Carbon Communities Features

Overview

Carbon Communities is an extensive online community which allows for an exchange of information between viewers though the means of Forums, Private messaging, Event Calendars and Email's.

Installation

Simply copy the files to a server that supports IIS and Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or higher. Run the database script and your community will be up and running in a matter of minutes. * Please Note: We recommend that you inquire with the administrator of your server to check the compatibility of your server to our software.

Database

Carbon Communities is designed to run on...

  • Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
  • Microsoft Access 2000.
  • Support for MySQL is coming soon.

Performance and Scalability

  • Carbon Communities was designed to be extremely fast from small personal communities to large corporate intranet communities.
  • Utilizes SQL Stored Procedures in SQL Server to increase speed and performance
  • Offering Microsoft Access as a database option for smaller, less intensive communities.

Administration

  • Allow selective access to specific Administration areas.
  • Create an unlimited amount of Forums and Topics.
  • Sort, Edit or Delete Forums in real-time.
  • Create Administrator only, Moderator Only, Private Forums or Public Forums.
  • Upload or Delete Member Avatars.
  • Selective "Auto Pruning" of Threads/Unanswered Threads.
  • Complete style editing of virtually every community attribute (No need to any programming or HTML to get a great custom looking community).
  • Ability to appoint Members as Moderators of Forums.
  • Functionality to "Pause" the community for maintenance or updates which will then display a temporary message to Members.
  • Configurable Meta Tags.
  • Configurable Censor Word list.
  • One Page setup of all community vital information.
  • One click ability to turn on or off the following options.
    • Private Messaging
    • Avatars
    • Guest Posting
    • Signatures
    • Member Titles
    • Member Status display images
    • Chat Rooms
    • Display of Moderator Post Counts
    • Display of Member Post Counts
    • Allow Members to lock their own Threads
    • Automatic censoring of Posts
    • Member Invisibility
    • Moderator Invisibility

Moderators

  • Ability to move Threads to different Topics.
  • Editing of Threads and Posts.
  • Locking and Unlocking of Threads.
  • Announcement Threads that appear at the top of the list regardless of sort order.
  • Receive notification of questionable Posts via Email.

Members

  • Can create Threads and reply to current Threads
  • Unlocking of own Threads to prevent new replies from being added.
    Please Note that this is dependant on this option being enabled by the Administrator).
  • Editing of own Posts.
  • Formatting of messages involving font colors, font styles, font sizes as well as emoticons, links, quotes and images.
  • Further communication with other community members via direct emailing and Private Messaging.
  • Complete Member Center with controllable aspects of Member Profile and Member Options.
  • Private Messaging In box and Sent Items box.
  • Monitoring of Favorite Forums via email and a quick display table of those Forums in the Member Center.
  • Monitoring of Favorite Threads via email and a quick display table of those Threads in the Member Center.
  • Customizable Avatar.
  • Customizable signature which appears at the bottom of all Posts by that Member.
  • Quick glance table shows Friends that are online.
  • Instant editing of Friends List.
  • Customizable Ignores List of Members Posts that you do not wish to see.
  • Popup or email notification of new Private Messages.
  • Calendar Events Display inside of Member Center.
  • Access to Members List and optional information supplied by other Members.
  • Extensive Search features.

Forums

  • Unlimited Forums.
  • Unlimited Topics inside of Forums.
  • Administrator, Moderator, Private and Public Forums.
  • Sort, Edit and Delete Forums in real time.
  • Sort, Edit and Delete Threads in real time.
  • Optional Guest Posting.
  • Optional Post Censoring.
  • Post Spell Checking.
  • Thread Icons to set a mood or tone of the Thread.
  • Emoticons, font colors, font styles, font sizes, images and links in Posts.
  • Unlimited Moderators per Forum.
  • Quick display of Last Post date per Thread with a Last Post link to view that new Post.
  • Icon display of new Posts since last visit, Locked Threads and Hot Threads.
  • Announcement Threads that appear at the top of the list regardless of sort order.
  • Move Threads to different Topics.
  • Email responses to new Posts in Threads that a Member starts.
  • Email responses to new Posts in Threads that a Member finds interesting regardless if that Member has participated in that discussion or not.
  • Threads are sortable by Title, Thread Starter or Last Post Date.

