Figured I'd make a quick post here to get everyone thinking in the same direction. For some time now I've been saying the next major upgrade will be on the admin area. I've come to realize that if I don't just do it we will never get started:). So, instead of adding things here and there I think I'll try to focus on certain areas for upgrades. Meaning, the administration of the program will be first, then maybe the external API, then maybe the "my w3t" area. I think if we concentrate on a certain area of the program, progress will be a bit smoother. So, starting in the next day or 2 will be the administration upgrade. If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see improved or added to this area now would be the time to do it.
Besides all the suggested feature improvements will soon fill this thread up with ( <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> ) I really think you should get the admin section into language files as the rest of the site. I really think it is needed.
Your strategy sounds good to me... The first thing I have, I'm afraid, is not merely a way to simplyfy the interface, it's the feature request that's been mentioned a few times, and recently on the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=questions&Number=27425&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&part=>Perl Q&A board</A>, which is the ability to move posts. But if this can't be put in yet, you know we've been discussing the inadaquate procedure to select new moderators. My idea would be to be able to type in a username (and/or a search funcion), then have a list with all categories/boards come up (like the Main Index), and have check boxes to select which board a user should become a moderator for. Maybe JavaScript could be used to check a category which then puts checkboxes in all boards in that category. I haven't seen what the current version's Admin section looks like, especially what approving posts is concerned, but I would like to have one page that lists (like search results) all the new NA posts (regardless of which board they are on, listing all that are in boards moderated by this user), then have check boxes by each post to approve them all in one simple step. Also, I still think it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a "One Click" button by unapproved posts to get them easily approved, without having to go to the Edit screen, then the Approve Confirmation, then finally the page that says it's been approved. I know some of these features are not exactly Admin section related, but Admin/Moderator duty related, so I thought maybe they can be considered. Oh, before I forget... in my 5.0.9 I tried to search for an e-mail address, but it only checks for exact match, not for partial match... e.g. looking for "hotmail" wouldn't give any results, only when the entire exact e-mail address was entered. I don't know if it still works that way in 5.1.4, but I think partial string matches should show up. Another one: I think the read/write permissions should be much easier to set, also via one page that lists all boards in a table, and with checkboxes for the permissions, for each user group. For forums with a large number of user groups, this may have to be done on a "one page per user group" basis. Well, these are the feature requests that I hope for the most. I'll be back if more come to mind.
I know I said this before, but not sure if it ever got looked at or added..
It would be nice if there was a way to make it were users could only reply to existing posts in a specific forum.
That way you can make a news forum that only admins or mods can post in, but users can still reply.. And then the addon news script can have an option to show how many replies have been made to a news update.. (slashdot style..)
2. MySQL command box (where we can execute sql commands).
-This section could have some prepared command buttons such as that optimize one, dump database (backup), etc.
3. Ability to edit email messages for:
-subscriptions
-lost passwords
-pm notify
-pm receipt
-others?
4. Search Users by IP
5. Ability to assign admins and moderators to categories (actually the whole system needs to be worked...) 6. Not in the admin section but admin and moderators functions anyway:
a) Option to edit/remove/move posts without the Edited by Webmaster on 21/11/00 02:25 PM (server time) tag.
b) When deleting a post have an option to delete all replies generated by it.
c) Edit > Delete > Confirm > to index is a long, process. How about a small delete icon next to the edit one? Mateo Byler
Again, I'll put forth my request for enhanced moderation interface. The current process requires two different passes for each board, one to allow posts. Then back to the admin screen. Into moderation again, one more pass to delete posts. I would like to see either of these: 1) A two column setup. One column for acceptance of messages, one for deletion. One single submit button will process each column in one fell swoop, requiring only one pass into the moderation setting. 2) A single column setup. Those that are checked will be allowed when submitted, those left unchecked will be deleted.
