The living forum

**(In)Sanity** · June 30th, 2005, 04:56 PM

So I was thinking of how to make this in to a living forum.

I was thinking of a tree where each user can place themselves off of a main branch and then based on their actions fractals would generate life off each branch. Users could perhaps even influence near by branches based on their posting habits..etc. In the end we would have a graphic representation of the life of the forum and each member.

I think it would be something interesting to have around. The actual graphic would update it self once an hour or day (depending on the CPU load needed).

Any thoughts, suggestions...ideas....etc. I write code all day long, so this would be a nice side project for me.

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**invert_nexus** · June 30th, 2005, 05:09 PM

I think it sounds really interesting but I don't understand exactly what you mean.

What are the branches of the tree? The different subforums? And how would we place ourselves on a branch? By posting? How would the fractals generate? By the schematic of who posts together in what threads?

The whole thing sounds interesting but vague.

**(In)Sanity** · June 30th, 2005, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by invert_nexus

I think it sounds really interesting but I don't understand exactly what you mean.

What are the branches of the tree? The different subforums? And how would we place ourselves on a branch? By posting? How would the fractals generate? By the schematic of who posts together in what threads?

The whole thing sounds interesting but vague.

Well when you log in and view the graphic you would be given the option to click on the graphic and plant yourself on a branch or sub branch..etc. That branch would then grow based on some formula (to be determined). Perhaps the number of posts, number of words. We would have to think of something intelligent. This virtual tree would be an actual graphic that people can download, look at whatever. It would be re-generated on a schedule based on new data. A database would keep track of the history of each part of the tree or object so that it could build on it.

More or less it's a big fractal tree that each member could help influence and grow.

Looking for suggestions.

**cleft** · July 1st, 2005, 07:03 AM

What an interesting idea. I don't believe I have ever heard of another forum with anything of like. It would certainly be unique to this forum and I would think that unique things tend to add value and set a site apart from the ho-hum every day forum.

**Ripley** · July 1st, 2005, 07:54 AM

That branch would then grow based on some formula (to be determined). Perhaps the number of posts, number of words.

Member participation is also clickable feedback (number of Views, not Replies) -- a simple statistic I like watching during a thread's life span. Also, what I'd like to see is a pop-up to the number of replies listing who's participated in a thread -- you know, a quick surmise of a thread's, uhm, content. But, how crazy can you get with this tree/fractal thing? Imagine a branch growing in relation to the number of views it got, but segmented with alternating colours for each new reply a topic got.

Add: now that I think of it, growing branches would have to pertain to overall subforum statistics, right? Not on a thread-by-thread basis otherwise it'd be too much, too involved (although too cool).