Ok, so UBB sucks rocks and we all know it. So instead bitching about how bad it sucks, here is a good challenge.

Find some COOL bbs/forum software and point us to it here. Post a link to it and hopefully(although it's not required) post a link to a good example of it in use.

Here are some things we think it should have:

New Message scans

New Message to you scans

Better search/archiving

Ignore Message/Users

Admin features:

Prune Users by date/last login

Well, I can't think of any more. I am hoping that Jeff will chime in with some more.

The ideal software would be written in perl and modifyable(sp?). Anyways, go out and point us to them!

J.C. Stanton

What software does the LifeIsAnnoying (http://www.lifeisannoying.com/forum/)forums use?

[edit] Signatures mightn't be good here though. The length (and stupidity) of some would be overwhelming. However, it is easy enough to read when they are limited to say 3 lines.

[edit] Hah, beat you to it alex. You did find out more than me though...



[This message has been edited by DarKReaper (edited 04-27-2003).]

I think that the system that they have over at LIA (http://www.lifeisannoying.com/forum/index.php) is quite effective, I do not know much about the technical side but it always seems good.

It is called YaBBS SE. Link (http://www.yabbse.org/)

EDIT: Cool it looked like I replyed in response to the message above when actually it wasn't there when I replied.

[This message has been edited by alex_uk (edited 04-27-2003).]

Ok, that's one. Any others?

J.C. Stanton

Another one that I think is quite good is the one over at newschoolers Forums (http://www.newschoolers.com/PHP/Forum/Forum.php4). It haseffective searches, there are memberships on the site as a whole as the board was programmed by hte owner of the site. Once again I am not sure about the administritive side.

Another is the phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/) at Punktastic (http://www.punktastic.com/forum/). This is the features sheet for the system. (http://www.phpbb.com/features.php)

I think that the phpBB system is free. You would have to email the owner of newschoolers.com.

EDIT: Tags.

[This message has been edited by alex_uk (edited 04-27-2003).]

the invision boards are nice with features.. www.invisionboard.com (http://www.invisionboard.com)

it requires PHP and mySQL though.. not sure if this server has that

a good example is the k-lite board http://www.klboard.ath.cx/bb/index.php

[This message has been edited by wenerjar (edited 04-28-2003).]

How about Rogue Sci (http://www.roguesci.org)

Could you edit the Ubb tag code so when you want to quote someone you could use:

then this is the quote

Instead of having to click "reply with quote" to get their user name to show up in the Quote.

Just a small thing.

I know you don't care for what I have to say J.C. But go for Invision Board, its code is easy to customise to your hearts content, and it has a massive community at www.ibplanet.com (http://www.ibplanet.com) that will help you out whenever you need it.

The primary reason for choosing Invision for me was that it uses the lowest bandwidth out of all my tests (YaBB, YaBB SE, UBB) and has the best features to boot. With such a large user base here at totse, the server would benefit with a large speed increase. J.C. you have seen what Invision can do over at RL, don't deny that.

In addition, Invision Board has free converters, meaning NO loss of member data or the most recent posts.

Just trying to help out J.C., heh, I did not even advertise the address of RL, if you want to see the RL forums in action I'm sure you know the address. My version is highly modified by me though, so don't hesitate to ask me any questions about how I did what and so on...

Arcane

[This message has been edited by Arcane (edited 04-28-2003).]

quote:Originally posted by Agent Boris_KGB:

How about Rogue Sci (http://www.roguesci.org)

RogueSci's E&W forum is powered by VBulletin (http://www.vbulletin.com/). I was thinking that that's a pretty good example of forum software. All I would like to see (and all are included in VBulletin):

-A "sticky" topic option for mods or admins for announcements or rules.

-The ability of moderators to remove or edit posts.

-The banning of users in extreme cases of stupidity, by the admins possibly at the request of the mods. Or you could let the mods handle it..

-And of course transferring the user accounts from our current forum, which I think is possible with VBulletin

[This message has been edited by DavidThePyro (edited 05-01-2003).]