"Login as... <user>" option, for when <user> complains vociferously about something, that you can't replicate, so you can login as them and "See what they see". There was/is a hack for this floating around, so it really should just be a nobrainer to get it working. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
**My first and foremost request is that we would be able to edit the config files through the website, similar to other board packages I've seen. This is especially nice for the new installer, and can make installation seem tons less daunting. It would also be nice for changes like adding/removing stylesheets, with the optional ability to upload the sheets themselves.... 1) a single user search...right now there seems to be two of them. (I think one for show/edit user, and one for change user's groups)
2) Easier way to view/change many users' settings (tables were mentioned before, I believe)
3) Integrate phpMyAdmin or similar program for DB management
4) Removal of the Moderator related items if boards are not using true moderation
5) Ability to easily change default settings for a newly created board (ie. different default read/write groups)
6) Similarly to #5, ability to change default groups that registered users belong to (at least to add more)
7) Remove the ability to add a user to the admin/moderator groups, since they don't really do anything unless you use grant privs anyhow. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
8) Ability to change file postability of a board on a per board, or at least per category basis. I've actually wanted this for quite a while. On a different note, I really think that the forgotten password feature should undergo those offered changes I read a while back. They were well thought-out, and much needed. And not too far off from an Admin change. <P ID="edit"><FONT><EM>Edited by LoneVVolf on 12/27/00 02:22 PM.</EM></FONT>
Let me also add that I'd REALLY like to see the configuration stuff move into "non-distributed" files... e.g., cracking open a tarball of the new version doesn't overwrite configuration settings. Whether this means we move the configuration settings into the DB (and then only contain a "stub" configuration which has "DB/username/password" to get into the configuration stuff, or because the configs move somewhere else in the file-tree...
Re: Config Settings - agreed, I think it would make sense to either move them into the database (except for the DB filename and password), or into a seperate folder (.htaccess protected!), and then not include that file in the future upgrade versions (but include instructions for those that skip this particular upgrade) so that it doesn't get re-set. The way I've been handling it - unpack locally to a different folder, then compare the new and old config files with Beyond Compare... since most of this stuff never changes, this is really unnecessary to have to compare those files every time. The question about moving it into the database would be, what is easier on the server? Include a config script or do a database query? If a query would be easier, that would also help to improve the Admin interface, since it would be much easier to modify the variables when they are part of the database (database name and password excluded, of course, *doh*).
I only have two for now, but I guess they are sort of complex... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> 1) Archiving: Right now there is nothing, and I'd like to see a few options: To archive threads older than x days (as in the last post is older than that number, not the first) and a) close them and move them to a 'archive' board for each board, or one for each category, or one for the entire forum, b) remove those threads from the forum and store them somewhere in the admin section, either in message form or plain text flat display form, c) close them and mark them with an archive image, or something. Basically I think the best method would be to have archive sections by forum/category/board (admin configurable) where all archived threads would be closed and moved to. Searching of the archives would be easiest if done through the current search, but with one new category for archives, not one for each board/category archive, if configured to have such by the admin. Also, maybe a 'restore archived thread' option? 2) Upgrade forum stats section. It doesn't do too well now, and I really don't know how it works. It would be nice to get a stat report like.... Total users
Total users registered in past 30 days
Average # of users registered per month
Average Posts per user for above categories
Total forum posts
Total posts past 30 days
Average posts per month
Per category/board stats for above 3
Average posts per day of week Anything to add? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
As a small followup on this I will be working on the PERL version first, and then porting the new admin features/updates to the PHP version. So, you can keep your eye on the <a target="_blank" href=http://www.wwwthreads.com/changes.html>PERL changelog</a> to see what's being added.
One idea that came up a bit was moving w3t(themes|vars) actually INTO the db itself. (with updatetables presumably adding default values for new config options, when new options are added).
Is this something you've decided to do? Just curious, because it sounds killer. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
That's something I thought about originally but the main reason I decided against it is to keep the number of SQL queries to a minimum. Moving this into the db would require one more SQL query for every script that is being run and since there are more DB applications being used on hosted servers more of the hosting companies are frowning on apps with too many DB queries.
What about making it an option somehow? If you can move the configurations to the DB, then the migration from PHP<->Perl and vice-versa is simplified, because there's no configuration stuff to change.
