I am trying to build a multi-dimensional forum, and am wondering whether drupal's forum can handle that. This very forum itself has two things, forums and drupal version. Maybe Drupal works for my purpose!?

So far, I have not encountered any php GPL software (or indeed any other) that can handle it. bbPress has some nice features with tags (forum topis can have tags), but it is not exactly what I need. So I am going ahead with SMF's child boards, but ultimately speaking, there should be a better way than that.

Let me explain what I mean by multi-dimensional forum:

It is a strange example, but let's say, one dimension is colour. There is another dimension called item.

For colour dimension, you have red, green, blue, yellow, etc.

For item dimension, you have telephone, cellular phone, laptop, etc.

When you make a posting, you select green and laptop respectively, for instance, to write about a green laptop. This top appears in a forum called green, but it also appears in a forum called laptop because this topic is related to both. So the people who are interested in green can read this forum. Also, the people interested in laptops can read this forum.

What is more, laptop is a child category of another item called computer. So, inside a forum called computer, this topic appears also. People with interest in computers read this topic.

These are just 2 dimensions with 1 dimension having child board structure. Ideally, the software I am looking for can handle infinite number of dimensions and child board structures. Sounds very complicated? In fact, I think it is the simplest thing.

Possibly with some mods, but can drupal forum take care of that? I experimented several times with its vocabulary and category thing, but could not quite get the maximum out of it (maybe I did not understand its capabilities fully).

Someone, please help me!!

Comments

t4him’s picture

What you want is possible. It is being done all the time. Please read this section about Taxonomy. It will help you immensly.

Post back with more questions.

Hope this helps

comopoli’s picture

I am so, so excited that drupal can do it!! Yes!

But the link you gave me seems dead. Can you let me know the place where I can read more about it?

pwolanin’s picture

t4him’s picture

'ctrl-v' slip. Thanks for the followup pwolanin

comopoli’s picture

Thank you all for helping me out.

I just glanced through. It seems that drupal has a huge potential.

But the thing is so hard to understand. I will read it over the weekend...

Anyway, thanks. Now, it is up to myself to decipher this.