FordMotorsport Community Update
9 months ago
Time for a catch up on where we're at with the FordMotorsport Community. Basically progress had slowed to a stop over the summer/autumn months for one reason or another and now it's time to get the fire started again. So here's what I'm going to be focusing on over the next few months:
Search
Currently there's no way to search for posts, replies, comments, users or news so I will be developing a specific search site (search.fordmotorsport.co.uk) where you will be able to search for all the content on the site or just filter the search to a specific area.
Emoticons
I need to get Emoticons fully working. Their nearly there, they just need some tweaks.
User Signatures
User Signatures are a common feature of traditional forums and we too have opted to have them. I'm not sure I want to allow users to do everything under the sun with them. Not only will they add quite a bit of extra server load, but they will also make page loads slower for the users because of all the extra HTML and images. Weather we limit signatures to a couple of paragraphs of plain text + links is a possibility. I'm sure a decision will be made when I come to write the feature.
User Wall
I want to write a wall/live-feed system which kinda mimics your user profile wall on Facebook. On here people would be able to publicly post messages to you but you'd also be able to see activity happening in response to your posts, replies and comments.
More administration tools for privileged users
We have develop a points system where users earn points for using the system, the more points they earn, the more moderator like controls they gain. These features need to be developed further and are ongoing.
RSS and Atom Feeds
We have no feeds and we need em'!
iPhone Version
I want to be able to access the site when not at a computer so I can keep up-to-date with what's going on. A stripped down, iPhone compatible version of the site is what is required so I can keep using the site on the move.
Blueprint CSS
I also want to rework the HTML and CSS to use the Blueprint CSS Framework which has a nice horizontal and vertical spacing guidelines which should make styling any new features much easier.
There's a lot to do. So I better get cracking!