OK, so here’s what I’ve got so far, I’d really appreciate if others could add onto this with their expectations. This is basically the skeleton for what used to be FEP-9988 (which I’ve put on hold, since it doesn’t quite make sense as a FEP in its current state – maybe later, though!).
Glossary
forum
: A central hub of discussion bound by an audience
user
: Someone who makes posts
post
: An article of discussion
topic
: A collection of posts grouped by a common title and/or subject
category
: A collection of topics grouped by a common title and/or subject
UX for Posts (Objects, Notes, etc) (0th order Collections)
Posts can have titles
Posts can be responding to 0-n other posts
Posts should be viewed in context of the topic
Posts can be moved to other topics
UX for Topics (Threads, Conversations, Contexts, etc) (1st Order Collections)
Topics contain posts
Topics can be split
Topics can be closed for further posts (“locked”)
Topics can have a name, summary, content that is separate from the first post
Topics can be followed for new posts
Topics exist in a category
Topics can be moved between categories
UX for Categories (Forums/Subforums, etc) (2nd Order Collections)
Categories contain topics
Categories can be followed for new topics
Categories can feature certain topics in a certain order to the top of the list of topics (“pinned”)
The “pin” can have an expiry?
Categories can have parent categories and subcategories