Even if you have a set of routines:
create_config_table: moves w3t(vars|themes).pm into a db create_config_file: creates w3t(vars|themes).pm from what is in the db
and then have the update_tables routines also create (if the db table exists) the new fields.
Then you can store the config in the DB, and when you upgrade, you can simply do:
create_config_file
and poof, the configuration files are created for you, without having anything get overwritten, etc in the change.
Plus, the ability to at least give the admin an option would be very spiffy. I mean, have a routine either "select *" to populate %config/%theme, or having a routine read the data in from w3t(themes|vars).pm is a nice abstraction and allows the greatest flexibility. Those who own the boxes and don't answer to anyone for SQL calls, can "go for the gusto", but if you're pressed for sql action, you can leave it in the files and go that route. Especially given that PHP has much better SQL performance, the PHP folk will especially appreciate the option. Further, it allows a "mysqldump <dbname>" to ensure that not only is all the data preserved, but also all the configuration settings.
I understand the issues with not wanting to FORCE people to use the DB for configs, but allowing the option is definitely something we should still do.
Don't know if this has been mentioned but I'd love the ability to move a message FROM a thread to place elsewhere. Sometimes someone will go way off topic yet still have something relevant to say and it would be great to be able to move that out of the topic thread to a new location.
There is a posting in the General Questions area I believe asking about copying and/or moving threads to other "boards" I think this would be a very helpful feature as I plan to run FAQ and Tech support for each of my products and for the website, I can see some questions that will be the same so I want to be able to copy them into each Catagory Thread...
Wow, this has been a really great dialog of suggestions. I will try to be brief and clear....yeah, right! Thanks for the chance to contribute. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
Thanks to Gerrit and others who agree with my query about copy, split, move threads. May be too complicated though. There are probably some very useful variables that could be worked in too.
I don't agree on cutting back the steps to delete posts. You must have a safety net for the 2AM last minute Admin screw ups....and a confirmation is nice for Admin confidence - if it wasn't there we'd be asking for it. But it needs reworking....
1) Option to set w3t to open a seperate window for *Reply to* instead of simply showing the post of the person you're responding to. I rightclick and open a new window to allow me to read the various posts on a thread while I write replies to several members in one swoop.
The window should close and return the user back to the thread either after the post is sent or after the preview and post is completed. Admin could set a default on or off and users could set this feature in their profile.
2) MTO - the MySQL command box for Optimize and Dump is killer! This is a real pain for beginners like me.
3) MTO - edit email messages: an easy way to upload autoresponder email messages that can be controlled from a single page in Admin.
4) Something like what Joseph built for (minor) altering of Config files would be nice, it works well and is friendly, but with even more options.....especially for uploading and recognizing new or altered/renamed CSS files!
5) The "No Overwrite upgrade" is really a priority. The *problems* I hear others refer to with upgrading, and it's affect on config and hacks makes me hesitate to set up Eileen or Gerrit hacks...or upgrade to 5.1.4...simply because I'm not savvy enough to work through it all.
Dredd has the right idea - excellent! - Would it be possible to write a script that copies a set of files from a "Owner Preference" file that would insure specific w3t Admin settings to remain constant within all versions/upgrades of w3t? Just a passing thought.....
6) The ability to edit header and footer on the fly via Admin would be very cool....and the ability to define a different header and footer from a common folder for each Category would be an outstanding alternative to rotator scripts and frames.
7) Muhammad - forum stats - yes! They should be as WebTrends-like as is possible! I would like to pull a full set of stats "on demand", not as a cron or any real load, and have as detailed a representation as I get on the server side.
* * Admin - Mod - Group - User options + Post Editing * *
Gerrit - Permissions ideas - excellent! - a real problem area.
Admin Page for setting group permissions in mass - - and - - Assigning permissions to new Mods or Mods on new boards- - Admin page has a left side list of all the forums and groups - with check boxes - Choose the group or the forum you want to set or delete permissions on -- opens a page with left list - usernames only (all) with check boxes - shows present permissions settings - check which ones have permissions, or delete, in one swoop.
