This post will make more sense once I put in some new message board features that will allow people to edit their own posts and allow admins (like me) to "sticky" their posts and put them at the top of the thread list.
Keep in mind this is not a complete wishlist, just things close at hand...
Features to add
* Cel number to edit page
* board: edit post
* board: delete post (admin)
* board: sticky post (admin)
* board: lock post (admin)
* autoreply restates reply message title
* board UI: next/previous thread, link to user galleries
* fun stuff: number of posts, user pictures
The big "feature":
* RS database overhaul. (2+ months out)
which provides for:
* nestable series
* reorganize series/items
* multiple templates
* unlimited images per item (DHTML slideshow)
* online store capabilities (will explain later)
* customized catagory pages (like a big kenshin logo for just the kenshin page)
* modules for cel ring, syndicated news, etc.
* all sorts of possible page modules like links, anime reviews, etc. in addition to wishlist, about, and feedback
* autotracking of cel packages (provided with ems, ups, or usps tracking numbers)
* "disposable galleries" - sort of like big, highly interactive message boards.
* flash-driven admin page (maybe)
* much, much more...
And after that:
* community market
* individually branded sites
* design agents
(none of these are really ready to be discussed yet)
Feature Building Philosphy
--------------------------
The goal is to add things you can't do on your side. All the catalog-type features are high on the list, while stuff like adding more picture slots to the template is low on the list.
Design Philosphy
----------------
The template (only one for now) is designed so that there's very little you can do to make it unusable (i.e. putting a nasty bg image behind your text, huge graphics for nav buttons, same site themes throughout the site) but lots (hopefully) you can do to make it customized. I'm not the prime candidate for design evangelist, but the site design tools are crafted to inspire *smart* and *clean* design, not just random "put some text here, put some graphics there" design. I also chose explicitly not to provide a set of graphic templates because then you'd have 200 sites using the same 5-10 templates, which would also suck. (And people would inherently gravitate towards the 2 or 3 coolest templates anyway.)
So the answer to, "Can you make it so that I can add backgrounds to the text area?" is... "No. It would probably suck."
jn
Hmmm... guess the studies lie. If I take a random guess and say that for every person who speaks up, another 5 or 10 stay quiet, then I'd say maybe a full 20% of the 200ish people out there would be somewhat/highly opposed to Flash anything.
I always hated Flash. But that's a long-winded computer geek story. Don't worry, none of this stuff is even close to being done. That'll certainly be the last thing to be worked on.
jn
