Vanilla 2 is looking sweeeet. It has such a modern feel, and some very high tech features (while I was typing this a little tab just notified me that a draft of my post has been saved). Wow, all I can say is FINALLY the forum software I've been searching for...so excited for the final product.
My plugin idea for anyone who is thinking ahead, is one that Autoposts to Twitter anytime a new thread is created. It's simple and it's perfect both as a service to current members, and as a way to attract new ones. This would go hand in hand with future social networking opportunities that Vanilla 2 is already poised to take advantage of.
I like the iPhone-idea! What I really miss is a plugin for simple votings and for viewing pictures (show little thumbnails with a link to the big picture).
Not seen it on an iPhone (I don't have one) but it looks/works fine through Opera Mobile 10 beta and Mini 5 beta. I suppose it couldn't hurt to have something that was even more streamlined for mobiles though, but wouldn't it be a theme instead of a plugin?
I'd like to be able to add custom fields when someone starts a discussion. I can't find any forum software that allows this or has a plug in! For example, the normal forum will allow you to add a title, then type the message. But I want to have a custom field so users can also include a URL, for example.
On this forum, it would be nice to have a simple "edit" option (just like the "options" on each comment) on the Categories list (top right, beneath "Start a New Discussion" big button) that, when clicked, would show a check box next to each category row with a tick in it.
Should you then un-check a category it would hide this category from the list displayed at http://www.vanillaforums.org/discussions. This could perhaps be displayed visually by putting a line through the category row (using <del></del> in the HTML).
I think it would be nice to rebuild the whisper functionality as a plugin, perhaps using JSON and JS templating to insert the whispers into the page to enable vanilla to still cache things.
1. links plugin/ like that of facebook, displaying images and part of the text on activity feed/ 2. discussions to be displayed on activity feed 3. profile image to be displayed on main discussion page. 4. QnA plugin like the functions and features of old 'voting' plugin