hows about a mod that'd letcha add a fully-functioning and entirely-integrated blog forum! ("blogs" are basically online journals)

for almost 3-and-a-half years now, i've utilized one of my board's (first classic, now threads) forums as a blog-like area. i'm the only person that can post in there, but anyone can read the posts.

there are blog programs out there, and admittedly, they do it a bit better (obviously, with them being specified designs). but i want to avoid them for 2 reasons:

1) i already have 3 1/2 years of stuff in my blog that i don't wanna simply lose.

2) more importantly for this community (and, thus, this mod request) i'd like the ability to keep my site more integrated and compact. utilizing a message board as an all-in-one area streamlines the site (rather than having a section for boards, and an entirely different section for blogs).

so, i'd like to request that some sorta mod be created that could "hijack" a folder on your forum, turning it into a blog.

features could include:

• a small, thumbnail calendar, to expedite clicks between daily thoughts
  
• a different set of post icons, like "today i am ___(angry)"
  
• my favorite, a comment area -- where people could click and respond to individual blog entries (but their comments are only viewable via popups, thus keeping the actual blog intact).
  

It's been touched on here before, but I do not think anyone has done any work toward integrating one.

I would LOVE to have a mod like this!

i'm on and off working on something like this. mainly i wanted to incorporate my "trip report index" and user's photo's into a personal page so to speak. Adding a daily blog would be rather simple to this imho.

Great idea on that integratation. A super profile post blog gallery combo.

I know you can convert Movable Type to use PHP instead. Maybe you could do something with that.

Considering that we have a message board in place, it isn't clear to me the difference in a BLOG to a THREAD. I integrated one of the popular free blogs into my site but nobody used it since it seemed to be redundant.

http://www.viperalley.com/blogger/

the blog would really only be for the site owner, or admin. it would run essentially in the same fashion as the blog atop my forum, here, except with all the added benefits blog programs provide (i.e; the calendar, the reader "comments" popups, etc).

the benefit of integrating it into the boards (instead of creating a boards and a blog somewhere) is simply that: integration. a chance to streamline a user's site, keeping everything in one place, and "tidying" site aspects.

you could make a forum in your backroom area where you keep the forums that you don't want people to see such as the shoutbox and the polls for the front page and such if using IIP and then set it so that only the admin (you) can see it and then alter the news script so that it can read it and produce output into a pal box?

its not that i want the blogee (?) be the only person who reads the blog -- everyone should be able to read it. but only one person (the blogee admin) should be able to post in it.

i have something like that set up now, ghetto-style.

i simply created a forum on my boards that everyone can read, but only i can post to. and thats worked great so far. but now, i was looking to turn it into much more of a standard blog, with the standard blog features, mentioned above.

Why not just code a restriction that in the "blog" forum you have that only the person who started a thread can post in it?

That would work and integrate easily. Other than people trying to find their blog as the list of bloggers got large.

no no no... i think we're gettin lost here.

what i wanted was to have a "blog mod" that would allow the site administrator to turn one of his or her boards' forums into a blog.

not something where any user on the board could set up a blog.

so, for example, on my message board, the only person with a blog would be me.

I just use my News thread for that. Its writeable only by me and readable by everyone else. I don't really call it a blog as I only use it for weekly or bi-weekly updates but it appears first on my entrance page

thats pretty similar to what i'm using now -- just one forum where only i can post (but everyone can read)

but now i'm looking for more of a standard blog, with the additional blog features, mentioned above.

so the major difference would be pop-up comments? Calendar is already available and you could always make the particular forum for blog entries reply-only to the regular members....

Any news on a blog add-on?

Mamblog thingy needs Mambo.

what kinda features are you looking for?

Blog-like forum.

The idea was for members to have a possibility of a blog-like diary. They would be their own moderator of their blog (thread), have comments etc.