Those are some good ones. Anyone have any others?

J.C. Stanton

quote:Originally posted by Nohman:

The software used on the www.gamingforce.com (http://www.gamingforce.com)

forums is really good. The forum sucks, but the actual format is great. Probably the only thing totse should add is the user profile thing. The totse profiles suck...which often leads to useless questions on Spurious.

I found this posted in the old version of this thread in BM. I thought it deserved being moved here and since I don't have mod powers, I just re-posted it. I totally agree with the whole thing about useless spurios topics. Here's some things that I've seen topics on that should be in the profiles:

Reason for choosing your name.

Sex (gender, whatever)

Favorite things

Age

http://www.invisionboard.com/ rocks. here is a good example of it in use: http://www.moonbugs.net/boards/

quote:Originally posted by Green Lantern:

Originally posted by Nohman:

The software used on the www.gamingforce.com (http://www.gamingforce.com)

forums is really good. The forum sucks, but the actual format is great. Probably the only thing totse should add is the user profile thing. The totse profiles suck...which often leads to useless questions on Spurious.

I found this posted in the old version of this thread in BM. I thought it deserved being moved here and since I don't have mod powers, I just re-posted it. I totally agree with the whole thing about useless spurios topics. Here's some things that I've seen topics on that should be in the profiles:

Reason for choosing your name.

Sex (gender, whatever)

Favorite things

Age

you do realize that the forum in the link is vbulltin, which was mentioned already.

quote:Originally posted by Phrozzty:

you do realize that the forum in the link is vbulltin, which was mentioned already.

No, as a matter of fact I did not realize that.

My friend has been working on his own script. It's growing in popularity, might be worth a try. I like it:

MercuryBoard--Let the discussion flow (http://mercuryboard.com)

As far as I can tell, it's got everything you're looking for.

--sharpasattack

I think you should go with VBulletin, and let the mods have more say in deleting topics, and banning the extremaly anoying. And sticky notes!

please, for the love of god, anything that has a sticky post option.

Amen to that Obake. If we had sticky topics then the mods could post rules and things at the top of the page. In BLTC for instance, a sticky which says "No new Posts on DXM [link to archived dxm topics and articles], Nutmeg [link to archived dxm topics and articles]" etc etc. It would be better for everyone. The only thing that i don't like about this whole "new system" thing is: Will we lose all of these posts and threads that we have now, will we have to start anew? I couldn't care less about post count, in fact i think that it should be turned off- but if the new board is incompatable with this one, then are we going to lose all the archived threads and currently active threads?

[/Chunk]

http://www.vbulletin.com/manual/import.html

Whoa, rogue sci got a new board...

I would just suggest the newer UBB...

How about the snitz forum http://forum.snitz.com/ .

Maybe you could have some sort of way to have a list of "favorite users" and you could see if they were logged on or not and PM them and stuff. Or that too much like AIM?

Also, make it so users can delete their own threads even after they've been locked.

Another thing I thought of, re-enable signatures and (if possible) allow images of limited size in them.

phpBB!!! This is by far the best forum software, IMHO.

http://www.phpbb.com/

Check it out...requires mySQL and PHP4, but its damn worth it.

I recommend vBulletin and switch fast cause this board is starting to slow down.

UBB.classic 6.5

One thing I would like to see is an option for users to view/ignore user posted images.

Two new forums:

detonate.net (http://detonate.net/modules.php?name=Forums)

and

tribalwar.com (http://www.tribalwar.com/forums)

quote:Originally posted by J.C. Stanton:

Here are some things we think it should have:

New Message scans

New Message to you scans

Better search/archiving

Ignore Message/Users



Let me restate this, these are not things that an alternate BBS software package should have, these four items are the minimum acceptable feature list. If a piece of BBS software doesn't have these four things, I'm not going to bother to replace UBB.

So far, none of the software mentioned has

any of these features. Not one.

