I have what might appear as a very creative/different/weird idea, being an online community and all, but I think it is something that others might find useful as well. I just don't know how to do it (cron-job?):
The idea is a community (Oxwall) that is only open in a certain selected period of the day. Let's say, I want the community to be open between 13:00 pm - 17:00 pm and the maintanence screen on for the rest of the day and night. I can't get my head around how to do that, with out doing it manually every day, every week, month, year and so on. It is a lot of work - especially when on vacation and more.
Some ways it could be useful:
* Sometimes it is a good idea to gather many users at one time and not spread the debates/user visits out during all hours of the day as they aren't many online at the same time to answer, comment - interact.
* It's is interesting for a business while they are either open (taking orders and more) or closed (as a supportline)
* Online gaming, and while the game is active - so is the community. Or even the other way around with a maintenance screen stating: "We are gaming every day during 13:00 pm - 15:00 pm".
* A really serious community with moderators who need to be present and "work" via timeschedule. If one isn't there during 01:00 am - 06:00 am every night, then it is closed down (maintenance screen)
* A school might want a network, but not while people a studying. Closed during the day and open when school is out (or maybe just in the weekends).
I see many interesting ways of using this function, although, I have never seen others do. Let's be the first.
How do we do that?