Also - same sort of page - - * need email search - string match - word - and/or - * need username search - - very time consuming and repetitive....I must search the userbase, *copy* the cryptic name, *paste* it in the search box we use now....?
Whew! I'm exhasted! Thanks for letting me vent that.... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> ...hope this is useful.....Bobby
" Life is hard, but it's harder when you're stupid ! "
WooHoo! ....or since I'm from Texas, let's say....YeeHaaa! I just hit *Journeyman*....so why do I feel so ignorant? *no replies neccessary*
On a non-Admin request that is very important.....I'm gonna bitch a little....could we get the *post* window preset to be about ten times bigger....maybe on one side, or the other, of the *Reply to* form box? Like maybe put everything but the post window on the opposite side? Trying to read my posts....er, essays.....er, novellettes....is tough with a dinky little post window! Man, I can't even see three sentences. And if, by some wierd chance, I should need to snip and paste an edit on a post, it's very tiresome to read and work with. Heaven help you if you need to write a second paragraph!
I'm working on dual 19" monitors and I'm typing in a 1" window? This is crazy....or is it just me?
" Life is hard, but it's harder when you're stupid ! "
>>could we get the *post* window preset to be about ten times bigger<< Oh, this ones easy: Go to the 'Edit Profile' link at the top of the page. Click on 'Edit Display Preferences', then scroll down near the bottom of the page to the 'TextArea columns?' and 'TextArea rows?'
settings boxes, and set these to 60 and 20 respectively. This'll open the message form box up considerably. If it's still not big enough for you just play around with the numbers 'till you hit the right combo.
This might be something I can do in a future version, but right now I just want to concentrate on upgrading the admin area itself. However, the good news is this. WIth the new online editor of the w3ttheme.pm and w3tvars.pm files I will not have to distribute these 2 files with the upgrade package. Basically when upgrading you will be able to keep your current w3tvars and w3ttheme files and then go to the admin area for editing them. Any new options added will be color coded with the .standouttext stylesheet class so you will be able to keep your old settings.
Thanks, I figured that was what those were for...but never could find any kind of info/help/how-to or other documentation....or maybe I jusy couldn't figure out exactly what question to ask to search for the info here.
That brings me back to a discussion SixPack and I had on this. I apologize to Rick for bringing this up because I'm sure this is a major PITA, but it's a fact of life for programmers. I'm stupid....I'm smart enough to know I'm stupid....I don't mind admitting it....I depend on Rick to think for me and build what I am not capable of building....but, it's not fair to just dump a new owner of a W3T forum into a pile of Perl scripts without good docs and how-tos.
This should be the number one priority of all the ADMIN alterations!
Documentation for the Admin....on the Admin pages
The problem with searching on this website for info...since there is almost no doc or help bundled with the distribution... about how-to and set-up and mods is that you have to know what it is you're looking for....you have to know WHAT to ask to find out what you don't know.
Little things can be awful for a new user to have to guess at. Many of us are not Perl literate and are not confident to "play around" within the scripts and files Rick has so masterfully authored. That's why we buy this stuff rather than write it ourselves....well, duh!.....so, we depend on really simple-minded docs, how-tos, helpfiles.
** ** I'd like to have a explanation page with how-to help, linked to every Admin page as part of the distro bundle. ** **
There should be detailed explanations of what each setting is for, how it works, what the possible settings variables are, why, samples, FAQs on every dinky thing. What stops most wannabe forum owners from using W3T is the lack of documentation and help files. It's just too confusing for a novice webmaster.
If our site wants to grant someone Admin priviledges, we have to be sure they are able to figure out how to work with W3T on their own....blind...no docs or help....or I'm going to have to write my own instruction guide for them.
Do you really want someone with my knowledge writing the help files and how-tos for the W3T software? I don't think so.....
" Life is hard, but it's harder when you're stupid ! "
The docs are in the works. Sixpack69 has been working on these <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/support>here</A>. More docs will come. Eventually you will be able to get help for every setting in the new online editor of the vars and theme file.
