Notify

Be warned, this is fluff:

A notify field when you start a thread (or post) where you can enter 2-3 usernames that become notified of the thread or post (via pm, email, w/e)

If perhaps, someone creates a thread spawning from a previous discussion where some members are actively involved, they might want to be notified of the continued discussions existence. Obviously the PM or AP system can be used for this, but it may be more convinient. Or for instance if a member reads a thread and knows of another member that may be interested (suggest a thread).

Just something to think about. If it flys, make sure it's designed to handle abuse. ;)

how about a Fork function...so you could fork off from another thread....this fork should be visible in the thread it was forked from. People subscribed to the thread should be notified of the fork.

A fork could be really complex or simple:

Complex would have a new fork table in the AO database, so you could view forked threads and whatnot

Simple would be:
Click "fork" button
New thread page is launched and the beginning of the post has "Forked from this thread" and maybe subscribers are maintained or something...

I don't know, might be useful.

acctualy you wouldn't need a fork table, you would just need a boolean field in the forum table for "isFork" and an integer field for "ParentThread" and another for "ParentPost" (post retained to fork from correct location but thread maintained for prevent loosing forking location if the post is deleted.

then you could add a small field to the view settings for "Show forks" to show or hide forked threads in forum view