Okay, this was an idea I was originally toying with for vb.org but I'm not sure what direction they are going in so I figured I'd post it here to see if its something worthwhile for vbh.

Lets start off with the problems:

1. The typical forum/post structure is not the ideal mechanism for delivering new mods and styles. Its okay if you visit the site every day but if you ever had to search around and look for something you know your in for a possibly daunting task.

2. A release thread for a popular mod can span dozens of pages. Important information and answers are simply lost and questions go ignored either because it may have been answered earlier or it was simply missed by those who have the knowledge to chime in.

3. Usually its a given that most mods and plugins will work with an incremental upgrade in vb like say 3.5.3 to 3.5.4 but now we have a brand new 3.6 where most but not all mods work. Should authors re-post thier mods in the 3.6 "forums" or should the 3.5 forums be renamed to 3.5/3.6? Whats the game plan when vb 4.0 comes out? Do we make a hybrid 3.5/3.6/4.0 forum where a mix of mods will only half work between the three?


Its a daunting question... but picture this...

Imagine that your viewing a mod in our own little "hack database". The release would have a couple of additional areas that the community here could edit. Something like being able to add frequently asked questions that link back to the post that contains the answer or being able to mark off that the hack is compatible with the latest version of vb.

For the moment, these could be modules that site right unde the exisitng report a bug box (great idea btw). Later on, some of it could feed into a nice little page that provides some drop down menu's to help a user locate the type of mod they are looking for. Of course that drill down bit could be anything we want and I'll leave it at that since its the concept I am focusing on.

Thoughts?

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Hey Reeve, thanks for the post! You have alot of nice ideas. Let me tell you guys what our plan is for the site. Then we can use your ideas and others to create an unbelievable hacks database system for everyone to use.

Before I created my infamous post at vBulletin.org I had come up with an idea that I've been working on. I hate the fact that our system currently uses the forum/thread method. When I first opened the site, my knowagle of code was nothing compared to what it is now. The system I have in mind is basically creating a whole new section of the site. In this section we can create an type of category we want. For instance, we could create a vBulletin 3.5 Template section. This section could also have parent sections of itself, this way we could create a 'forumhome', showthread, etc.. section.

vBulletin 3.5 Templates
-- forumhome section
-- showthread section
-- etc..

In any section you could sort the hacks by vB Version, Title, Author, Installs etc.. and even search that section. Baslicly what any regular forum can do. When you click on a hack you would have mutable sections of this hack. The sections would be, the hack itself, comments, bugs, faq, feature request, and an author personal portal about all there hacks.

What gave me this idea was simply the game everquest. When i was into that game I attend OGaming.com and it's parent sites. The one site that can give you a perfect example is WoW Interface. This site has a great setup and I want to do something very similar to them, only it would be created for vBulletin Modifications, Templates, Styles, Tutorials, etc..

I love the idea of a capability system for all hosted hacks, that brings alot of nice ideas in my mind. I one thing I think I want to do is get a team of coders to help create such a system. I don't feel we need to brake the staff of in different sections, but I do feel that adding a team of coders would help greatly.

__________________
Ken Iovino / Escalate Media

If you succeed in this project you become my vBulletin Idol. I don't know who have realized that site, but I go to kiss her hands.. my warmerd congrats. Like however I do to you them if you succeeded in that enterprise, to my eyes, and my possibilities, to say little... impossible.

EDIT: Sorry for my english, I've do it my best.