On a related note... can the editor "note" when there are things it DOESN'T know about in w3t(vars|theme) and include those in a free-form area. (e.g., if someone has hacks which include variables added to vars or themes, it would be good if the config editor "saw those" but knew it didn't know what to do with them, and put them in a TEXTAREA or something at the end.
Hmm, that might be possible. I'd have to figure out how to check if there were any leftover keys in the %config and %theme hashes and throw them into the text box. I'll see what I can come up with.
Thanks Scream. I've been watching the progress. All of us "unskilled workers" are thankful for the effort you guys are making in our behalf. Sorry if I sound like I'm bitchin' sometimes. I really do have a sincere respect for your work here. Now I'll get back to my work....thanks....Bobby.
BTW - I just read the changelog for the past two days. I want to personally thank you for the work you're doing. It is amazing to find a software developer like yourself and I would have to say that I now understand the reasons why others here praise your work so much. Thanks....BB.
how about the basic stuff like radio buttons to determine wha tappears on the nav bar (eg. show user list?) and also fill-in-the-fields for the contact info on bottom of navigation, and also to change the page title etc....
also, ability to change welcome message and default views for all new users....
Has this been mentioned yet? I didn't see it: How about the option to send email to not all users, but to specific user groups, or moderators? There would be some very good instances where this would come in much more handy than the "to all users".
I'll definitely second this one. Forgot about it earlier. I would love to be able to send emails to all members of a user group, at a minimum, if not the full ability to create mailing lists....
Another question. What language strings should be available for online editing? I don't just want to make the files available for online editing because that would still be somewhat confusing because it might still be hard to find the exact string you are looking for. So I'd like to make certain strings that everybody likes to change available for online editing.
------------------- Scream WWWThreads Developer<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Scream on 01/02/01 01:03 PM (server time).</EM></FONT>
Eileen, How do I use that tweak? I'm not sure what to do with that... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> maybe I'm just tired... but this puzzles me...
Gerrit, all will be revealed <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=questions&Number=24273&page=&view=&sb=&vc=1>http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=questions&Number=242 73&page=&view=&sb=&vc=1</A>
Hi Darren, Thanks for clearing that up! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> However, this tweak then is not much good for what I need done, well, I guess I could hack it to do that, shouldn't be so hard to add a select field for e.g. user groups and then run that through a WHERE attribute in the query. Next time I need this I'll just do that <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> ...
That's right. What you do is grab U_Groups as well. I have some code in showusers which marks if someone is a member of a certain group (custom group set up which has the group #5) and display an icon next to their name. (If you have more than 10 groups the following code might grab group 15 also?) my $Group5; if ($Groups =~/5/) { $Group5 = "<img src=\"$config{'images'}/Group5.gif\" border=0 alt=\"Group5 member\">"; }
You could use a similar thing possibly, WHERE U_Group =~/5/ ???
Have been through this recently myself so fresh in mind:
Welcome private message from Admin to new members
Welcome email from Admin to new members containing password
Private message notification email
Reply to post notification email
Temp password email to member who has forgotten password
Also I must say I was quite surprised (and embarrassed) by the curtness of the automatic private message sent to admin-created Administrators (and possibly moderators). Just stopped short of saying: now you're an admin behave yourself or your cajones will be on the chopping board. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Embarrassed]" src="images/icons/blush.gif" /> Usually you won't admin someone unless you know them, I don't think that message is appropriate (nor are we made aware it would be sent that I know of).
Darren. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bullpen.com.au>http://www.bullpen.com.au</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dbridges on 01/02/01 10:19 PM (server time).</EM></FONT>
Please see <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=china&Number=27891&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5>this thread</A> for another feature request to be considered!
better stats ... there are 5 posts today, 4 posts yesterday, 25 people replied to messages, 4 people registered today, 9 people logged in today, 23 pms were sent, the most used stylesheet is desert. that would go well. how about on category sort order, instead of it being by alphabetical order list it by how it shows on your board also. and maybe all the other board listings too.
