creating a second forum using only the user database
 

Is it possible to link a second forum
and only use the User / usergroup database yet have an independant mysql?

Like the photopost gallery idea?

I basically want to have another forum linked from my existing forum
and allow for users to register and sign in once.

Thanks

for 3.5?

No takers? This can't be the first time someone has wanted to link forums?

Create a copy of current forum database and delete all the forums/threads ?
you get a new forum only with registered users + custom usergroups (if any)

I was looking for a more regular integration. Something that would actually look to the user database on only one of the forums but carry on forum topics on two different subjects.

Like photopost does.

TTT. Still looking for something like this. I wonder if you could use the same idea that photopost has and have config file for styles, and user integration refering back to the specific database.

Here's a less then ideal solution:

Create 2 forums. Say Forum A and Forum B. In their settings:
Act as Forum: No
Forum is Active: No
Forum is Open: Yes

Now create the sub-forums in them.

Create another 2 forums, Link to Forum A and Link to Forum B. Their settings:
Forum Link: URLs to the Forum A and Forum B respectively.
Act as Forum: No
Forum is Active: Yes

Another variation, assuming your main forum A is already active, is to create Forum B as above. then you need to provide a link somewhere to Forum B.

The cons are:
- Forum B will NOT display like the main forum index page... i.e. things like Who's Online will not show.
- You can't separate searching of Forum A from Forum B without some specialised search page or modifying the current one.

There is a setting to force Forum B to use a certain style.

Hmm. but then you'd still have to port the user db over to the other so that it was seamless.

The only reason I'd be interested in this is because of DB size. I'm limited with my ISP, and I'm hesitant to move to managed server because we bring in no advertising $$...and I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible.

Would a scripted option serve you here? A small perl script could run via cron to export the vb_users table from Forum A, you could run a diff against it, do whatever you like to any fields needing changes and then import the resulting sql into the DB for Forum B.

Just a thought.

I believe there was a hack posted on here that does that. It's for 3.5.4.