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Linking a blog to a forum...

Blogs and forums are two different things, but they don't have to be.

I'm adding a forum to the Rockets blog, where any registered user will be able to post on any topic. Each new blog post will appear on the forum, and any comments added in the forum will be reflected in the blog itself. But the inverse is not true-- any new forum post will not appear on the blog. This allows other users to start discussions and interact with each other without interrupting the blog itself.

The way I do this is to add a new column called "PostType" that can be either "Blog post" or "Forum post". The former will be retrieved by the main page, while the latter is retrieved by the forum page.

I'm also using my new (display-table) function to display the forum posts.

Rocket Man on 2012-11-06 15:40:39.000

By the way, the forums aren't finished yet, so you can't reply to new posts on the forums. But that will come soon.

Rocketeer on 2012-11-06 19:07:44.000

Seems Chrome has frozen, but thawed, awesome progress today then, from FireFox.

Rocket Man on 2012-11-07 11:45:49.000

Okay you can reply to forum posts now. They look a lot like blog posts, and I don't know if I want to change that right away. But I might make them look more like typical forum posts in a table.

Rocketeer on 2012-11-07 15:06:54.000

That sounds like an excellent idea. With the table having an embedded small rocket in the left hand corner?
And ratings, an votes and levels and ...ya, tables might look nice.

Rocketeer on 2012-11-07 15:07:34.000

Ooooh - the time is right. No, the time is actually right.

Tiger on 2012-11-07 16:03:13.000

Can you add a simple link, so that when reading the replies to a blog post, it can switch over to "forum view", and then I am "in the forum", on the same forum thread that pertains to the blog post? Nice having beer with you the other night; great to see this advancing so quickly.

Rocket Man on 2012-11-07 17:08:27.000

That's a great idea! I think I'll do just that...

Rocket Man on 2012-11-07 17:10:14.000

Rocketeer-- yeah, the time is right only for us. I switched the server's clock to PST. At some point I'll have to break down and implement actual time zone adjustments for each user, but for now this is a quick fix. :)

Rocket Man on 2012-11-08 11:30:18.000

Okay, I've implemented your "forum view" switch button. You just click "View this post in the forums" et voila!

Tiger on 2012-11-10 14:39:57.000

Thanks Rocket Man!

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