I've added a plugin to the forums that adds a links database to work alongside the regular forum discussions. You can add links, save links as personal favourites (like bookmarks), rate links and comment on them. Long-time contributors (40 posts + 30 days) can add links as they see fit and have them show immediately, but everyone else who contributes links will have them moderated for now. I'm trialing this in two forums, Maples and Citrus, for the time being. If successful (i.e., if people use it or if there is positive feedback), I will likely expand it to other forums. I've also split off the "food forums" into their own separate grouping - others will follow.
Thanks for spinning off citrus into its own forum! Do you have plans to eventually transfer existing citrus threads into it?
I should add that if anyone wants to build a set of links for a particular forum, let me know and I'll set up a separate links category for you.
Ok, more than tweaks now - a bit of an overhaul. It's not perfect yet, but let's try it. I've flattened the structure a bit, and removed most subforums. This should people get directly "into" the topic at hand, instead of being confronted by a listing of subforums immediately when they view a forum. This also preps most forums to be able to have an accompanying links section. Again, let me know if you want one for a particular forum. If you're willing to contribute, say, five links, that makes adding it worthwhile.
The suggestion has been made to either allow books to be added to the "links databases" as non-links or to set it up so that the book links go to Amazon. I'm leaning toward the latter option, since UBC BG has referrer codes for Amazon, and this could be used to offset the minor costs of running the forum (e.g., annual license renewals, some potential add-on software packages). I don't think it would ever make enough to hire a summer student for the forums or buy another server, but one can dream... Opinions? Thoughts?
I always check Amazon and Chapters for any book, not only for price, but also availability. Over the past year my orders have run just about 50:50. There's also the libraries as many reference works are out of print so unless you can find them used, borrowing may be your only choice. Ralph
Daniel, it may be better to use the links DB for books - at least for now. It wouldn't make sense to create something separate unless we have a large number. Under the current scheme a space can be prefixed to the book title so that all books appear in a block when sorted by item.