I'm using WWWThreads also for a closed group and would like to see a script to add users with password to the database instead of having to do it myself. In this case it would also be nice to have a switch in the login to turn off the automatic user registration. Hubert
Please see<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wwwthreads.com/perl/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=wishlist&Number=28899&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&part=> this thread</A> for suggested admin additions:
Okay, here are the things I would like to see added and/or modified in the Administration Panel. Some of these I find are critical updates and others superficial. I’ll indicate which item is which as I go. To begin with, it is important that people understand where I am coming from when I make these suggestions as a few may not apply to the way in which everyone runs their forums. The forums we operate are massive – we have over 230 forums, multiple administrators and a great many moderators. The goal is to have one moderator per form, so you can imagine how many we have at present. So some of these ideas are being offered with this type of environment in mind.
1. Assign a Moderator – <font color=red>Critical!</font color=red> First and foremost, is the Assign a Moderator feature. The current method bombs out in both NSIE and Netscape when you have over 32,000 registered users. I believe that this has already been addressed and if so that is great. But if not, please correct this feature ASAP. I am finding it difficult to add new moderators because of this. This is also true for the Grant Admin Privs. The problem is identical for both features. I would also like to be able to assign a moderator to multiple forums using one page.
2. Edit / View Users – <font color=red>Critical</font color=red> There are a couple things I’d love to see changed here.
- Sort by Group: The option works to sort out by defined groups, but it does NOT work for listing Administrators and Moderators. Both of these options end up only listing ALL users. I really need the ability to list out our moderators and admins so that I can review them. These two lists can help us verify/confirm that only those who require it have access. As it stands, there is no way to list them out.
- Search by IP: This has been a hack from some time. We REALLY need this as a standard feature. It is extremely useful when tracking down troublemakers. Already mentioned in this thread and this forum several times.
3. Administration Group Flags – <font color=red>Critical</font color=red> I would like to see flags created for EACH administrative feature within the administration panel. These flags would act exactly as the current “group†flags now work. This would allow for me to create special configurations depending on what features our staff members need access to. In this manner, I can take a users account, grant it access to specific options within the panel as opposed to all or none.
The form might look like this: <pre>Group Title: [ GroupNameFieldHere ]
Access Control: Y N Feature ( ) ( ) Ban a User/Host ( ) ( ) Unban User/IP ( ) ( ) Edit or delete a board ( ) ( ) Approve posts ( ) ( ) Expire threads ( ) ( ) Close threads ( ) ( ) Open threads ( ) ( ) Keep threads ( ) ( ) Unkeep threads ( ) ( ) Show Statistics ( ) ( ) Etc., etc., etc.
( Submit )</pre>
This level of flexibility would allow for us to use the forums in several different ways. Lets say I want to allow for the general public to request their own unique board(s) that they can then in turn operate on their own. I’d like to be able to assign that person a certain level of access that allows for them to fully manage their OWN forum, but none of the other boards in the forums.
I could create an admin/moderator group that has specific options available to it, and then assign that group ONLY to the forum or forums that they need to control. This ensures that they cannot go around abusing their authority on forums they should not have moderator access to. To take it one step further, I’d also prefer that if a person is a moderator in one forum, but not in another, that their moderator status not be shown in the forums they are not moderating (i.e. if the post a message in any forum they are not actually moderating, they are not shown as a moderator).
These moderator groups could provide a ton of flexibility and much more control for the actual Administrator.
For example:
Admin: Full Access to all commands Moderator: Ban a User/Host, Unban User/IP, Edit or delete a board, Approve posts, Expire threads, Close threads, Open threads, Keep threads, Unkeep threads, Show Statistics Custom Moderator #1: Approve posts, Expire threads, Close threads, Open threads, Keep threads, Unkeep threads Custom Moderator #2: Expire threads, Close threads
Right now, I cannot create the two custom levels. On top of this I would also like to see many of these admin panel features moved to individual forums. Giving a moderator the ability to add or remove users from a SINGLE forum as opposed to globally. Allow for a moderator to edit the groups for users for their respective forum only. I believe I read this was already being added which is awesome.
