A cursory comparative study of other engines - those engines already exist, man. If people want a site that does XYZ, they'll use engine XYZ, which is perfectly geared-up towards such a usage. What's the benefit to Geeklog in duplicating already-existing functionality? Shouldn't we be trying to make something
new, instead?
GL already runs just fine on PHP5.
Comments displayed by page would be nice, I guess. Never saw the need myself, but I guess some people might find it useful.
There does need to be tighter integration between the forum and the rest of the site - it'd be nicer if a user's forum posts were shown in his/her bio page, and it'd be nice also if there was an option for story comments to increment a user's forum post count. This is probably something to talk to the creators of the Forum plugin about.
Regarding user blogs and groups - I think it's a neat idea, and something that's been tried in the past with the Journal plugin, and perhaps something that should be tried again. But to be honest, if I want a site that does that sort of stuff, I'd use a different CMS. For me, Geeklog has always been primarily a very flexible blog engine, like WordPress for people who know their arses from their elbows.
User-submitted images with blog posts - I'm pretty sure there's a sound reason, security-wise, why this isn't enabled by default.
Favourite authors/posts - why? How would this enrich the user experience? Does BoingBoing have that functionality?
I think my biggest gripe with Geeklog right now is geeklog.net, which looks outdated and has usability issues. Outdated in that, aesthetically, it looks like a site from the mid-90's, and usability issues meaning:
REAL LIFE
To see what's going on behind the scenes at Geeklog:
1. Go to Geeklog.net
2. Click on "Mailing Lists" -> takes you to http://www.geeklog.net/faqman/index.php?op=view&t=15
3. Click on "Geeklog-Devel" -> takes you to http://eight.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/geeklog-devel
4. Click on "geeklog-devel-archives" -> takes you to http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/
5. Look for a search box
6. Do this: :doh:
7. Sigh heavily, click on the "Thread" link next to "October", which takes you to http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-October/thread.html
8. Do this again: :doh:
9: Accidentally stumble across
THIS, proclaim to the Heavens "WHY THE HELL HAVE I ONLY JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS."
10. Rejoice.
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF STEPS THE USER EXPECTS:
1. Go to Geeklog.net
2. Click on "What's going on with Geeklog 1.5"
3. Click on "Subscribe to RSS"
4. Rejoice.
THE IDEAL THAT THE USER EXPECTS:
1. Go to Geeklog.net
2. Rejoice.
Silly browser RPG: improbableisland.com!