To Build or to Adapt?

help
1

Hi,
I have a project in mind that in many ways could be described as a FORUM… with a lots of peculiar modifications.
Considering that:

  1. my programming skills are rudimentary at best (a bit of HTML, CSS, Javascript)
  2. I’m cool considering this project a learning experience :smiley:
  3. but my time and energy are very limited (damn you, day job! :stuck_out_tongue: )
  4. and the absolute priority is to see my idea born into the real world, having a somewhat functional prototype

Considering all of this… would you recommend trying to build the thing from scratch? or try and adapt something already existing, like Telescope?

I’ll list here some of the things I want to have my forum do, so that people more expert than me can tell me if they are possible at all, or already exist in some XYZ forum software, or are easier to build from scratch than to obtain by editing an existing framework, etc.
Thanks in advance for any help :smiley:

  • real time feedback
    I know this is supposed to be a strong point in Meteor :wink:
    My idea is a system that prevents cross-posting.
    The moment User-A hits the “reply” button to a post, everyone else is prevented from posting, or veeeery clearly notified that someone is posting a reply so they need to read THAT before they can reply themselves.
    Maybe with an automatic queue system based on when users hit the “reply” button.
  • infinite sub-tag structure
    Let’s imagine the forum structure as a geographical map.
    The admin creates a post with the tag WORLD. Users can not create similar posts.
    Then the admin creates a WORLD sub-post tagged NATION. Users can not create similar posts.
    Then anyone can create NATION sub-posts tagged CITY.
    Then anyone can create CITY sub-posts tagged NEIGHBOUR.
    Then anyone can create NEIGHBOUR sub-posts tagged THIS-PLACE.
    Then anyone can create THIS-PLACE sub-posts tagged THIS-AREA… sub THIS-HOUSE… sub THIS-ROOM… etc

And I need this to be the structure of the forum.
I need users to only visualize posts with a specific tag.
And maybe a short list of the available sub-tags.

And I might need to be able to MOVE a specific tag structure.
Such as… if I have a chain of sub tags that looks like

WorldA

NationA

CityA

NeighbourA

ThisPlaceA

ThisAreaA

ThisHouseA

ThisRoomA

i need to be able to move ThisPlaceA and all its linked sub tags from NeighbourA to NeighbourB

  • sculpted interface
    There has to be no generic “reply” interface.
    If you are posting something within the TECHNICAL HELP tag then the UI should first of all show an interface that asks the user to state their device/model/brand and system/OS/version, and only then allow for a text field to appear or become usable.

And this should be true for any other area of the forum, with UI specifically sculpted to reflect the unique needs of that kind of discussions.

This, for starters :slightly_smiling: