When you say blog roll, the first thing that comes to mind for me is Right Sidebar Blocks; though I’m conscious this looks quite different from what you’ve been experimenting with so far.
Could you maybe link us to one or two examples of other websites doing what you’d like to?
@leopedrini, what are you looking for in a blogroll? There are several use cases, and I have approaches for at least a few (my favorite is creating a category for links and using per topic settings to encourage discussion).
Are you looking for interactions with users? Or an easy way to update a dynamic list of URLs from Discourse? Let us know what you are thinking.
Also, have you seen the new sidebar? It has sections that we are just now beginning to explore how to we want them to be customizable. Most blogrolls I’ve seen online are sidebar sections.
This plugin lets you create unique, responsive, one page link directory that you can show on any page, anywhere with short codes. It is an advanced Link Manager. It can also be used to create nice looking partners, associates, affiliates or Business Directory for your company if you want.
Forget those old and traditional, boring styles and layouts. This innovative and powerful, yet Link Directory PlugIn allows you to create and curate comprehensive Lists of links with website logo and a short description with ease. Build Useful Link Collections, Link Library, Business Diretory or Resource page of your favorite bookmarks in style with this Link Manager plugin. Share with your website users and let them share yours.
Curate dozens or hundreds of lists of relevant website links on any broad topic. Then show all your Link Lists in a beautiful layout on a single page. Or you can choose any single link List to show with short code. Let people upvote Links and show what they like. Possibilities are endless.
I was just exploring the possibility of creating curated collections (links or other materials) that users could create on their own, vote for individual list items, comment on and replenish other people’s collections (if the collection is open). The most basic examples of the successful implementation of this idea can be considered ProductHunt and HackerNews
So far the only viable option is to install Wordpress side by side with the appropriate plugin (for example as shown above Simple Link Directory PRO or a template like Chipmunk ), but this is not a good option if we want the community to create such collections. If only the administrator will be involved in the creation of collections and their curation, then this option is feasible. But an HTML file is also suitable for this.
For many communities, finding and saving external information is a very important and useful feature, and this can be done through regular forum threads, but the standard forum tools are not very efficient for this. If someone needs it, I can give more live examples of how it is implemented in Wordpress plugins and themes.
The ideal would be to get a plugin for Discourse that would convert the forum topic into a curated list where the list would be in the first post, the topicstarter would be appointed as its moderator, and participants could add links with their short description via the form (or composer). The rest could vote for individual items of this list, thereby raising the most popular items to the top.
