A couple of hours ago I installed Invision Community Blog on my Microsoft Discussion Forums (MS Discussion), I’m hoping that by doing this we can attract even more visitors to the site especially with all the features the blog system has to offer:

Invision Community Blog is a plugin for Invision Power Board. It uses the same skin, member, language, posting engine and security systems. It seamlessly integrates into the board, including a section into IPB’s Admin CP.

Allow members to

• Create external linked Blogs
• Create local (hosted) Blogs
• Moderate their own Blog

Blog list

• Overview of all members with a Blog
• View how many views, entries, comments each Blog has
• View the last entry or comment
• Numerous filtering and ordering options
• Search entries on keywords
• RSS feed of latest entries of all Blogs
• Pin and Disable Blogs
• Blog statistics
• Favourite Blogs (1.1)
• Blog ratings (1.1)
• Top 10 links (1.1)

Blog

• Redirect to the external linked Blogs
• Blog page with latest entries and customizable content blocks
• Quick clicks to manage your own Blog
• Add entries with full BB-code and attachment support
• Posting entries as draft to be published later
• Users can comment on Blog entries
• Moderation options (lock, edit, delete entries and comments)
• Filter entries on categories
• Archive page
• About me page
• View Entries of a given day or month
• RSS feed
• Trackback
• Limit entry size on main Blog page (1.1)
• Strip forum header/footer (1.1)
• Dynamic Header Images (1.1)
• Search this Blog (1.1)
• Gallery Album entries (1.1)

Archive

• Get an overview of all entries in the Blog
• Conveniently ordered per month and day

About Me

• View some personal information of the Blog owner
• View statistics of the member’s Blog

Pre-installed Content Blocks

• Mini calendar
• My Blog links (links to About Me, RSS feed, Archive)
• Last 10 Blog Entries
• My Gallery Albums (requires Invision Gallery to be installed)
• My Picture (1.1)
• Last 10 Blog Comments (1.1)

Customize your blog

• Choose between different viewmodes (list, list per date, list per month)
• Choose how many entries shown per Blog page
• Choose how many comments per page
• Define categories for the entries
• Allow/Disallow guest viewing/commenting
• Allow/Disallow RSS feeds
• Allow/Disallow the About Me page
• Make your Blog private
• Private Club Blog (allow a limited number of members to see it) (1.1)
• Enable/Disable Content Blocks
• Define Custom Content Blocks
• Reorder Content Blocks
• Choose placement of Content Blocks (left / right)
• Enable friendly URL’s
• Lock a skin to your Blog (1.1)

Integration in IPB

• Blog link
• Manage your Blog from the UserCP
• My Blog link in memberbar
• My Blog links in profile and card
• Blogs management via AdminCP

Admin Options

• Edit permission masks allowing viewing, commenting, creation of Blogs, creation of local Blogs, Moderation of Own Blogs
• Edit/Delete Blogs
• Apply default view modes
• Allow/Disallow changing of viewmode, numbers per page, content block editing, custom content blocks, RSS feeds, About me, trackbacks
• Restrict on Entry size, Comment size, Custom Content Block size
• Attachment settings
• Enable friendly URL’s
• Manage Blog moderators (1.1)
• Group based permissions on allow html in entries and comments, private Blog creation, upload size (global and per entry), allow member to lock a skin to his Blog
• Content Block Management. Enable/Disable content blocks, make them default (auto installed when a user creates a Blog), lock Content Blocks (members cannot remove the Block) or add Content Blocks
• Tools: Resynchronize Blogs and Entries, Rebuild friendly URL’s, Rebuild Blog Statistic

Microsoft Discussion Forums (MS Discussion)