Features – Forum question

[mentallybroken]

Hi,

Recently, after a couple of months we had decided to finally use a forum software on our site. I will list here some features we want and I want to ask from you guys who is familiar with forums for wordpress there which software – paid or not – has these similar features right off the bat or atleast easy to extend in your opinion – Thank you!

EASY TO ADMINISTER

Inappropriate comments and spam can be flagged and removed (rather than having to hire an administrator — similar to the FlagComments plugin we’re using now, or whatever it’s called)

Easy to approve comments.

Would nice to have it integrated with the discussion settings from the blog so I only have to change one list.

Integratable enough with blog that

I can have a slideshow on the sidebar that pulls the “featured image” from a category of recent posts (such as recommended items, via Slidedeck)

I can plug other recent content (e.g., all of the recent posts / top 10 posts / top emailed posts kind of widget)

If I wanted to I could have a landing page that is part blog, part forum, etc.

Requires registration

Would love to require and capture email addresses — see HelloBee and how the only way to register for the forums is to surrender your email address and then click on the unique registration link

Searchable (just the forums by themselves)

SEO-Friendly / Page Speed Friendly

Doesn’t open me up to too much spam/threats or expose database to risk.

Consistent look (“deep integration”) including ads

Consistent header, sidebar (same size, etc)

Consistent menus (or at least in feel)

Be able to run ads (but hopefully uniquely targetable — e.g. one jvascript code for front page of blog, one javascript code for front page of forum —

be able to run different ads on different pages —> e.g. city forum pages w/ location-specific advertising

Members can use one profile/account to comment on the forums AS WELL AS the blog (but can continue to comment anonymously on the blog)

Functionality:

Users can add tags (re: subject matter, city, or perhaps choose different dropdowns — like Hellobee)

Automatically go to last read comment in a long thread

Allow users to Subscribe to threads

Users can message one another on the site

@ integration (If I say something like “@kat I agree with you!” then @kat will get an email or some other notification. Like Facebook.)

Users can have 2 user names (or can post anonymously once registered?)

Comments can be ordered differently —

Latest comments from any section (a la weddingbee)

City view

By subject (a la weddingbee, YLF)

Need a subdomain or pre-domain (boards.weddingbee.com or youlookfab.com/welookfab)?

Ability to customize look of page (YLF, WB)

Growth possibilities (Wishlist 2.0)

Responsive design/mobile friendly (We may want to pick a responsive/mobile design before we get too deep with the forums)

Ability to assign “levels” to readers, so someone who has commented 5 times is noticeably different than someone who has commented 3000 times (e.g. hellobee, YLF)

Allow users to upload a picture for their account (to jazz up the look of the forums) — and eventually would love code like YLF where users who DON’T upload a picture are randomly assigned one of 12-20 images that we choose. (E.g., a briefcase, a stiletto pump, etc. We could even have different images associated with different sign-up periods — so people who have had accounts in the forum get the “Marlene Dietrich” collection and one of 5 images of Dietrich in a suit, whereas people who’ve had forum accounts since 2014 get the “Working Girl” collection with one of 5 images.)

Allow users to upload images and .gifs to their posts (like GOMI and YLF) — possibly even integrated with an iPhone/Android app like YLF — without weighing down database.