well if you are really interested, I have already posted in a few others places about some of these
- the ability to enable blank posts Allow for empty posts and empty topic body so that people dont always need to “have something to say”, they can just post freely as much or as little as they want
- multiple emoji reactions on posts Support multiple-reactions per post (Retort style) ; users really enjoy sticking wacky emojis on posts, and they also seem to enjoy working together to create multi-emoji pictograms to create custom reactions to posts
- an idea from other “old-school” forums; allowing “mod hacks”, where a forum admin or moderator is able to use CSS, HTML, and JS embedded in a single topic to change that topic for all users to do things like embed music, embed a video in the background, or change the background, enable crazy shifting text effects, etc. You could basically turn that single topic into a mini party room
- quick posting; you should be able to press a single key on your keyboard, such as “`”, to immediately bring up the Post box, with it selected and the text cursor inside ready to type, and then be able to hit Tab once or twice to select the Reply button and then Enter to post your message.
some ideas from other platforms like Discord;
- custom stickers and emojis ; stickers especially are great because you can turn your community’s favorite memes into quick-postable items that can be shared easily, users dont have to contstantly re-upload their favorite reaction pics constantly
- ability to live stream audio and video from your desktop or phone, similar to Discord’s “voice channels” ; combine this with a Calendar so your users can all have movie night together, stream games together, etc…
obviously, some of these are more work than others. In general, I really like Discourse, but too many times Discourse feels like it is “anti-fun”. If we want forums to persist, the act of simply posting has to be enjoyable and liberating.