Unified forums concept

Hi Folks,

Been a while, hasn't it? As much as I doubt many are still around to read this, I simply must get this idea out in the open... Read away, thou much-beloved visitor:

Throughout the history of the school, forums have played a significant role in the inter-socialization of iQ's students. Forums are fun, and a good one can consistently provide enjoyment to all involved. Nonetheless, efforts to establish a successful alternative forum have always been mediocre. The original Commons forums had huge participation, but the format was terrible (Every section took forever to load unless you hid half the topics.) The Phoenix's Roost, a forum I started somewhere during iQ's 3rd year, was fairly active for a while, but tapered off, in part due to a lack of extensive participation. Currently, the Place of the Phoenix has some active members, but is bound by low membership, the lameness of Phpbb, and lack of a proper skin.

I don't mean to rule out the current commons forums or PotP, but I think we can do better. I don't want to create yet another forum for the sake of having control over it, nor because I think the current ones are inadequate, but simply for the sake of getting it right. A last hurrah, so to speak. What I believe we could have is an interconnected system of iQ-related sites that, with a lot of luck and ultimately even more effort, could actually grow to a sustainable size.

What we have now, that we didn't have in the past two years of trying to get students together online, is more than 1 iQ Acadamy. The forum I propose would attempt to replicate this Blog's theme and integrate with it, but it would go a step further, by being a forum for all iQ Students. Not just WI, our small group of ambitious iQers, but students from around the country. I can get the Staff involved (I've talked with Lisa McClure about getting some communication going between the various iQ's, and she's definitely interested...) and with enough of you on board, we could make this happen.

If this gets off the ground, I would propose we use Invisionfree (which I find the most efficient and customizable forum system,) and name it simply the 'iQ Student Forum.' I can help with administration and the skinning of the forum, but something like this would require a number of dedicated students to succeed. Anyone have real interest in making this work? Would you even care to join if such a thing were created?

I mentioned an interconnected network- with this, it would be the blog and forums, but are there other methods of communication you think would be fun? What about iQ Radio, video, or a secure chat room?

Forever attempting the impossible,

-H²