# Message Board? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 3, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280 "2006-03-03T15:48:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/1 "2006-03-03T15:48:02Z")
I’m interested in working on a message board application that uses ruby on rails. I’d like to see something end up similar to vBullieten, but with more of a 37signals type of less-is-more philosophy… mostly meaning less need for preferences and settings and configurations. I’ve checked rubyforge, and it looks like there are various forum apps uploaded there, some a little better than others, but none of the ones I’ve checked out are anywhere close to being as streamlined and clean as I want. I’m thinking about writing my own forum, not only because writing your own code is the best way to get what you want, but also because im sure that’d be a good way to get more comfortable with ruby on rails… but before I jumped into that I wanted to see if there are any forum/message board projects that stand out as something everyone thinks is a good solid ruby forum. * * * Michael J. Anderson removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/2 "2006-03-03T15:54:08Z")
Michael Anderson wrote: > I want. > > I’m thinking about writing my own forum, not only because writing your > own code is the best way to get what you want, but also because im sure > that’d be a good way to get more comfortable with ruby on rails… but > before I jumped into that I wanted to see if there are any forum/message > board projects that stand out as something everyone thinks is a good > solid ruby forum. Hello Have you checked out this one?: [http://rforum.andreas-s.net/trac/](http://rforum.andreas-s.net/trac/) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/3 "2006-03-03T16:51:52Z")
Unless you are very comfortable with acts\_as\_tree, I’d strongly suggest if you are going to build something from scratch using Bob S.'s acts\_as\_threaded plugin: [http://www.railtie.net/articles/2006/02/05/rails-acts\_as\_threaded-plugin](http://www.railtie.net/articles/2006/02/05/rails-acts_as_threaded-plugin) It is a beautiful thing 🙂 HTH, Dean ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/4 "2006-03-03T18:53:04Z")
On 3/3/06, Howard R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Unless you are very comfortable with acts\_as\_tree D,oh! That should have read acts\_as\_nested\_set! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/5 "2006-03-03T23:12:31Z")
Howard R. wrote: > On 3/3/06, Howard R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Unless you are very comfortable with acts\_as\_tree > > D,oh! That should have read acts\_as\_nested\_set! Interesting stuff. I didnt know this list was viewable in message board format! hah. I haven’t dug into the rails tree stuff yet, but I think I probably should. In message boards in general, do you all think threaded messages is that important? as opposed to topics with messages ordered by date, rather than having every message be a reply to another individual message… whats the real benefit of that? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Michael\_Anderson](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Anderson)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/message-board/76280/6 "2006-03-04T00:13:42Z")
Michael wrote: > Howard R. wrote: > > > On 3/3/06, Howard R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > Unless you are very comfortable with acts\_as\_tree > > > > D,oh! That should have read acts\_as\_nested\_set! > > Interesting stuff. I didnt know this list was viewable in message board > format! hah. > > I haven’t dug into the rails tree stuff yet, but I think I probably > should. > > In message boards in general, do you all think threaded messages is that > important? as opposed to topics with messages ordered by date, rather > than having every message be a reply to another individual message… > whats the real benefit of that? RForum ([www.ruby-forum.com](http://www.ruby-forum.com)) uses a threaded data structure internally, you could easily write a view to represent that. I prefer flat topics, but threading is important for the mailing list interface, that’s why I implemented it.