php/README_FORUM.md

Reddit-Like Community Forum

A full-featured community forum built with Laravel, inspired by Reddit.

Features

• User authentication (registration, login, logout)
• Community creation and management
• Post creation with multiple types (text, link, image)
• Nested comment threading
• Upvote/downvote system for posts and comments
• User karma tracking
• Community subscriptions
• User profiles with activity history

Database Schema

• Users: User accounts with karma scores
• Communities: Subreddit-like communities
• Posts: User-submitted content
• Comments: Nested comments on posts
• Votes: Upvotes and downvotes
• Community_User: User subscriptions to communities

Routes

• / - Home page with popular posts
• /register - User registration
• /login - User login
• /communities - Browse all communities
• /r/{community} - View community posts
• /posts/{post} - View post details and comments
• /u/{user} - View user profile

Tech Stack

• Laravel 12
• Tailwind CSS
• Blade Templates
• MySQL/SQLite

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. Run composer install
3. Copy .env.example to .env
4. Generate application key: php artisan key:generate
5. Run migrations: php artisan migrate
6. Start the server: php artisan serve