On this forum, I'd like to have a conversation with other moochers about how this forum software should work.

I wrote this forum software from scratch, rather than using a pre-packaged product, so that I'd have the flexibility to add features that make specific sense to BookMooch.

For example, you can currently surround words with Brackets and the surrounded text is an ISBN number or a BookMooch user, the forum software automatically turns that text into a link. In the future, the software could link from books directly to forum messages that mention that book.

-john

I figured it out.

Thanks John.

Don't know if that's the best functionality...

I like the ideas here, and the elimination of Spam, because of the exclusivity of BM. But, I do like when a new message is received in phpBB forum, I click that e-mail and it takes me to the latest unread message in that thread. I like that functionality.

Does that make sense?

One question/suggestion, although it's more a matter of site design and navigation rather than software functionality -- John, are you going to add a "Forums" tab to the top navigation bar? Right now folks who are anywhere on the site other than the front page have to navigate back to the front page in order to access the forums; it seems more intuitive to me to also have that tabbed on top, so people who want to visit the forums after working with their wishlists, inventories, etc. can go there directly with a single click from anywhere else on the site.

You can put a simple url in a forum posting, and the forum software will see it and automatically link it.

re: But, I do like when a new message is received in phpBB forum, I click that e-mail and it takes me to the latest unread message in that thread. I like that functionality.

you can currently choose to receive email notifications of new messages on any forum. Is that what you want, or do you want the feature to work differently?

re: One question/suggestion, although it's more a matter of site design and navigation rather than software functionality -- John, are you going to add a "Forums" tab to the top navigation bar?

Probably ... not. My thinking is that BM is first and foremost a book swapping site. Forums are great, but they're not part of the main purpose of BM.

The top level "tab" buttons that are there now reflect the normal flow of how you use the site:

- (browse) look for books,
- (add) add your own books,
- (inventory) review what books you're giving,
- (wishlist) review your wishlist,
- (pending) see what books you need to send out.

A "forum" tab up there would imply that using the forums is part of the main flow of swapping books, which I don't think is the case. Forums are great, but I don't think they're for everybody.

It's alright at the moment as the forums haven't grown yet (knowing BM they will!).
But the bigger the forums get, we'll have to go looking through the forum main headings to look at our specific message/thread of interest.

Can we have emails for just a specific message/thread of interest?
(Edited to add: Because not all threads in a particular forum are of interest)

Thanks John.
You're still a champ,
Loves ya!

- secondly, unless I'm missing something, if I do read the messages at the actual forum I can't tell those messages/responses that I've already read. Am I missing something there? It would be good if we could jump to first unread or show messages already read in different link color.

I second this request. One thing I really like about the LibraryThing forums is the ease with which I can go to posts that I have not yet read.