Alrighty, I'm officially going public with this idea. I've been trying to work on this myself (with some help from friends), but we aren't coders, and it would take forever to figure this out with the little we know. So, I'm putting out the call for any people who know PHP/SQL and are interested in helping out with this pet project.

I've spoken with several groups who post their future projects and have a bit of a consensus framework for it. I'm going for a scanlator networking site, not a site where people "claim" projects. Manga will be listed in a database (similar to this site's, only not listing the detailed information ~ no need to recreate what this site does better), and a person certified to update for a group can add on the group status on projects (for instance, "interested in", "future", "upcoming", all being defined). Multiple groups can add for a single project, and all notes will be timestamped (so people can tell if the notes are old).

The idea is that you can go to a project, see that another group is working on it or interested in doing it, and contact them if you are also working on it or interested. Joints can ensue. At the very least, you won't be ambushed when the other group releases.

Features would include the ability to say "open for joints" and/or list additional staff needed. Current projects can also be listed, with the help wanted sign on there. Similar to this site (really, much will be), groups and mangaka will also have their own pages; and all a group's notices will be listed on their page.

I've got it planned out pretty well, and streamlined to facilitate easy coding and a simple interface. Anyone interested, feel free to email me for the full specs.

Coders, this is what would be needed:
-No forum
-A private message system that people can use instead of email (their preference)
-User accounts, with account editing ability
-Forms for users to update manga series, and add new manga series, based on the users status (what groups they're in, etc)
-Admin area to approve new manga additions
-Search functions on the database
-RSS feed of updates (changes to certain fields in the database)
-Email/PM notification of updates to saved favorite manga or mangaka

Of course, I'm willing to incorporate new ideas, etc. Interested coders, please email me at kalendel@gmail.com. I have a server and domain name set (Scanlator Network at www.scanlator.net).

Thanks!

~Kal

Note 1: Please don't flame this post if you dislike the entire concept of showing future projects. A large percentage of scanlators believe that something like this would be truly helpful, based upon the people I've talked with. I know it would save me from the 5-10 headaches I year I have over overlapping projects.

Note 2: Incorporating features like this here at BU has been shot down several times in the suggestion box, so I figure it's not something BU has planned ^^