I try and add a couple each version. We added a few last version, and we'll add a few more next version.

Haven't a clue at this point. It's a pretty big task. All new javascript libraries, scriptalicious or YUI (possibly YUI because I'm more familiar with it working on a few other things). So all the javascript related stuff will be redone, while adding new things, lightbox, WYSIWYG editor, etc.

Then there's the layout itself, moving towards more CSS control, coming up with the new skinning system, etc.

That's why we might brake it down into 2 chunks. Control Panel first, and then front end second.

Once we find out for sure which way we're going, then we'll get a better plan of attack.

This one is now in v7.4 under "portal settings"

I vote for the new UI. As I said in a previous thread, any UI redesign should be named UBB.threads 8.0. Blogs can then be added in 8.1.

I voted UI first, because of the simple fact I see no usage of blogging yet for our site.

I voted for UI as it would logical to do it right the first time, this way there will be less of a chance for bugs on the blogs

I voted for UI because I'm very skeptical about the need for blogs in UBB.

I feel if blogs are not going to give our users a compelling reason to use them over competing free blog platforms then there is no point in offering them.

They got to be at least as functional as Blogger and wordpress.com in terms of customization. We're not just talking about colors, layout, etc. Users demand the ability to add widgets to their blogs that use flash and JavaScript and unfortunately that could present a security headache for us admins. So I think there will also need to be some type of moderation or approval process so that our users could add their own js/flash widgets to the blog.

Lets start thinking about this problem and how it can be overcome. Otherwise, frankly, I don't feel its worth doing. Why would they use it? They'll just continue using Blogger, Wordpress, MySpace, and the hundreds of other free blogging platforms.

I agree completely, it'd be a major change in need of a major version update.

Oh and for note Riok, I still recommend scriptalicious over YUI; all yahoo would have to do is impliment api keys and we'd have a huge headache with forum admin's and non functioning forums until they went and signed up for a key lol...

I think IanSpence and SD concourr

Oh, and for note, I was the first vote for Blogs ... I figured, sure it may be more work, but it'd be in place to get started

If we were to use their CDN, which is an option, then I could see that being an issue. But, we'd be including the libraries with the software since they are released under a BSD license. So nobody's forum is just going to stop functioning.

In most cases it's going to be faster to reference their CDN for the framework, but we'll put in an option so it can either be grabbed from them or from the UBB install. So, even if you're using their CDN and they put in an extra hurdle to jump through, then it would just be a matter of switching to grabbing it locally.

Also, I've already done several projects with YUI and 0 with scriptalicious. So the learning curve has already been hurdled