Discussion boards have been around since two Duke University students developed Usenet in 1979. As popularity of the Web grew, Usernet morphed into online discussion boards. The interface changed – but the underling structure didn't. Messages are still organized in fixed categories and threads, much like they did in 1979.

The basic idea behind MyTalkPlace is a discussion board based on tagging. You post a message, and specify an arbitrary set of tags to describe it (although I use the term “topic” instead of tag). For each topic, MyTalkPlace uses a special algorithm to deduce which other topics are most relevant to it. This allows easy browsing by going from topic to topic.

Some of the features include:

• Ability to create polls
• Rating system for messages and comments
• Reputation system designed to encourage constructive discussion
• Many other cool features will be added in the future

Additionally, you can list topics you are interested in and see other people interested in the same topic. This adds a social networking element to the site and allows you to connect to people who share your interests.

I put the site online yesterday night. For now it requires beta code to enter. The beta code is 52F1877B. Feel free to pass the code to your friends or publish it anywhere.

http://www.mytalkplace.com/

I would appreciate any feedback/suggestions.

Regards,Dmitriy.

Does it include any way to specify that a certain post is a reply to another? Otherwise I can see it turning into a mass of disassociated thoughts without any actual discussion going on

More fluidity is good though - I still think it would be cool if Tangler was able to have one topic that appears in 2 groups simultaneously without having to duplicate anything - just somehow tell the database that the topic belongs to 2 different groups 

Hello Super-King. Every message has comments section where you can reply to the "main" message. Comments are nested, so it's clearly visible which comment is reply to which comment. But the post itself designed to be a starting point for discussion.

Think about blogs for instance. The blog entry itself is independent post. But blog readers can comment on the main blog entry. The idea here is similar. However, I created a true nested comment system. And is uses Ajax so you can easily post comment  without reloading the page.

Ah, nice

Although don't nested comments, which could be considered as posts replying to the intial one, make that into a kind-of thread? 

Well, yes. It depends on how you look at it:) However, the main idea is that posts (top-level once) are organized loosly, using tagging. 

May be I should remove "intead of threads" line from my about page? What do you think?

mm.. maybe, although since the discussion can branch off from comments on the comments it is less rigidly defined than threads on (for example) a phpbb message board.

That said, nested comments annoy me sometimes. The use of ajax to avoid reloads should counteract that though - my main gripe is the amount of times you click to see something and it turns out to be nothing except a single word, or something else not worth the time taken to load it

I really like the sounds of this. Looks really good from what I can see. After a long night working, I might not get to it today, but I'll definitely come back and check it out. Good luck with it.

Super-King, I'm also annoyed by slashdot-style threading where you have to load a new page for a thread. On MyTalkPlace all comments are loaded right away. For easy navigation you can collapse and expand threads. But it's all done in JavaScript, happens right away and requires no communication with the server. I spent a lot of time to develop a good nested commenting system which solve some of the usability problems which current designs have. I think the best way to understand how it works is to try posting a comment. But anyway, thanks for feedback.

RichardPendergast, thanks!

This tagging idea is awesome and I like the organization functionalities that come with it. The only thing I don't like about the site is the look. The design is not to my taste and it seems to exude an "old" aura. I also think the avatars in the comment section are too big and are a distraction. And the blue line that separates them seems unnecessary. 

PeacefulBlueSky, thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll have to get a real web designer to redesign the site. My goal was to make a clean-looking interface with nothing unnecessary, so that user-contributed content is the most visible part of the site. As far as the avators, i'll consider either making them smaller or include an option in user setting not to display them.

samureye at gmail

mliubinskas gmail

I am with PeacefulBlueSky's comments. I think the site needs to look more welcoming - it's very dry at the moment. I do like the idea of tagging. I have never enjoyed  any old-style discussion boards - I just find their layout to be a put off. This is promising.

Kasta, thanks for your comments. I'll think what to do about design.

I'll look into it.

i agree with kasta. cold use a more web 2.0ee or foruremee look.