How can I create a discussion thread (not like multi-processing kind)?

Question

I wanted to create multiple threads. I am not talking about multiple thread as in processing but thread as in a question-answer type of thread.

I would like to use PHP for this. Can someone guide me as to how to get started? A Google search throws up links for threading as in process and not q-a type of thread.

Answer 1

Don't use the term "Thread" - instead Google for "forum" or "Bulletin board".

Here's a good summary for php ones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software_%28PHP%29

And here's a list for a variety of languages including Perl:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_internet_forum_software_%28other%29

Also, you can have pre-canned solutions - a new favorite among heavy hitters seems to be DISQUS - at least a couple of big blogs I follow recently switched to it.

One more option is of course to leverage Stack Exchange - if you can convince enough people to organize it, you can get enough mass to create a StackExhange based site on Area51 (in case you aren't aware, StackExchange is the infrastructure/software behind StackOverflow)

Now, if you prefer to code on on your own, it is also fairly doable in Perl with some database back-end... you basically set up the tables for users, posts, and post relationships, and a basic thread renderer is just printing the tree of posts based on those relationships.