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Flat-file comment/discussion board
| Posted by sleddog, 08-19-2011, 02:22 PM |
| As a free-time I've been working on a threaded, flat-file comment/discussion board. Why? Just for fun
It's written in PHP, doesn't require MySQL and performs well on a very low-end box. The demo below is running on a single-core OpenVZ VPS with 96 MB of memory (along with other websites).
The script is mostly functional now and I'd appreciate testers. Once ready it'll be available under an open-source license.
Please give it a spin at http://linux.dashed.ca/comments-demo/comments.php
Thanks!
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| Posted by Mambug, 08-19-2011, 05:39 PM |
| The colors aren't bad, though the design is not my style.
When visiting the website, I feel like I'm viewing the 'comments' section of a blog or post. It doesn't feel like a forum (discussion board?)
I would consider revising the layout to give it a more 'familiar' feel, and less of a comment-esque environment.
Edit: Just realized you wrote 'comment' board. What's the objective of this script?
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| Posted by sleddog, 08-20-2011, 07:30 AM |
| That's a good question
It started when I needed to add basic commenting capability to a web application I'm developing for a client. Initially I wrote something very simple using a text file for storage. Eventually I moved on to using MySQL for comment storage. The rest of the app was MySQL-based, so why not use it.
But I became somewhat obsessed with the flat-file approach, and curious to see how far it could be taken with respect to features and performance. So I spun the initial work off into a stand-alone project.
It's not intended to be a "forum" in the traditional sense. It's just what it is... simple threaded commentary.
Design-wise, there's a few simple templates, one CSS file and text strings in an array, so you can make it look how you like.
There may be absolutely no audience for it. If so I won't be crushed And eventually it may morph into something different....
Thanks for taking the time to have a look and to comment.
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| Posted by kpmedia, 08-21-2011, 06:19 PM |
| It reminds me of guest books from circa 1998.
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| Posted by lynxus, 08-21-2011, 06:22 PM |
| Just out of interest why kind of performance hit do you get as you get more and more comments?
( I assume you have a separate FF per thread. )
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| Posted by sleddog, 08-22-2011, 04:01 PM |
| 5000+ comments test board:
http://linux.dashed.ca/comments2/comments.php
Some stats at page bottom.
There's one datafile.
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| Posted by sleddog, 08-30-2011, 08:18 AM |
| Ah, the guestbooks of olde and Matt Wright's wwwboard -- where web discussions began
But I don't really see a strong resemblance. Perhaps you need to look again
Thanks any for the feedback.
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