Basic Wordpress Forum Integration & Forum Modifications

I am creating a new website that will involve integrating a wordpress blog (used for news posts) with a discussion forum.

I have not yet decided which forum software I will be using, so it is up to the developer to advise me on what they think is the best for my situation. I am very happy to buy a forum license and at this stage I am currently interested in vBulletin, though I am open to any suggestions.

This problem has a few different parts that I will explain clearly. First I will explain how I want the site to function, and then I will explain the best ways I have come up with to implement these solutions.

PART 1. Wordpress comment modification

Firstly, I want to post news with Wordpress and then to have an identical post created on the forums which people can use to reply and discuss the news post. When people view the news post on my Wordpress blog I want the replies on its related forum post to be displayed as comments on the Wordpress blog.

My proposed solution:

For every news/blog post that I make, I will manually create a forum post with the identical content. It is then up to you as the developer to write some PHP code that can be inserted into my Wordpress templates which simply displays the replies to a forum thread, given a thread ID.

Wordpress has "custom fields" for posts, so perhaps if I enter the thread ID in that custom field then the PHP code that you create could use that information to display the correct thread replies. It would also be fine if you coded a Wordpress plugin to achieve the same thing instead. I will be disabling Wordpress' built-in comment system.

I would imagine that this would be a very easy task for anyone who has experience with mysql databases and forum software. It should be a simple matter of reading the information from the database and outputting it on a page.

PART 2. Forum Modification

For the forum section of my website I will be aiming to build a strong community. One feature that I would like is a personal image gallery, where users can upload their own photos to their own albums or to group albums. I also want users to be able to rate each other's albums/individual images.

My proposed solution:

This function already exists in popular forum software such as vBulletin and Invision Power Board. So my proposed solution is that I buy one of these softwares (with your recommendation) and that you develop some mods/plugins/add-ons to achieve the additional functionality of user ratings.

I would also like a modification that can display the "Top Albums", "Top Images" and "Random Images" on the forum index, based on user ratings.

SUMMARY OF WHAT I WANT:

1. PHP code AND/OR a Wordpress plugin that simply displays the replies from a particular forum thread (given a thread ID). A "comment" hyperlink should also display, linking to the forum thread.

2. Forum Modification (unless built into forum software) to allow users to rate other user's albums and images.

3. Forum Modification that will display the "Top Albums", "Top Images" and "Random Images" on the forum index, based on user ratings. (Exact location can be discussed later).

OPTIONAL EXTRAS:

I will pay more if these can also be implemented:

a) If a reply form can be built directly into the wordpress page so that users do not actually have to go to the thread to reply.

b) Ability for users to add a gallery/image to their "favourites". Favourites are then displayed on their profile.

I am open to any other methods of creating the site functionality that I desire. I have however thought carefully about this problem and I think my proposed solutions will be the easiest ways of implementing what I am trying to achieve.

Thank you for your time.

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Project ID: #486498

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