Design issues

Wow, nice plugin! I have a couple of suggestions.

First, on the forum screen. You have a big "Reply at the bottom of the displayed comments, but it is just a header. Have to go back up to the top to get the link to actually reply.

Second when you do reply, the other entries "disappear." Would be nice to keep them visible. I believe you are using the comment function, so maybe using the comment template code so they would continue to display would work.

Third, it would be great to integrate this with something like "Threaded Comments" so that folks could reply to a specific entry, rather than just to the thread.

Fourth, the navigation on the right should be back to the forum rather than to the blog. Unless this forum is integrated into a blog and the forum is linked to given entries.

Good work Mark! Great idea of using commenting this way.

Hi Rowan,

Note that just like blog comments, the reply form is at the bottom of the thread. When you click the "reply" button at the top, it just jumps you down to the bottom of the page where the form is. As such, the existing comments don't disappear (just scroll up), although it may seem that way. Also, like the default MT4 Entry templates, the reply (comment) form is hidden by default, unless you are logged in. I don't like this approach and will likely change that in the MT Forum default templates, doing so will reduce confusion and reduce barriers to participation.

Good idea on the threaded comments suggestion.

There is no "navigation on the right" in the current design, so I am not sure what you are referring to. However, I will say that this forum is indeed integrated into a blog.

I guess you will provide a template set for the forums and they will use 100% MT tags right? If so.. this is perfect!

Carlo, yes,the plugin will come with a template set that uses 100% MT template tags. This means you can customize it in any way you want, just by editing the various MT templates. The current version doesn't support MT's php-dynamic publishing system, but I could add support for that, if they is enough demand.

By the way, Bob Sakamano is me, Mark Carey -- this is my Vox id that I use for testing ;)