Alumni Directory / Message Board

[no-sweat]

Hi all. I have a little group project to do and I need help finding the right thing (if it exists). To start off, let me explain what our client wants-

He said he wants a site where a user can register. Once they register they can log in and edit their profile which will be stored in a database. Any user (even not registered) may go to a search page and search for other users by name, location, occupation, year graduated, major, etc.

He also said he just wants to use this for CIS (computer information systems) majors so companies can look up people and network. Also so we can find classmates and such...

Now here's my great idea:

Instead of doing as site as he describe, we would use a message board (forum). You know, like the one you're on now. (note that I did not ask him about it, I would like to make sure it exists first) Now the ONLY problem is searching users. I notice Neowin's board has no option to search for users. Is there a board out there that does? Let me just summarize what *extras* I am looking for in a message board:

- Ability to specify and add more information to profiles... i.e. there can be a box for people to put Name, City, State, Marital Status, Occupation, Interests etc. Pretty much anything you would expect to see in an alumni directory.

- Search for users via different values e.g. (as above) Name, City, State, Marital Status, Occupation, Interests etc.

- Everyone like a normal forum - forums/sub forums/create topics/PM users/etc.... you know.

I hope I explained it well. It's basically forum that allows users to make a rather "extended" profile compared to normal forums. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Quite honestly, I don't like his idea for this directory; and being a current student (to be alumni in May) I really would not use it. However, I LOVE my idea and would use it! :D p.s. the "client" used to be CIO for Progressive Insurance *gasp!*

IF YOU ARE TOO LAZY TO READ ALL OF THE ABOVE:

I need to find something that is basically a forum that allows users to make a rather "extended" profile compared to normal forums. It's like a forum/alumni directory. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Echilon]

Invision has extra profile fields, Neowin just doesn't use them. You can set up extra fields for whatever you want, but I'm not sure whether you can search for them. There might be an invision mod that allows searching by extra fields, but I've never really looked for one.