Here's what we're talking about:

New Message Scan - That means you can get a list of all of the messages that have been written since the last time you read messages, in all of the forums that you are "subscribed" to. (That means if you don't care about a particular forum, your New Message Scan will ignore all messages in that forum.)

New Message to You Scans - Just like the above, but you only see messages that are replies to messages that you wrote. Makes it easy to follow-up with responses to people who replied to you.

Better Archiving - That means that once a message is over 90 days old or so, it moves into a static archive section, separate from active forums, that rarely changes.

Ignore Message/Users - Don't want to see any more messages in a thread? Add the thread to your filters list and you won't have to see it again. Find another user annoying? Add them to your twit list and you'll never see another thing they post.

JC was asking because I've given up trying to find software that does these four things. He's asking you to do a little research, not enter "BBS" into Google and post your answers here. Find us some software that does these four things and we'll give it a test drive. If it works great and does the above, we'll probably replace UBB with it.

The only one that VBulletin does not really have is the 'better archiving.' I would like to know why it's important to have every old thread be archived. Why would it have to be archived in a differant part of the forum, rather than remaining active in the place they were first posted? What's wrong with just leaving the thread as it is, if no one's going to reply to it then it will sit there, if people are going to reply to it, then it's worth being replied to, and therefore worth keeping open.

If vBulletin has those features they're sure keeping it a well-guarded secret.

Show me a vBulletin-based system that has what I just described. Post a link. I really want to see some software that can do what I just described.

Right. Well I threw together this image to show you what I can, the images are part of roguesci's board.

http://www.angelfire.com/nm2/cedmc/index.html

If that doesn't cut it, then we're stuck with this UBB..

[This message has been edited by DavidThePyro (edited 05-26-2003).]

I've tried YaBB and InvisionBoard, and hated both of 'em. But phpBB has worked really well for me, and you can't beat the price. My forums have been running smoothly for a while now here:

http://forums.thenetw0rk.com

quote:Originally posted by Prometheus:

One thing I would like to see is an option for users to view/ignore user posted images.

Yeah i like that idea as well. But also it would be nice if you can block an entire user like if you have a prefrences option and such.

what about the one at http://www.overgrow.com/edge/index.php or http://www.cannagenetics.com/modules.php?name=Forums

quote:Originally posted by DarKReaper:

What software does the LifeIsAnnoying (http://www.lifeisannoying.com/forum/)forums use?

They use Proboards http://proboards.com , I also know phpBB and network54, network54 kinda sucks, phpBB isn't bad, but I think Proboards is the best.

[This message has been edited by r00z (edited 06-02-2003).]

[This message has been edited by r00z (edited 06-02-2003).]

quote:Originally posted by J.C. Stanton:

Here are some things we think it should have:

New Message scans

New Message to you scans

Better search/archiving

Ignore Message/Users

I've never seen that particular feature set on any given forum/bulletin board. I'm sure you're aware that there are many boards that have add-on modules available, but I've never seen a board that incorporates both ignore user and ignore thread.

Having typed that, I've little doubt that such a board exists.

I don't see whats so bad about UBB. Why do you guys hate it so much?

I like phpBB... http://www.phpbb.com/ ...two examples of it in action are...

small scale: http://www.vexdev.com/forums/

large scale with modifications: http://207.44.156.9/oiboard/ ...it's pretty fast and nice...I've heard it's easier on the server than the UBB board was too...

a very good example of vbulletin use is the www.unix.com (http://www.unix.com) boards.

I really like the ones at www.pinkbike.com (http://www.pinkbike.com)

those ones are really good.

Brocken saints http://www.brokensaints.com/forums/

they are what i point my finger at

quote:Originally posted by r00z:

They use Proboards http://proboards.com , I also know phpBB and network54, network54 kinda sucks, phpBB isn't bad, but I think Proboards is the best.

[This message has been edited by r00z (edited 06-02-2003).]

[This message has been edited by r00z (edited 06-02-2003).]

They use YaBB.

