Links forum/sticky

Hello there Devshed community.

How would you like to have extra forum, or may be sticky thread, where people could post links to something very usefull but not really famous? Idea was first mentioned in my previous thread, so if you want you can look over it.

It's a poll, but if you have spare minute or two please say why you voted like you did and if you see any pros/cons in this idea.

Who would post to the forum/sticky?
Who would mod the forum/sticky?
If it is a sticky, where would it be stuck (or what forum would it be stuck up in)?
What kind of links would be added there (programming, informative, industry news, etc., etc.)?

>>Who would post to the forum/sticky?
everyone

>>Who would mod the forum/sticky?
everyone, mods will take affirmative actions against spamming

>>If it is a sticky, where would it be stuck (or what forum would it be stuck up in)?
Whichever forum will like to have one. Say php guys want to have one, they call a poll and if number of people vote yes they get one.

>>What kind of links would be added there (programming, informative, industry news, etc., etc.)?
Mostly informative, as we all read news and have forum for programming. Nothing obvious like "check out google.com, best place ever"

I'm not to keen on the idea of having "everyone" be able to post. A sticky would be better since it could remain topical. An extra forum would be a mishmash of all topics.

I'd suggest this, though it also has drawbacks... If you have a link relevent to one of the forums, PM it to the moderator and request it be added to that forum's sticky. If you see one in a thread, "report" the thread to the moderator asking it to be added.

My idea was that anyone could "suggest" a link in the app I built, but only a moderator could approve that it appear in the forum sticky link thread. Quality control, you know. There would essentially be a queue of suggested links, awaiting moderator approval. No account or sign-in would be needed to suggest a link, only mods would need one.

Mods would flip through a list of links to approve, editing where appropriate (for instance, changing the subcategory or correcting spelling.)

However you get a link to a moderator- by posting directly to my app or PM'ing the moderator, I don't care, and I think either would work.

Each of the link items would have a few fields-
Top Category- (perl, php, mysql) which would align exactly with the forums
2nd level category-
3rd level category-
Date posted- automatically generated
Title-
URL-
Description- 1-2 sentence description of the stuff at the other end of the URL
Active- Whether or not, the last time my app checked, the link returned a 200 status code or not.

When it came time to post to the forum sticky thread, we have a couple options-1)Admins in each of the forums that want this could turn a "seed post" that I create into a sticky thread. My app would then use this to post the most recent changes to the link list.
2) Another option would be to just post normally. The thread would move down the thread list over time. I would also set up the app to delete the old link posts, clearing clutter from the forums.

I prefer method one, mainly because it would reduce clutter and make it easier to find the link thread in each forum.

The biggest problem, coding wise, is going to be the fact that posts have a 10,000 character limit. Damn. I'm going to have to post in chunks, and the 1st method would make this easier too, because I'd have a clear "starting point" for my chunks.

All of this would be automated, and probably on an hourly cron schedule.

Suggestions? Sound like a good plan?

Ok, I can see that happening - sticky thread where only mods can post and if anyone want to add a link he/she sends pm/email or submits it through hero's bot, and after carefull reviewing by one of the mods it goes public. Good idea.

Shall I buz admins or lets hear more suggestions? Though by the number of votes I don't think there will be many.

Well it sounds like alot of us are agreed that some kind of knowledge base would be helpful.

Sounds like deciding what form that takes is the question. I think the veteran parties who have posted in this thread (excluding myself) can decide this on behalf of the community. All the ideas mentioned so far seem very good.

i voted "Yes, Forum" but i'm changing my mind for a Sticky thread in each/seperate forums. anyways, any kind of knowledge base would be great.

Hero's suggestion seems to be well thought out, and a sticky post in each (relevant) forum is probably a good idea. Though we all know how many newbies who reads them...

Either way, it's a good plan.

//NoXcuz

I would have to agree. A sticky in each forum is a good idea, and Hero has seemed to cover all of the bases on this one.

Update: The framework is done (I'm using CGI::Application, DBI, MySQL, HTML::Template and CGI::Session::MySQL), the sessioning/login system is done, some of the devshed interface code is written, all I need to do now is settle on the categorization system (three levels should be enough, right?*) and write some of the web spider link-checking code and minor administration tools.

* I'm not using an arbitrary-levels categorization system (referenced in a recent MySQL thread) because the complexity of coding for a system like that would double the length of this project. So we'd have something like
PHP->Tutorials->Devshed
PHP->Tutorials->External

or whatever. One thing each of the mods interested in this could do is start thinking about how you'd categorize your link documents.

Couple of other cool things that have fallen out of my choice of architecture- creating multiple output options simply. I can create templates for outputting vBcode, HTML, XML, RSS and whatever other text formats might be useful, and give folks direct access to the list.

I'll probably just start with vBcode and HTML. I'm calling it vBLinks (excuse the StudlyCaps, please. . .) Anyone wanna hash out a logo/color scheme?