hey
is there a way to enable topic starters to upload a thumbnail for each topic which is shown on later in the forumview?
i thought about using the fileupload plugin, which has a thumbnail functionality. i could grab the first image of a topic, but i need to show it in the forumview (overview of topics), not in the topic itself. do you know any other ways?
thanks
just to elaborate… you could use the attachment as you indicated…
in the forum view, we collect topic data for the first and last post information… a plugin could alter the query via a filter (hook) and add in the extra query elements to fetch for attachments… and then hook into the data processing to make it available to the template tags… and then add a filter to the display template tag and add in the attachment…
sounds convoluted, but very much like wp in using filters/problem-with-post-edit-buttonooks to change things up…
lol, probably easier than the uploader changes you made! 
if you want to give a go, we are here to help with some guidance…