4. Split up Edit and Delete into two separate options – <font color=red>Critical</font color=red> The options to Edit/Delete Forums and Categories should be split into separate options. I might wish to allow certain individuals to alter (edit) forum and categories but at the same time I might not wish to provide the ability to delete them. Providing the ability to delete boards and categories is a very serious risk. All it takes is one disgruntled staff member (and we have tons of staff) and we could instantly lose our forums. Note: I know that only admins right now can use the delete option, but we have nearly a dozen admins. So Item #3 above applies here.
5. Ban User by Forum and/or Category – <font color=yellow>Medium Priority</font color=yellow> One feature we have been wanting to see added is an option to Ban a user from a specific forum or better yet an entire category, yet allow them to access the rest of the forums freely.
6. Show Statistics – <font color=yellow>Medium Priority</font color=yellow> This feature has not worked for our system for as long as I can possibly remember. When I click on this option, it starts to generate the statistics but it is never able to complete. I would just as soon remove this option altogether from the panel and perhaps create a new Statistics Panel that is available ONLY to Administrators. On this special panel, provide different statistical options. Break the options down into more bite size pieces: By Forum, By Category, ALL. In this way we can generate reports on certain forums rather than having to try and generate a report for 230+ forums that never completes and only serves to bog down the forums.
It would be nice if we have a special reports menu that allows the Administrator to generate reports. I would like to be able to generate a list of forums (just the forum names) based on groups. In other words, list all forums that have a specific group assigned to it.
7. Moderator Added/Removed/Revoked Messages – <font color=yellow>Medium Priority</font color=yellow> Another thing I hate is the automated PM notification that goes out to ALL moderators and admins whenever a moderator is added/removed/revoked. I believe we should have control over who actually receives such notifications. An option to toggle then on or off woul dbe nice in the panel too.
8. Board Write Groups – <font color=green>Low Priority</font color=green> I would like to all new boards default access set to “Users†ONLY. Right now the default write options are for both “Guests†and “Usersâ€Â. Our forums require registration. It becomes a major hassle to have to go in each time you create a new forum to have to disable the write rights for Guest users. Sometimes I forget to do this and people start posting anonymously. Maybe even a panel option to set the default groups for both Read/Write so that all new boards created will be assigned those default group flags.
9. Online Edit Forms – <font color=green>Low Priority</font color=green> I would like to see an ability to use an online editor within the Admin Panel to edit the following items:
[ ] The FAQ [ ] The Welcome Letter sent out to new users. [ ] The Banned Messages [ ] The Password Request Letter [ ] Headers/Footers
10. Assign Mods/Admins (or other hehe… see #3) to specific Categories – <font color=green>Low Priority</font color=green> I think MTO mentioned this already, but this would be a REAL time saver. It would also add one level of depth to the moderator coverage we are able to provide. We could then assign zones for the moderator(s) (i.e. categories). I love this idea. He mention the system needs to be reworked and I totally agree (see #3 above). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
11. MySQL Features such as Archive and Optimize – <font color=green>Low Priority</font color=green> This too was mentioned, a couple of times and I wanted to mention that I fully support this idea. It would be very useful.
<font color=blue>These have all been admin panel specific, but I’d like to really put in a strong request for the following other features as well. Most of these have already been suggested in the past:</font color=blue>
1. Match Button Sets w/ Stylesheets – <font color=red>Critical</font color=red> Allow for button sets to be selected/assign by stylesheet. In this way, when a user selects a new stylesheet, the button set associated with that stylesheet is also select automatically so that they match. Right now it’s a pain making stylesheets when the default buttons look terrible with the various color schemes. This is a very high priority as far as I am concerned.
2. Rules of Conduct Agreement – <font color=red>Critical</font color=red> Add a License Agreement/End-User Agreement document to the “Registration page†that a user much click “I Agree†before proceeding with his or her registration like the UBB does. This is the best way to ensure that the user has at the very least figured out you have rules in your forums. Just put the document in a scrolling window that they can read or ignore, but they still much either check a box that says they agree, or click a button stating the fact.
