordpress without publishing) for approval prior to posting as in (1)?

3) Post first to the forum, then follow up within, say, 12 hours with a published blog post (upon no significant corrections)?

Is there a specific format desired (e.g. titles, authorship, etc.)? What about style (contractions, capitalizations, spelling, etc.)?

On a different note, it sounds like a number of people are interested in writing posts - I count myself, Loki, Randblade, Flixy, potentially Hazir, and others (Steely Glint - you've mentioned on multiple times your interest in RN procurements, operations, etc. Are you interested in elaborating on that in a broader policy context?). Once we've got a streamlined system, should we aim initially for an average 1 post per weekday? I can probably be relied upon for something interesting once a week on my usual interests (I'm sure you can figure that out). If readership picks up, I'm always thinking of interesting things.

Ender

My preference would be something along the lines of 2; if only for proof reading. I would like to contribute, but I must see the horrible truth under eyes that I am really bad with deadlines. This could prevent me from being good for my word.

[wiggin]

Okay, who's the editorial committee? Will it be carried out through the Wordpress pre-publishing features or PM/email?

I can't guarantee 100% coverage, but I am willing to help out if people think I'd do okay.

[Hazir]

Okay, who's the editorial committee? Will it be carried out through the Wordpress pre-publishing features or PM/email?

I can't guarantee 100% coverage, but I am willing to help out if people think I'd do okay.

Eh Oldmunchkin was at least willing to proofread, so that's one member.

[Loki]

I think we play it by ear regarding the amount of posts we have. Setting strict deadlines didn't work before.

We're switching to vBulletin at the end of the week, so there's no point in making any technical changes for now.

Nessus and oldmunchkin have volunteered to do the editing so far. What about how we determine whether something gets posted in the first place? Any ideas how we go about doing that?

[RandBlade]

An advantage of editorial committee (for non-urgent* blog posts) is that it could help space out the articles. If its a general free-for-all then you could see half a dozen one day, then none for the rest of the week. By having a committee we could have it spaced out a bit more.

If that is the option people want, then we could have a semi-hidden sub-forum here for the people involved to discuss it. Deadlines would be awkward I agree.

* An 'urgent' post would be one on a highly-topical news-of-the-day item/where the author has something new to add (eg Breaking news).

[earthJoker]

Will it be carried out through the Wordpress pre-publishing features or PM/email?

This depends on the answer to the question of you want to use the Forum database (I am sure the same would work for vBullentin) for the Blog or not. If you would use the Forum I think PM is the way to go (as long it supports PM between more than two persons).

[RandBlade]

Bump - When are we going to kick this off?

[Loki]

After Wraith transfers everything to vBulletin tonight. I should have something written over the weekend and lolli should have something at some point. If you were to write something, that would be very helpful.

[RandBlade]

Can do. Are you looking for informative/insightful/controversial/original etc

[Loki]

Can do. Are you looking for informative/insightful/controversial/original etc

Informative only to the extent that you provide some background. Otherwise, it should be original and insightful (i.e. analytical); whether it's controversial or not is up to you.

[RandBlade]

I don't see the Blog post-upgrade.

[Loki]

Someone stole it. Either that or Wraith hasn't gotten to it yet.

[littlelolligagged]

Someone should kick Wraithy's ass for disappearing like this.

[Loki]

Hey, he needs his 2 hours of sleep a day.

[littlelolligagged]

Sleep is for the weak.

[Wraith]

I'm tying the D&D forum to front page content. I think this will raise the importance of moving chat threads over to the chat forum though.

[Wraith]

Here's my proposal for the system:

We create a new hidden forum only viewable to authorized content authors. These authors will also have permission to put their drafts on the front page, but won't be able to publish it for the world to see.

The process for getting an article published is to post a draft in a new thread on the new hidden forum. Editors & other authors will be able to see this and comment on any issues, with a focus on article quality and not on debating the subject. Once the original author feels his article is ready, he can make sure that his desired final content is posted on the front page as a draft and then say that it's ready for publishing in his thread. If one of the authorized final editors agree, they can find his article on the front page and click the publish button to make it appear.

After an article is published, it will automatically create a thread in the D&D forum, and comments == replies.

If possible, it'd probably be nice to make draft articles automatically appear as threads in the hidden forum instead of asking authors to create the threads themselves, but I'm not sure how feasible that is yet.

I'm sure as we get started we'll start seeing ways to streamline this.

[Loki]

Can't disagree with any of that.

[Hazir]

Ditto

[Steely Glint]

I like the front page, Wraith-meister.

We need to think about how we're gonna publicize the site a bit, too. If the blog is to perform its function, we need to get people looking at it.

[Steely Glint]

Another issue to consider: the use of real names. If I write something, I don't necessarily think it'd be very professional for it to be 'by steely glint'.