Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-30866120-20180707141356/@comment-26478829-20180709094804

The Last Booker DeWitt wrote: On a side note - I have whipped up somewhat of a prototype Special:Forum replacement that exists entirely in wiki markup. This system could definitely work, but still needs more features and cosmetic fixes, as well as other a more complex infrastructure. Something that will work universally across all Wikias, and akin to the page comment system as well. I'm doing it for the fun, really, as I created something similar about six years ago. But it can definitely be done. The final product, if you may, would be much more complex than what is currently at w:c:communitytest:Forum. The basic template is located at w:c:communitytest:Template:Forum. The syntax for a new forum post would be. It can have a proper notification system as well (if message walls are enabled on the wiki in question). That's really cool!

I did something similar awhile back, mostly as a means for a commenting system/pseudo-blog system. It didn't get as advanced as yours, but it gets the job done for what it is. Here's the rough outline and a basic test of it.

The way it works is each user is free to make their own version of it by taking the basic syntax and lightly customizing it, adding an "avatar" and up to three subpages in the top section.

An idea I had set up for it but haven't put into use is using the " " HTML command to set up a "post topic" you see some forums have which also serves as a way to link to specific post in a roundabout manner. Basically how Wookiepdia handles "appearances" sections.

PathfinderWiki also has a pretty good template for forum post but I never tested it.

However, the problem with non-"official" based forums is the lack of notifications. But I'm sure someone can come up with a workaround, like a bot that informs users, or simply remind users to check their emails frequently or something else. I know some wikis use message walls of dummy accounts (each account dedicated to one "board") as a workaround, which works fairly well but browsing them is a chore, and some wikis are even considering using external forum software instead.