Creating Threads From Articles

[Mike]

First off, I'm doing this for the sole purpose of trying to spark some conversation in the forum, basically giving yall something to talk about other than the select number of areas where everyone has hung out over the past 2-3 years. For those that don't know, most of that is in areas that the search engines either don't see, or don't put any value because they are not related to the theme of the website.

As a result of the past couple years, we dropped down to getting 10-20 visitors a day to the forum, at best. And that includes all of you who visit daily. Most of that was people not searching for any topics here, but searching for "truckers forum", or simply searching for Freight Relocators to get here from Google rather than typing the website in. In other words , nobody has been visiting, at all.

I started out letting RSS feeds post snippets of the articles over to the forum. Didn't really like how that was going, and don't see the need in everything always being posted into the forum. Most things probably, all things, probably not.

Now, I am taking completed articles, and trying to take a portion of the article, maybe a paragraph to summarize, in order to introduce the topic to the forum for discussion. It will link back to the original article, because internal linking is important, but it will simply be a conversation starter based on the article.

This is the only way I know of to get some eyes showing up inside the forum, and to prevent it from simply expiring due to a lack of interest.

At this point, the forum is a place where a few people show up when they get bored everywhere else. I'm hoping introducing these threads will begin to change that, and I'm really hoping that new threads will start being introduced by you members over time.

Anyhow, that's why I am doing what I am doing.

 

[Mike]

And after posting that, I may have came up with an entirely different solution that will integrate the Website articles and forums 100%.

but first, I need sleep.

 

[Mike]

Ok, really enjoying my day off from the road at home, LOL.

Here is an article to look at for an example. Choosing this article because it has several replies and that is what I need to be able to see how this is all going to look.

Trucking Safety: Senator Calls for Stronger Measures

Senator John Hickenlooper raises concerns about trucking safety standards and calls for stronger measures to protect the public.

www.freightrelocators.com

As you know, I created a thread after posting that article for discussion purposes. At the time, you could also register on the main website and post comments there. At that time, if you viewed the article, you would simply see comments made on the main website if someone registered for it, which they never did as it is all very new.

Now, when you register on the main website, which is powered by Wordpress, it will automatically register you to the forum. In addition to that, when you view the article, you will see that the comments are actually comments from the forum thread.

I have three ways I can go with this. I can make it where standard Wordpress comments are still available below the article, make it where forum thread replies are available, or I can show both. I'm leaning toward only the forum replies in order to bring all discussion into the forum.

Again, a link to an article in which you will see how the comments/replies are currently showing.

Trucking Safety: Senator Calls for Stronger Measures

Senator John Hickenlooper raises concerns about trucking safety standards and calls for stronger measures to protect the public.

www.freightrelocators.com

Still working on this, but the connection between Wordpress and Xenforo itself is complete. A registration on Wordpress automatically registers you to Xenforo, and sends you a message letting you know about the forums.

Going forward, a thread will be connected to every article created for discussion, and as time allows, all existing articles will have a forum thread connect to it as well.

 

[Mike]

What I may do, just don't know how to do it yet, is simply have a link that says "x comments" or something similar that takes you directly into the thread. I might figure it out before my head completely explodes today.

 

[Mike]

Ok, whichever way I do this now, or whichever system you happen to be looking at, your login is the same for the article side and the forum side. If you change your password in the forums, it will also change your password on the article side. Registrations on both sides are now 100% syncing.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Ok, whichever way I do this now, or whichever system you happen to be looking at, your login is the same for the article side and the forum side. If you change your password in the forums, it will also change your password on the article side. Registrations on both sides are now 100% syncing.

Me and hood liked your post so you know you're not alone. It's what friends are for.

 

[389 Hood]

Me and hood liked your post so you know you're not alone. It's what friends are for.

Yeah, what he said!!

 

[Mike]

Currently going back through previous articles and linking them either to existing threads, or creating new threads. I need to have this for each article as it provides a forum link on the main page below the article directly to the forum, and it removes any existence of the article comment system.

When you make posts to threads here, they show below the articles currently as well.

 

[Mike]

Currently going back through previous articles and linking them either to existing threads, or creating new threads. I need to have this for each article as it provides a forum link on the main page below the article directly to the forum, and it removes any existence of the article comment system.

When you make posts to threads here, they show below the articles currently as well.

And that is complete. You just got hammered by over 100 new threads on the forum, but now there is a thread for every article on the website. Going forward, you will only see them when a new article is created.

 

[Electric Chicken]

And that is complete. You just got hammered by over 100 new threads on the forum, but now there is a thread for every article on the website. Going forward, you will only see them when a new article is created.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Mike]

we need this many new threads everyday!

 

[Electric Chicken]

we need this many new threads everyday!

No. No we don't, pickup ball game man.

Your forum is the little hardware store or coffee shop only the locals frequent and we don't care if you're financially solvent until it's way too late.