What about customising the SlashCode (http://slashcode.com)?

ive always like invision powerboards or PHPBB best. Invision is the easiest to use though.

I think a change in forum would be fantastic, in fact I can barely wait; it would certainly breath new life into the community. I especially like the idea of each member having an ignore list fro members and threads, that would certainly stop a lot of the pointless arguments with idiots, which especially gets me down. Although I am not sure if you could fit all the people on my ignore list on your server, so a listen list of people that you want to hear, and everyone else ignored as a standard may be more appropriate, lol. It would be cool to select only the forums you want to appear on the board index too, I am tired of scrolling up and down when I only use about three forums. I would also be cool to be able to block out certain words and or threads containing those words…

Not to be all impatient, but have you decided if you're going to switch, and if so to which?

Check out ezboard! It's horrible!



"This is some of the USER CONDUCT in the USER AGREEMENT"

You agree to not use the Service to:

c) upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any Content that (1) is unlawful, threatening, abusive, tortious, defamatory, obscene, libelous, or invasive of another's privacy; (2) consists of instructional information on illegal activities, including, but not limited to, hacking, cracking, and phreaking;

If you want to waste your time to read the rest of this disgusting thing here's the url http://www.ezboard.com/corporate/legal_termsofuse.html

BUY A TOTSE TSHIRT!

[This message has been edited by TheParkinator (edited 06-22-2003).]

The list is endless at this place, I'm going to look through it.

http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/more10.html

Edit: (I'm making a list)

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>PerlCoders: Message Board

<LI>e_Board

<LI> http://www.phpbb.com/

</UL>

[This message has been edited by TheParkinator (edited 06-22-2003).]

[This message has been edited by TheParkinator (edited 06-22-2003).]

Kerrang.Com had around triple the users Totse does on the same software and managed somehow for about a year with the various problems it threw up... In the end they upgraded to UBB Threads, which might be the best solution for Totse. Retails for at least a few grand I think the admin said though, so maybe not.

http://www.phpbb.com/ has two of your four requirements.

forum.grasscity.com (http://forum.grasscity.com)

http://www.suddenlaunch.com

not great but my site uses it

http://conversatron.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

The layout of that place is kind of pretty, but It seems to be full of really clever people who never idiotically abuse the image button.

the forums at www.portent.net (http://www.portent.net).

Private messages, buddy lists, ignore user, better thread subscription (It only sends one email regardless of how many replies the thread recieves), view users browsing the forums, avatars, signatures, profiles, and it shows you how many threads have recieved replies since your last visit. The list goes on...

The http://www.bf42.com forums are...



Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.3.0

The forums they use seem alright to me. They have plenty of features, although they probably aren't the ones you're looking for. Go browse the website forums and check it out, though.

Jesus Christ man it doesn't need all of those features, anythings better than the software right now.

I dont see why Vbulletin does not satisfy your needs. Like the previous user showed, it is capable of being made to do almost everything except the better archiving part.

vbulletin is the best

so many hacks for it and a great community

only thing is the cost of a license



the next best after that would have to be invision power board as mentioned a few times before

best of all its free and it has all the features of vbulletin (give or take a few)

and a great hack scene also

i even managed to get one fully up and running and hacked to the eyeballs http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

Hopfully your willing to get rid of cgi and use a php/mysql DB setup.

if so then use

Vbull or Invision possibly phpbb also

I would still recommend VBulletin. It works for so many large sites flawlessly and has many plugins/modules to make it do exactly what you want it to do.

Am willing to contribute programming time if you start something using PHP/MySQL

another vote for invision power board

its TOTALLY worth moving to a server with ph/sql

get somone to host it on a fats connection

find someone with a decent setup, not some wee dick that will use it maliciously

find someone responsible and able to maintain a web server

then problems solved

I have grown to love to love VBulletin. its easy to use, and its display is easier... especially the jump to new posts. i'm sure you could get donations, people already should be, if you needed monetary assitance with the license

Holy shit! J.C Stanton is alive!!

:)poop:)