I do not think you/your team need to "re-invent the wheel" and try to create these new features (blogs, social networks, alumni directories, trip reports etc) in UBB. You will have to keep up with new features if you do. I am hoping that you build a new back end that will facilitate PLUG-IN for easier integration. I am tried of having to update the custom software that I have around the the UBB DB. I am tired of watching other forum software seamlessly integrate with the best of the best tools. Apart from Photopost/Classifieds (which I use) there is really nothing else that integrates with UBB.
I cannot agree with you any more
I voted Blogs , But I think this is not so important.
As to integration , I think
UBBThreads as an OpenID provider is the most important of all.
No database schema changes (well , maybe some logging needed) , just some php coding can make UBBThreads become an OpenID provider.
I can build my custom webapps that utilizing UBB's identity . OpenID is growing , there will be more and more webapps that
consumes OpenID identity . I think blog function is very good , but there are myriads of OpenSource blog system out there , and they are accepting OpenID !
Wordpress has an OpenID plugin , I can setup a Wordpress environment and let my UBBThreads users to create their blogs with UBBThreads' identity (and thus preserve reputation).
Again , Blog is good ,
but , it doesn't need to be implemented by UBBThreads team!
so .... Please... OpenID ... Please.....
