Is the prince.org discussion system completely proprietary, written from scratch by Ben? Or is it a 3rd party package that has been tweaked?

Just curious...in case I decide to ever attempt such a thing on my own. Anybody know?

teller said:

I asked him that back when the new site launched. He replied that it was all custom written.

There are alot of free portal and bulletin board scripts out there which can provide alot of the same features.

Check out PHP Nuke, Ultimate Bulletine Board, etc...

http://www.hotscripts.com has alot as well.

Well...if it's all proprietary I might just go that route...I doesn't seem all that hard, but I wasn't sure. For some reason it seems easier knowing someone else has already done it!

teller said:

It's all our own software, written by Ben. As I understand it, parts of it were originally based on free web board systems and those bits have been phased out over the last year.

However if you are looking to start your own board, I wouldn't recommend writing one from scratch, it's a big undertaking. Commercially available boards like Infopop are very good nowadays, and no doubt there are decent free / open source options too.

Ian

ian said:

Thanks for the info...

I've been wanting to improve upon discussions for years now, as a major project in life, so it might actually be more appropriate for me to take it on from scratch. I never liked usenet, and the first web-forums repeated usenet's style. Then I saw prince.org and other boards that did away with the whole forking thread thing and just have one page per topic, which I find very elegant...and yet forks have value too, if only they could be presented intuitively...it's a tough problem.

I'm also impressed with the community that's built up here at the org. You go to, say, bowlingindex.com, which is for bowling enthusiasts, and the place is just totally ASLEEP! Surely there are more bowlers than Prince fans? But I suppose Prince.org is a recognized brand in its genre, with a presence at all the major events, whereas bowling-index is just some dumb site.

I'd never start another Prince board...this place is perfect. But I would like to start something. Since losing ownership of a major software property I've been kinda adrift at sea...I'm into Objectivism, and none of the Objectivist boards out there have a "GD" forum, which if you ask me, give a place some real character.

Any wisdom you've got on any of this would be deeply appreciated...and if not, then thx for listening.

If you're not knowledgeable enough in programming to do it yourself, you could most likely sell the idea to students near you, do create what you're after as a school project and get credits for it. My ex-bf did that plenty of times during his years at Uni, companies approached them and asked them to do various programmes/chat servers/ discussion boards. That way you get what you want, custom made and free.

I don't know teller, this is my take on it: As a software engineer I don't like "reinventing the wheel" constantly. There are some very capable bulletin board systems available out there and I doubt there is anything you'd want from a board that you cannot do with them (albeit with a bit of customization and tweaking). There really isn't a reason why you would want to start from scratch unless you were looking to save money, or it was just a hobbyist project, or you wanted to make your own commercial product to compete with the rest of them.

If I were you, I'd focus on creating a community and content (assuming you have some solid ideas in mind) rather than the technology. Believe me, Prince.org would be just as active a community even if it was running a text-only interface with nothing fancy, on an old 486 PC That that we aren't grateful for Ben's work on the Org, but if we were to start the Org from scratch again right now, I wouldn't contemplate writing the board system myself. I am well capable of doing it, but it would cost me more in the long run, take longer, and still wouldn't be as good as a commercial product with a warranty and team of support staff maintaining it and fixing bugs etc.

Perhaps you're right...I suppose I've just had it up to my eyeballs with 3rd-party software that won't quite extend to my wishes...plus prince.org discussions seem very tight--smooth and quick and feature-rich. I don't think i've seen another board out there this nice, and I suppose I'm attributing its quality to the custom craftsmanship.

But I suppose if I don't have a solid concept for a community, the technology doesn't matter a whole lot, does it? LOL...thx for the input!

Well...after thinking long and hard about this, I'm going to write one from scratch, using prince.org as a model of the "best of breed" discussion systems out there. It will be for resale, as my own skeleton site generates very limited interest/revenue and I need the work. I've been itching to improve upon electronic discussions for years, and I guess now is my chance. I'll then customize it for the Skelecosm and make the Skelecosm a "showcase" for this new product.

Ambitious...yes...wish me luck!

Theres a script called "Ultra-App". Its a portal script loaded with features like a Bulletin Board, news, and other fun stuff. Its free and pretty easy to customize.

Why spend time writing a new script when you can spend the time tweaking the layout instead and making it look sharp?

Tom said:

Because nobody has facilitated a debate before with software. I can try to debate IceNine all day, but he keeps dodging my best points and simply restating his position. If there were an interface that forced the debators to focus on certain hinge points, perhaps with feedback from on-lookers, the "loser" of the debate couldn't cheat the way he/she does in an unstructured setting.

More than that, note how poorly the thread rating works. Maybe what is really needed is a member rating. Or a member credibility rating. Or many attributes measured given feedback for a person. Not just a cosmetic job on some cheap 3rd party software.

Must write from scratch!