Article integration

[Odd Fact]

I help with a vB forum that wants to include instuctional articles. What does everyone recommed as the best way to do this?

[Scott]

I think the best was is to create a forum solely for these article, probably best in some prominent position on the main page. Any posts which aren't articles should be moved.

I would also tend to suggest that replies shouldn't be made in the same forum, as it can look cluttered - especially when articles are being read by visitors. This is debatable, however, as it would make sense for replies to follow the topic they're replying to.

Another option is to try and find a script which integrates with the forum and use this. The problem I have with this is that it seems to gain no attention from forum users and all the attention from visitors.

[Odd Fact]

I thought of that idea Scott. I remember looking at some content/article type of scrips that integrated before. I was hoping someone had followed that path.

[SoftWareRevue]

I've looked into integrating other scripts as well. But, I couldn't really see an advantage in it.

Maybe someone will stop in that's done it and can point out some distinct differences.

[The Prohacker]

I have also looked for article software with no avail.

If I had to start over on an article system, I would likely create a separate category with several forums. I would then disable replies to those forums. After that I would create a child style to my main style, then I would customize the postbit templates to be more for articles. You could then eliminate a lot of extra data that wouldn't be needed for a single post and format it for longer 'posts'.

An example of kind of what I’m talking about:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=96602

[TheDPQ]

Ever seen the Geek Article and Review system by thevbgeek? While the shop is currently down i believe if you beg nicely they let you buy it.

First off, it doesn't change your forum. Its more of a very awesome, module based, completely customizable, template system.

Its just a normal post, but you can break it up into pages with titles. Because it IS just part of the forum all things like user permissions and searching is exactly the same (because it IS the same)

If you plan on doing this for a simple forum topic you might look into the free and available lite version on vb.org.

Samples:
http://www.thevbgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46
http://www.thevbgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43
http://www.thevbgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=42

[SoftDux]

Could one use a blog for this? Maybe use a blogging system than can integrate with the forum script, and then have a plugin / mod, which can prompt the users to discuess the article in a given thread?

[Odd Fact]

A blog is an idea. I also thought about a wiki type of idea.