Customization

  • Many pre made Color Schemes to choose from.
  • Completely customizable Color Schemes with one click editable attributes for the following...
    1. Logo
    2. Navigation menu
    3. Button colors
    4. Button styles
    5. Table borders
    6. Border widths
    7. menuheader colors
    8. menuheader images
    9. menuheader font color
    10. Sub menuheader colors
    11. Sub menuheader font colors
    12. Table cell colors
    13. Font colors
    14. Link colors
    15. Link over colors
    16. Smilie Colors
    17. Input boxes
  • Customizable welcome title and description.
  • One click community setup page for vital info such as web site URL and web site email.
  • One click community option selection in the Administration area.
  • Customizable Avatars
  • Reservable or blockable Member Names.

Search

  • Search the community forums by...
    1. Forum
    2. Whole or partial User Name
    3. Whole or partial keyword
    4. Date
    5. For all Posts by a specific Member form the Members List
  • Sortable Search Results.

Events and Calendar

  • Ten year Calendar.
  • Unlimited Events.
  • Optional Display of Member birthdays on Calendar.
  • Optional Display of Member birthdays on main Forum page.
  • Clickable Events with further descriptions.
  • Daily Event notification inside each Members Member Center ensuring that Members are shown Events daily.
  • Event editing in Administration area as well.
  • Optional Member Event posting.

Security

  • Community registration is controlled by return email confirmation. Prospective Members receive an email to the email address that they provided with an Activation Code. In short... no valid email address, no membership.
  • Confidential emailing among Members without revealing email address.
  • Protection of email addresses from spammers.
  • Optional Guest Posting.
  • Administrator, Moderator and Private Forums which are not viewable by the public.

Support

  • Access to Carbon Communities Forums of existing solutions from current Administrators and Moderators of other Forums powered by Carbon Communities.
  • Extensive editable online Member Help/FAQ for each community.
  • Extensive Administrative online Help inside of the Administration area.
  • Installation Manual that comes with software or available online through the Support section.
  • Incident Tickets to help solve any problems come with the Silver and Gold Licensing options.

Possible Uses

This is only few ideas for potential application of Carbon Communities, this is by no means all of the possibilities.

  • Corporate Intranets
  • Medical communities
  • Hobbyist Forums
  • Political discussion boards
  • Group activists
  • Collectors
  • Product/catalog showcasing
  • Family communication/information
  • Home improvement/renovations
  • Music/artist appreciation
  • Fan clubs
  • Automobile clubs
  • Student/school pride
  • Alumni meeting place
  • Social groups
  • Sports teams/leagues
  • Social advice
  • Newspaper editorials
  • Company feedback
  • Online auctions
  • Special Event details/listings
  • Travel help
  • Web site FAQ's

System Requirements

Server Requirements in order to successfully operate Carbon Communities.

  • Microsoft SQL 7.0/ 2000 [DSN-Less Connection] or
  • Microsoft Access [DSN-Less Connection]
  • Ability to run ASP pages
  • Windows IIS, or compatible web server platform
  • FSO - the File System Object used to read files
  • Uploading
    • Supports Persits AspUpload or
    • Dundas Upload (free from http://www.dundas.com) or
    • ASP coded upload (no object necessary, only if you would like to upload files from the administration area or for Post Attachments. All files can still be manually uploaded by FTP)
  • EMailing
* Not sure which email program your server is capable of? Download James Harris' Advanced Mailer Component Test and find out. After downloading the component tests, simply open up the zip file, extract the files to your computer, upload them, then call the pages directly in your browser by typing in the full URL. There is nothing to install nor any settings to change.