Can this implementation be achieved with Hotaru?

[bizwoo]

Hi
I really like the hotaru CMS and I am looking to use it for my next project.
I am planning a new project which will try to create a users generated news site. The site will need to have the following features and I would like to know whether these features can be implemented with hotaru before trying to use or modify it.

1. Submissions can work as a blog post and not only accept links. For instance a user can submit a user created content with images, etc. just in the same way a blog post will work. Users will be able to choose whether to submit only a link or a post.
2. Admin can control in which categories users can post links, etc. E.g. Only User Group 1 can post in categories 1 and 2. User Group 2 can post in all Categories and so on.
3. Points can be awarded to users for each activity they perform in the site. E.g. 1 Point for registering, 2 points for posting, 1 point for voting, 1 point for commenting, 1 point for joining a group, 1 point for inviting friends who join, etc.

These are more or less the features that I would like. Can someone give me some advice in whether this is achievable or not?

Regards.

[carlo75]

Hi bizwoo:

1) yes: you also need Journal plugin http://forums.hotarucms.org/showthread.php?730-Journal-0.6 to give a mini-blog options to your users
2) not exactly at the moment, but new feature http://forums.hotarucms.org/entry.php?94-New-Custom-Usergroups-Feature can be modified for that (?)
3) yes and no: something like that can be User Rankings plugin: http://forums.hotarucms.org/showthread.php?518-User-Rankings-0.2, but if you mean something like that http://forums.hotarucms.org/showthread.php?1129-Token-system, this is not implemented yet.

Hotaru is really flexible, my 2 cent... try try and try again, with some customizations all will works like a charm!

Edit for Nick: :p

[Nick]

Anything can be achieved with Hotaru if you learn how to make plugins. If you don't want to do any coding, you'll have to settle for these answers:

1. Yes, but you'd need to pull images from an external source with the IMG tag. Alternatively, use the Image Upload plugin, but it's limited to a single image per post.
2. No, that would require a custom plugin.
3. Yes for posts, comments and votes, no for others.

Edit: Carlo, you beat me by one minute! :p

[bizwoo]

Wow this was fast. Thanks you two for the replays (Grazie Carlo). Some more questions, hope you do not mind.
About 1) The way the post works is more or less similar to posting in a forum. E.g. You can use HTML tags for posting images, centering, etc?
About 3) Will it be possible to have the voting plugin modified to do the sort of things that I am looking for?
Another question that I did not ask was how flexible is the template system used? I mean can the themes be really customized for instance to mimic a wordpres news theme but of course having the votes shown too. E.g. Mimic one of the news themes in this link http://www.gabfirethemes.com/category/themes/
Thanks for the replays.

[carlo75]

1) yes very similar
...
3) customize a plugin is relatively simple; if you are a bit php skilled, this is quite simple.

Template design is really flexible and actually are based on CSS 960 grid system framework. Here we are a lot of free themes: http://forums.hotarucms.org/forumdisplay.php?34-Theme-Downloads if you want to take a look ;)

Cloning or mimic a Wordpress theme is not particularly difficult, but require some minimal CSS and PHP skills.