After some on-going frustration with the WordPress blog comment limitations, I finally decided it was time to setup a proper Forum, to allow more advanced (and more readable) discussion going forward.
Now, WordPress comments are certainly fine for the occasional feedback comment. But, as soon as you end up in a discussion, there are serious limitations. Both, in the functionality available, and in the formatting of message threads.
So, to finally resolve this and allow for more detailed discussion in the future, I’ve finally spent some time installing, configuring, and setting-up phpBB.
This included going through all of my historic blog posts, to first close commenting, and then to add a “Discuss this post on the Forum” link to an associated Forum topic (which is also reverse linked), to allow for much tidier and feature rich discussion about the blog post.
Finally, I’ve added a new “Forum” blog website top menu link, to take you to the Forum. You’ll also note that clicking on “Home” (or the logo) of the Forum, returns you to the blog site. You can also click on “Forums” (or “Board Index”) links, to return you to the Forum homepage instead.
Now, as phpBB is a standalone system, you will need to create a new Forum login (if you want to post). Otherwise, the forum is fully browsable as a Guest (no login is required).
As a side note, if you had previously created a WordPress login (e.g. to previously allow commenting on a blog entry), then you don’t really need to login to the blog site anymore, as all the blog entries (including the links to the Forum discussion), are fully accessable as a Guest.
After doing all this, I have found that the Forum also delivered another benefit. It turns out that it also provides an easily accessible blog content directory. As I’ve created forum topics for each blog post, all of the older blog posts (which have long since dropped-off the blog site homepage), are now easily locatable via the Forum categorisation (in addition to search).
I hope you enjoy the Forum, and find it useful. I look forward to welcoming you on the Forum!
Feel free to visit the Forum via the menu link above, or here.