UBB

[Michael G]

I'm thinking about investing in the Ultimate Bulletin Board for my site, but I have a few questions that maybe some people here can answer.

I understand you can "lease" the UBB for one year for $67. Does it just stop working after one year or can you just not get updates after that period. How does this work?

Also, how much server resouces does the UBB use in comparison to some other forums and/or perl scripts (relatively speaking)?

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Michael L Gerenser
Web Designer
gerenser.com

[hearts]

Hey Michael...

at the bottom of this page is a link to check the disk space.

As for the leasing of the license, I would guess that you technically aren't allowed to use it after the year is up... but there are perks to leasing, as you can update as they do. (from reading previous postings here) never rush into upgrading as soon as the new release is out cuz there is always some bug(s) that need to be terminated.

Most seem fairly happy with it. I suppose you could do like many others, and hack the free version! *evil grin*

I have installed a few of these and they are fairly simple. Get Justin talking.. he could enlighten ya even more!

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hearts
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[Charles Capps]

The lease is just a contract, not a seperate copy of the program. After one year, you no longer have the right to use the UBB on your site, you need to renew the lease at whatever price it's going for at that time. Purchasing a license lets you keep the UBB pernemently, however your upgrade ability expires after one year, though that is renewable - I think the going rate for that is $25 for the next year.

In short, the more popular your UBB, the more abuse it puts on the server. It's absolute hell compared to something like the WWWBoard, as over 2/3 of it is generated on-the-fly. The script sizes are simply huge - Ted has clumped a bunch of functions into only a few files. I'm sure that Terra and Deb can elaborate a bit about this... :-)

There ARE alternatives to the UBB out there, like the WWWThreads program, which uses mod_perl and MySQL - it's lightning fast, but sorta ugly. ( http://www.wwwthreads.org )

I guess I'll announce it here... I'm also working on a UBB-clone-ish script, and I'm hoping for a release tomorrow or Friday.

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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/

*edit* ARGH!!! This is the 5th time in 3 days that someone else has beaten me to the post! *LMAO*

[This message has been edited by Charles Capps (edited 04-07-99).]

[Michael G]

You all pretty much confirmed what I had guessed. Charles, I know there are alternatives... I've tried many of them, but the UBB offers the best user interface. For me, that's like the most important thing

Anyways, hearts do you know if the freeware UBB is a dumbed-down version of the full UBB or a completely separate script. From the way you say it can be hacked, it sounds as if all the full features can be enabled.

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Michael L Gerenser
Web Designer
gerenser.com

[Charles Capps]

The freeware UBB is a totally watered down UBB - no search, no non-reged posting, no private forums, no editing, no deleting, no color alterations, no new post notification, max of 9 forums... Though you can hack it to death as much as you'd like! :-)

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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/

[hearts]

Hi again, Michael

Well, kiddo, the freeware is a basic skeleton version of the FUll-blown UBB. It is recommended that you try that out first to make sure you can install it properly.

I like their interface too, because it is so clean on the surface, but the guy who writes the script is kinda sloppy. He is redundant and all that. But for those that are visiting ya, they won't know it now will they? *grin*

If ya got the ability, the time, and the desire, get the freeware, hack it to please your needs!

[This message has been edited by hearts (edited 04-07-99).]

[kteicher]

Just to throw my 2 cents in.. you may want to look at "Big Talker" don't know much about it, but its interface is similar to UBB, it's at www.indexfinger.com

[Charles Capps]

IMHO, BigTalker should be avoided - there is no free version to make sure you can install it, and, again IMHO, the creator is not nearly as friendly as Ted... You should see some of the flack he's given some people at the UBB UBB.

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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 disagree. <edit> Not you, Charlie, you posted before I could finish Big talker is a UBB rip-off IMO </edit> I hate the freeware UBB. I hacked the crap out of my free version, adding smileys, ability to edit colors in one variable file, cussword filter, search, too many others to think of.

Sloppy coding, barely any commenting in the code, just terrible work. It looks like the HTML was made in Front Page and pasted into the UBB.

I found WWWThreads and it's awesome It has a lot of things not found in the UBB:

1 - Personal Messages

2 - Prefs and login date are saved on the server, cookie only holds user/password

3 - User can select font face and size, threaded or flat mode, # of msgs per page, etc, all stored in user prefs

4 - Supports most UBB codes, can be hacked for smiley's, etc

5 - Fast searching and operation (mod_perl and MySQL database)

6 - Many, many small files - each major task has it's own file to do the job making it run much faster

7 - Ability to re-open a closed thread

8 - Ban users or IP's

Major disadvantages:

1 - It's 100% dynamic (no HTML pages)

2 - It's butt ugly

3 - Although it's free to use/modify/distribute, it requires MySQL

Believe it or not, although you have to set it up for the database and install many files, setup is very easy. I couldn't believe it worked flawlessly on the first try It makes the tables for you, so you don't have to (just run a configure file) and the rest is done via the web.

I think the best part is the private messages. You can have a populated board, and people can chit chat with eachother without having to use email - and seeing your banners the entire time (once I hack them in, that is).

All in all, my next site (in the works now) will have WWWThreads as it's main area, although I have a lot of customizing to do. I want to make it look a lot like the UBB without it looking like a rip-off, to keep a familiar look (everyone on the web has used a UBB once or twice).

Well, that's enough rambling about my newest toy Much work to be done.

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support


[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 04-07-99).]

[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 04-07-99).]