After spending the day with Tricked Out News, I'm very impressed with it. Naturally, in addition to the enhancements I added:
- Ability to optionally link to article page via title without modifying theme
- Ability to disable rating, PDF, send to friend

there are some additional enhancements that IMO will make it even better:

Index page
- Configure maximum characters to display and display remaining characters when submitting
- Enable rating on index page?
- Show Related, Rate This, Options or Share on lightbox
- Document how to configure lightbox settings?
- Document, configuration or guidance (CSS examples) on having boxes same height when multiple in row (this can be done with CSS without using tables or configuration)

Print view
- Document process for replacing logo that appears on print view

Article view
- Related should not be hidden for human SEO purposes, and should be top right (let's use the block approach)
- Ability to configure inline display of Rate This and Share (vs. boxover popup) (i.e. not just for IE 6)

Comments
- Akismet comment spam prevention integration (Guardian has done this, and I am looking into this)
- Integration with Disqus or Intense Debate (or Echo, which doesn't have a free option)

Apologies in advance if I've overlooked something in the forums for this (especially the documentation). I saw the post on how to limit characters on the index page, but I think that would be better with a "remaining characters" count on the submit news page.

I like the list. I was thinking about using Disqus too. I like the idea of using a service like this for comments.

here is an open source rating system I was planning on using with TON.

http://www.9lessons.info/2010/07/youtube-like-rating-jquery-and-ajax.html

Edit:
I added Disqus to my news and it has an option to use Akismet which is very nice. Easy integration and configuration.
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Tricked Out News

Re: the Disqus integration: you rock! I'd definitely like to see your Disqus integration (as well as the recent comments block). I like the aggregation feature where Disqus gets comments about your site from other sources and shows them on your site.

Where did you get the info on Disqus' support for Akismet? I've been researching comment systems (actually, I was leaning towards Intense Debate), but couldn't verify that. From what I could tell, Disqus uses it's own custom semantic filter.

Also, how were you able to enable your site account to authenticate for Disqus? If that is possible, people won't need to sign in twice. Or was this handled through legacy comment import? Are you updating your site's comments table in case you decide to turn off Disqus?

Re: the rating system: nice, as long as it's optional...but please note that it doesn't appear to prevent multiple ratings.
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nukeSEO(tm)

Disqus has many, many features. You can customize what is displayed and what is not from the Disqus control panel once you have signed up. The Akismet was an option in the control panel, you have to create a Wordpress account and use the API key to add Akismet to Dusqus.

Disqus has several overrides that allow you to include your users. I am tweeking it now before I set it up for all users.

you got me to try out disqus and it is very cool
also noticed you can integrate with feedburner to display the number of comments related to a story; right in your feed.. nice

I'm anxious to implement this, but waiting by the screen for an email that it's ready for beta or production or whatever...

I know guys. I have been so busy at work that the only thing I can do when I get home is eat dinner and fall asleep.
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Tricked Out News

bobby,

Been thinking alot over the years of really wanting to have a blog module for *nuke. I want to keep News separate from that because I see these as two separate modes of communication, one of them in which even the community gets to submit.

TON is getting more and more like a blog module. It has many of those great features too in it. I am thinking that I'd like the option to run either two TON modules side-by-side, or the standard *nuke News module + a modified TON as a blog.

I have not yet looked deeply into the TON code, so sorry if I've made a bad assumption. Would it be possible to make the db names, module names and to some extent the URL's configurable so that this type of side-by-side setup would be possible?

Montego, there is a blog module out there for phpnuke made it by kguske, I guess I have it. it needs a little bit mod for RavenNuke. I don't think kguske remembers it. lol

The Tricked Out News is basically the standard news module with a few addons. There are no changes to the database of the original news. SpasticDonkey has a Content mod he is working on that maybe a good replacement for the news module. The more I look at the news module, the more I am believing it needs to be taken in a different direction. I really do not like how the themes restrict what the news can and can not do. Just my two cents.
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Tricked Out News

@bestbuildpc, even nuken here has a blog module but it is very outdated and I believe it is based upon the Journal module (a mess in my opinion). I actually see TON as either a good news system or blog module.

@bobby (aka: nuken), I can't see a content module replacing the requirements for news? But, guess I'll have to see it to understand what he's up to there. I think TON is an excellent news delivery module as well as could be an excellent blog module. You have blended elements of the blog world into the News module. I would hate to see you ditch that.

However, I completely agree with you that theme code should have absolutely nothing to do with producing News content. Horrible design that we've all had to deal with all these years. I personally would fully support breaking News out from theme.php and cleaning this code out from the RN distro of themes.

Quote:

I personally would fully support breaking News out from theme.php and cleaning this code out from the RN distro of themes

Agree Montego

When are you gonna finish NSN Download?

I haven't given up on TON. I plan on a new revised release with everything tied into the ACP. I have basically decided to do a 180 and start over with a better design that gives the users more control over it. Still in the planning stage though.
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Tricked Out News

montego wrote:

But, guess I'll have to see it to understand what he's up to there.

Not sure if it would be a replacement for news, but it's basically a topics module for Content Plus (cTopics), that allows for "news-style" previews of recent content pages as well. On an upcoming site I will be using content plus for onsite news/tutorials, and TON for any community news. This might work for you

montego wrote:

I am thinking that I'd like the option to run either two TON modules side-by-side, or the standard *nuke News module + a modified TON as a blog

I have a post about it (and beta) in the RN private forums "RavenNuke Other". It's fairly close to release, with a few changes pending

bestbuildpc wrote:

When are you gonna finish NSN Download?

Honestly? Wish I knew. I keep getting derailed with life and other interests. I was hoping to get back into the code the final week of this year as I am off from work. But, my whole household has been sick for about 8 weeks and I've been "spared" so far... I just hope that doesn't mean I'll be down-and-out that week. Keeping the fingers and toes crossed. I at least would like to get out a bug and XHTML release for 1.1 so I may back off on some of my planned enhancements. Then I'll have a good base to work from go forward or anyone else who may wish to pick up the project.