Need Ideas for UBB hacks

[Moonlight]

I have an Ultimate Bulletin Board on my Web Site and I'm always making additions to it.

But now I have reached a point that I have NO idea what to add next.

Could you please help me out?

Some of the UBB modifications that I created are :
- Max 5 Moderators/forum (up from 1)
- "Assistant Administrator" that is like a Moderator in all forums but without Administrators complete features.
- Some ICQ features
- Cookie: Added Automatically Select signature
- Delete Message from Message itself (for Administrators/Moderators/Assistants)
- View Staffs Listing
- View Members Access list (private/restricted forums)
- User Information screen changes (Admins) :
* Can change email address and a new password is generated and sent
* Change the "Status" [except for staff members]
* Added fields for topic name color and topic title text/colors
- Headers: Added support to display titles/name colors in Topics and Messages. Staff members have another color by default.
- Hides IP Address for Staff Members
- and some others...

If you would like to check it out and give me comments, please do so.

http://www.togrc.com/mrealm/

Thanks,

Frederic Hutow
Web Manager - http://www.togrc.com

[Deb]

Hmmm is it possible I purchased the UBB from the wrong person? <grin>

Something I would really like on the UBB here is the ability to sort the user list by date.... I currently have to surf through the entire list to find a new member and set their permissions... would be easier if I could sort by date and only have to check on the most recent ones registered.

I would also like to be able to set the restrictions with more options... for example... Right now I can either give admins/users permissions or not... but I would like to have a forum where only admins can post topics but visitors with permissions can reply to them...Like say on the Server News forums I want only members to be able to read and post replies.. but only admins can post new topics.. I can not do that with the current UBB...

So that's my thoughts on it so far http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Deb

[Dean B]

Frederick,
Some great additions to the UBB *applause* http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif Do you visit the hack forum on the UBB's own board very often ? There are a lot of different ideas floating around there. The only current hack I have on my own boards are the individual message count.
If we asked you nicely would you be prepared to share your hacks with fellow Questies ? A nice little zip would be very handy http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif


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Regards, Dean.
**DMCity Web Board**
www.dmcity.com/cgi-bin/ubb/Ultimate.cgi (http://www.dmcity.com/cgi-bin/ubb/Ultimate.cgi)

[Moonlight]

Yes I do visit the Hack forum there, but most of the mods I mentionned came directly from me.

I haven't documented any of my hacks nor have put indication in the source files except ### ADD ### and ### MODIF ### notes.

Also the problem with sharing hacks is that it took me so long to do some of these hacks (not easy with a spaghetti code) and it would be unfair to me to distribute them.

I can always give small ideas about what to do and stuff like that though. But 1 mod took 2-3 weeks to do, would it be fair that someone else does it in 1 min?

I'm presently trying to implement a 'preview message' feature.

Next feature on my list is to add ability for Moderators to add/remove people access in forums.

Then Deb gave me some neat ideas http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

I'm afraid of one thing, with version 5.30 coming out this weekend, it will take me a lot of times to upgrade. http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif

Frederic Hutow
http://www.togrc.com

[Deb]

<thinking outloud>

I wonder if it's legal to sell the hacks?

ergo making it well noted that the UBB must be purchased from UBB folks themselves and only selling your modifications... Not sure... would be something worth asking Ted about though... maybe?
</thinking outloud>

Deb
p.s. Meikel also has a good idea up in the Server Q and A forum ... check it out

[This message has been edited by Deb (edited 03-19-99).]

[Stephen]

Unless your hacks are self-contained subroutines or independent scripts (so that it all functions in a plug-in like way) I think you'll discover that Ted is very anti to distributing UBB hacks.

Certainly he doesn't like you to make money off his program, and he's not too keen on you giving away stuff either. But if you keep your code completely separate from his (which is NOT what I've done) I believe you can do with it whatever you like, including sell it. Of course, writing code in this plug-in fashion isn't that easy.

The rub, of course, is that if the code is mixed then your program is DERIVATIVE of the original and there are copyright laws against the distribution of derivative works.

[Charles Capps]

Moonlight: One of the hacks I've added was something reccomended by someone who shared a mail account with his family and uses Hotmail for every day. The problem that came up was my ban on freemail addresses. The solution was simple in concept - a secondary email address. The primary email would be used only for password mailing and other email notifications. Either can be viewable to the public.

Among my other hacks that you might want to consider trying are: last post, date, and URL fields, a blank for their AIM username (if available), a name for their link, a field for their picture (they can choose to have it inline or as a link), and an area for additional notes about themself. You can view a sample profile (mine) at http://solareclipse.net/Forums/cgi/ubbmisc.cgi?action=getbio&UserName=Charles+Capps
I'm in the process of adding a Supervisor feature (your Asst Admin)... http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

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"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[This message has been edited by Charles Capps (edited 03-19-99).]

[ChrisH]

Yes, I have a request, but if the code
is as bad as it sounds, it may be a little
too big. But, since you asked . . .

Perhaps I'm overlooking something, but
I wonder why the UBB doesn't actually
thread messages, like almost every
forum hack I've ever seen. Is there some
way to display things that way? I find
the "endless scroll" pretty annoying.


ch

[Charles Capps]

Chris: That defeats the entire purpose of the UBB! http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Try something like DCForums for threaded discussions with a UBB-ish feature set.

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"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Justin]

I agree - that is what sets the UBB apart from the rest of the bulletin board scripts available. I personally feel it is more organized this way. Endless scrolling? I'd rather scroll than have to click links constantly...

In fact, I never liked threaded discussion type boards. Especially a busy one - by the time you click the next link, there are more replies, etc, and if you reply to a post further up on the list, the whole thing becomes a mess.

I also like the fact that you can easily make reference to other posts in the same thread without having to repeat, and you can scroll down real quick for a reminder or whatever... all in all I love the layout. I don't think the UBB is the best as far as coding, etc, but I like it's layout.

And that would be more like a full rewrite than a hack...


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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Tech Support

[RiotHero]

Hello! I'm thinking about buying UBB. But before I commit the money, which I barely have since I put it all together for this account and advertising... I want to know if there were any other Bulletin Boards that are better, or ALMOST as good as UBB. Keyword here is CHEAP. or free. I have seen other CGI BBS's and that are horrible.

Also, is it ABSOLUTELY necissary to buy UBB? Is there a way around it? I don't want to do something that would get my into trouble..

mark

[Bi4Be]

RiotHero, I also tried finding a good substitute before I finally submitted to UBB's very powerful commands (Ted speaks to me at night, its pretty cool that he can enter rooms through mirrors and has a really erie green glow http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif).

I don't think there is any way around it, except for hacking the free ware version. (I'm sure there's people at the UBB forums to help you with that part, or just do a search on Alta Vista)

-Bi4Be

[Justin]

If you are on a Gold package or better, you might like WWWThreads. It's free, fast, hackable, etc, but it requires a MySQL Database. Other than that, I'd just go with the freeware UBB unless you really need the features of the full version (lease it, never buy it!!!)


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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support