[bodhicoyote]

Hi all,

In addition to forums, I would like my users to have their own homepages to post their media, blogs, etc. Basically, I want the forums and public galleries to be the "town square" that the members use to build a community, with each member having their own customizable space on the website.

There's nothing new to this concept, but I'm a total noob at how to accomplish this... for now, at least. . I like how deviantart is structured, but there's no way I could build something like it from scratch.

Can I accomplish this using Invision, or is there additional software I need to look at? (And is "software" even the appropriate term for what I'm talking about, or is it some form of PHP scripting? Again, I'm a total noob at this.)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Chris Suyeda]

I'm pretty sure this probably a mod for this. I know there is one out there for vBulletin. It's called Zoints. It allows users to have a Myspace/Facebook style profile within the forum software. Beyond that, Zoints had a lot to offer. I said "had" because I think the project flopped.

I know for a fact that they were developing Zoints for other forum software (aside from vBulletin), but David (the owner of Zoints) isn't really involved with it anymore. And I believe the lead programmer left. So, I really don't know how far it got.

I was a guinea pig for Zoints. David gave a number of people free hosting and a vBulletin license to start and run an online community, if and only if we agreed to use the Zoints software. So, I knew a lot that was going on. After several months, I had several other obligations in my life that I had to take care and started to lose track of the project.

A bit disappointing because I thought it great potential.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there is software out there you are looking for, but I don't know any specific ones for Invision Power Board. You might want to search for "enhanced profiles for Invision" or search strings along those lines.

I hope you find what you're looking for! Good luck!

[bodhicoyote]

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

Meanwhile, is anyone here familiar with IP.Nexus? It was suggested to me on the IPS boards...

[Chris Suyeda]

Okay, well, I did a little extra research for you and "officially" Zoints hasn't released their mod for any other forum software besides vBulletin. I stumbled across a thread from another forum, that there is a beta version out for the IPB software.

From the posts that I have read, everything that was integrated into the forum worked fine. And it looks really simple and clean if I do say so myself.

This forum is using the beta I believe. The owner of the forum made a post about using Zoints Local some time ago, so I'm not sure if he decided to use something else as time went on or not. Either way, you might want to go there and see if you can find out anything about what he is using at his community. Here is an example of the enhanced profile system them have. Looks promising. Not to mention, at least now you know there is something out there for your forum software.

I'll ask around and see what he is currently using and if he is using the Zoints Local (beta) for IPB -- if it's still available to the public. I'll keep you updated.

[Dustin]

Ah if you want an easy homepage with IPS, try IPB portal. It's simple yet functional.

[bodhicoyote]

UPDATE: We've decided to go with a social networking script, using IPB for the forum. This should give us the flexibility we need with the power of IPB as our membership grows.

Nevertheless, thank you all for the suggestions, they were very helpful and educational.