I started using message boards in the mid-80s on a Commodore Vic-20 computer with a 300 baud modem. Shortly after, I started a C-Net 64 BBS. Once I made it onto the internet, I started a forum using ezBoard (whom I was later under contract with), then Ultimate Bulletin Board - and finally, vBulletin. I've been around these things for a long, long time and I'm sure a few of you will recognize my name. In fact, Allen Ayres was the reason I used UBB for as long as I did - because he basically "hacked" and turned my UBB into a vBulletin with modifications and upgrades...
I'm very anxious to see what "UBB 8" is going to be like. I was actually never a big fan of WWW Threads because I had trouble appreciating "threaded" forums. When Infopop bought WWW Threads, I saw good things coming because of the php/mysql knowledge acquired with the purchase. I think that, at least in part, created Open Topic, which was the end of Infopop for me. I tried that software and didn't like it at all - neither did any of my users. In fact, at that point, the forum I used it on pretty much died...
vBulletin is my forum of choice these days - but it's getting too complicated. I haven't seen any of the major automotive forums (that's my interest online) upgrade to vBulletin 4 - and the other types of forum administrators that HAVE upgraded are complaining about bugs - and users aren't very happy with the changes (more often than not, change is always hard on a forum).
If more people knew about MyBB - THAT would be your biggest competitor.. Not vBulletin. Fortunately for vB - nobody knows about MyBB. Invision Board is very good - but I think that's beginning to become complicated as well.
I think UBB has a great opportunity here to find itself back in the limelight. The script needs to be very clean-looking. DO NOT attempt to recreate the wheel. If it's too odd-looking (OpenTopic - and even Invision Board to some extent), people aren't going to be comfortable using it.
vBulletin created it's success based off the looks of UBB. It was and still is an excellent formula. So LOOK like UBB / vBulletin / MyBB and everything else out there - it's what people like. Design it however you like. Make it look nice. But don't change the basic formula.
Too many features are going to slow down page loading. The forum absolutely must load fast. And mobile browsing is becoming more and more important these days. Spam? Forget about it. If UBB makes a serious comeback, you'd better be prepared to deal with spam. Anti-spam features MUST be built into the software. And good ones. The ability to disallow links and images in posts until certain criterias have been met is essential. Protection against bots is also important. Integrate with akismet.com and lists of email addresses of known spammers.
In fact, you should be the first forum software that uses a joint database that forum admins build through their control panels of spammers. Once an email address is added to the database XX number of times, ALL UBB forums can have that address automatically banned from their installations.
"Click here to update your spam email address database with the joint UBB database."
Upgrades need to be simple. Conversion software must be simple. And the ability to switch a forum running SEO friendly URLs to UBB should be on the to-do list...
I'll add more thoughts later. For now, I've got to run...
Last edited by Sal Collaziano; 01/04/2010 1:14 PM.
