Tony, regarding the forums... The desire for AF vs.these forums: First was the inability to post in these except in quick reply (which has since been fixed). Active had a nice visual layout IMO. But for my usage, the number one reason was the ability to allow a group to have their own forum, alongside/integrated with the site-wide forums. I think AF may also have allowed for deeper subforums/categorization than these, but I do not know for sure. And, initially AF had additional social integration.

For the record, I also like YAF as a stand alone, however I don't want a stand alone solution, but rather one that can integrate more with the site as a whole (for websites who want that).

This all goes back to the original topic: The further from "core" we get, the more risk involved with the eventual likelihood that the solution will be orphaned, abandoned, or disappear altogether. (I'm aware AF has been picked up again as open source, and has a team working on it (good news for now). If I were to integrate group level forums, that would be an expensive problem when the product is eventually no longer being supported. YAF (for my usage) wouldn't solve the group level issue, and probably never would - whereas this one, or AF very well could. Lastly, the further away from core we get, the less of other kinds of integration we would expect to see (such as other social integration with core).

Best case scenario for me is that the forum team could integrate group functionality here with this forum, or acquire Active Forums (or a branch of it), and continue to develop it in that direction (AF all but works with the current group level already, but has some bugs to work out IIRC).

I really wish DNN had acquired Vivo, and maintained those products (or used it as a model). It had a whole suite of amazing functionality for groups, and had all the tools in place for group level, individual level, alongside site-level wiki, blog, news, search integration, etc. The forums were pretty lame, and the end components were basic, but the skeletal structure and functionality was there to probably integrate with DNN forums, blogs, wiki, etc..

It will be interesting to see where the whole social thing winds up. I'm fearful that DNN is too focused on the Facebook/Journal style, and may neglect the group level side of things completely beyond the journal, and notifications, but at least they do have the group structure in place, so maybe more group functionality/tools may come from it. I really want to see the "core" blog, wiki, forums, announcements, search, chat, events, etc. with group level permissions/moderation, etc. - or at least events, search, and either wiki/blog/forum. Something where the group owner can organize posts, and control how other post in his group. The journal helps, but doesn't allow an organized place for permanent material a group/group owner might post and make available to the group. This would also be neat functionality for DNNsoftware.com, by allowing for user groups to have their own suite of tools on-site, or an employee to have his own group area.

I'm aware of the YAF DNN version, but I don't think that nullifies any of the things I mentioned (not trying to sound snotty, so please don't take it that way). I was talking about the DNN version.

Yes, Vivosocial. It's been open source since DNN acquired ActiveSocial (as a result of that acquisition), but is no longer supported last I checked (going back to this thread topic) - it had very similar but more functionality than Smart Social. Prior to that, it was a commercial suite. I'm not a programmer, which goes back to the thread topic in making (ultimately) unsupported largely integrated programs like VivoSocial very risky. Additionally, some of DNN's core changes have kinda made Vivo and the other third party social solutions messy. For example Vivo had it's own notifications, journal, groups, taxonomy, etc. which worked great a few years ago, but may not fit well now. You kinda get stuck making the choice between a fantastic, but no longer supported social suite, or use DNN's integrated core offerings, but then you lose a ton of power.

I thought about the child portal solution, but I'm not sure that would be practical in a site that allows users to create their own groups/pages without site owner intervention.. I'm not exactly a DNN expert, so I could be totally wrong in this regard. My intent is to allow any registered user to create a personal area (profile), groups if they want, etc. Similar to facebook's functionality, where anyone can create a group page, personal page, and/or fan/business pages - and it doesn't require additional action by the site admin. BUT I also don't want the tools to be overly confusing for the end users/group owners, etc. (Keeping in mind that these are normal folk, not site owners). So for example, a group admin would have a forum on his group page. He could create categories, set moderator settings, set view/post to private/public/group only, and set whether the group can post or just the admin, and whether the posts get approved first. But that's about it. All of the permissions would probably be one group of setting at the group level for all the group's tools (media upload/storage, forum, blog, wiki, etc.). Vivo, Smart, and Active Social all had it and/or were working in that direction.

To take it a step further, then it would be good to be able to integrate (toggle) where you can search site wide content, individual content, or just group stuff, or include public group posts in sitewide search results. This way you could search all the public groups' blogs, individual blogs, as well as site wide blogs with one search, or you could limit to just one of the above. This was all handled well in Vivo's solution.

A good real-world example of this is Wizards of the Coast community area, and is a perfect set up for its massive amount of users (Dungeons and Dragons players, etc.).

When DNN purchased Active Social, but then scrapped much of it, it created a ripple effect where these other great social solutions essentially got wiped out. Not because they weren't great solutions, but simply because of that one purchase by DNN. BUT THEN... DNN (so far) didn't put that functionality back in place as was originally expected via Active Social. It could still happen, but I think it depends more on the individual teams of these "core" tools. I heard the events module may be geared to work at the group level for example (which is pretty crucial for this type of setup).

I wonder if DNN has put this functionality into their paid Social version yet. This is sorta how group social tools have worked for a long time and very much still do (though the journal is more popular on the few biggest sites geared toward individuals rather than groups/businesses). The journal works great, is mobile friendly, but only handles part of the situation. After 20 or so journal entries, you have no way to permanently make that data available nor organized to your group, site, or friends (in a profile situation). Nor can the journal effectively handle things like business/group events or time based announcements. (The journal is somewhat useless for business pages/groups by itself).

Lastly, (I mentioned this in passing), but these tools would also be good at the individual level - integrating with the user's profile page) - which again were handled by these suites. Though, the journal is a fine solution usually at that level.

If you think the child portals solution might be practical, I am definitely all ears.