[tgreer]

I've thought about using the forum system for blogs, similar to what has been suggested. However, I don't want the blogs to be "part of" the forum system. I don't want a "Blog" forum.

In fact, I'm looking to incorporate an "Opinion & Analysis" section of my site. I would have specific "Staff Writers". They would offer analysis and opinion on specific topics related to the site. There would be an index for this section, and it would work like a blog: the analysis, with a link to comments.

I could simply use a stand-alone blog system, like WordPress, except I do want some integration with the forum:

1) I want posting and display managed by vBulletin. A new blog entry or comment should work just like "New Thread" or "Quick Reply".

2) Staff Writers should be able to "assign" a blog to a certain Category. Thus, when users are looking at a Category, they will see the standard index of forums, plus, underneath, titles and short excerpts of the latest blogs "associated" with that forum category.

So in essence, a forum per Staff Writer would work, however, I think I'd have to modify it drastically. I wouldn't want these blog forums to display in the forum index... I think I'd have to set up some separate SQL tables to associate certain blog entries with certain forum categories... modify the templates... a lot of work. That's why I've searched for a "plugin", it would save me doing this work.