3. More Default Markup Tags – <font color=yellow>Medium</font color=yellow> There have been hacks galore, but it is a pain having to re-add these mark-up tags with each upgrade. Rick, can you please add the following mark-up:
[ ] [ CENTER ] text [ /CENTER ] – Centers Text between the tags [ ] [ SPOILER ] text [ /SPOILER ] – Matches the text to the BG.
4. Mark All read – <font color=yellow>Medium</font color=yellow> It would be cool to have an option to mark all messages read by forum or all forums.
5. Make DateSlip a User Option – <font color=yellow>Medium</font color=yellow> Take the onus off of the Admin by allow users to individually select whether or not they wish to use the Dateslip option. This has been a pain in my side since we started using the software. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
6. Tell a friend – <font color=yellow>Medium</font color=yellow> I have installed the “tell a friend†hack and this would make an excellent addition to the script.
7. Access Request Form – <font color=green>Low Priority</font color=green> I would love to see an option added to individual boards that allows an admin/moderator to toggle whether or not a “private†forum is visible or not to those who do not have access to it. By this, I mean that the name of the forum can be seen, but NOT the contents. Let me elaborate a bit… Lets say you have a number of private forums (boards). You expect that a number of people will be registering in the forums and they will require access to be granted to some of these private forums. I would like to allow the users to be able to see a list of private forums (assuming the toggle is set to allow the forum to be seen on this list) and then the user can click on the forum in question to submit a form requesting access.
This form adds the person’s name to a queue that a moderator or admin for that forum can view online. The list might look like this:
“The following users are requesting access to this forum:â€Â
If the person is approved, the moderator simply checks accept and clicks on the submit button and they are granted the group flag for that private forum. A PM is sent to the user notifying that they have been accepted. This would help to automate a lot of the work for admins. The Access Request Forum could be setup by the moderator or admin for the forum and when the form is initially setup, the read/write options for the forum are preset. This way you remove some of the legwork. You never know when the users are going to show up and register and this way they can simple check the list of private forums, click on the one they need and then simply await approval. This would be a HUGE time saver – especially when you’re dealing with hundreds of private forums with literally thousands of users trying to access their own private forum.
That is all I have for now. It’s been a long day. I really hope you consider the options and that I have been able to spell them out clearly. If there is anything anyone does not understand above, please let me know and I’ll try to rephrase it. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
Hi..I maintain a frames and no/frames version of our site, and would love to not only be able to edit the header.include and footer.include from the admin area, but would also love a feature whereby one header and footer would be loaded for the wwwthreads mainindex if it was referred by a no-frames page, and another header and footer would be loaded for the wwwthreads mainindex if referred by a page from within a frame. Make sense?
Jhariden - Are you alright? You sure you don't want to rest a few minutes? { <img border="0" title="" alt="[Embarrassed]" src="images/icons/blush.gif" /> )
I don't know how you did it, but you managed to touch on so many points I've had to deal with in the past month or so, I can't begin to thank you....and I hope Rick will seriously study your comments.
Just an FYI - We are building an arrangement of what will be over 100 public forums for offroad clubs in Texas, including 4WD, Jeep, ATV, dirtbike, motosports, race tracks, etc....and we will be offering each of those private boards for officers, committees, teams, events, etc.....in 45 days we have 5 Admin, 14 webmasters, 16 Mods, and 270+ users and it's growing like wildfire. You're thoughts and comments are exactly the things our people are asking and we Admins are asking ourselves.
I won't go into great details in response to your points, but almost all are incredibly accurate accounts of our personal emails between ourselves and I would love to see them all implemented. The attention to details you have given is commendable and I applaud the effort you gave this posting.
The multiple and editable setting of levels of Mod priviledge and user priviledges is critical. We would like to have many Mod levels and editing user profiles and priviledges is a major time consuming and monotenous ordeal when selecting who can do what on 50 forums one by one by one. The Mods need to be able to move about and users can tell if that Mod works here on this forum or not.
After a session of alterations to Mods and users and forums, I and my staff are left with the task of eliminating dozens of PM notices....and some of these people I would prefer didn't know my business in such detail...who I have given what to and where. The ability to archive as well is critical. I'm a saver of records and emails or PMs are records....in one month I have hundreds from all over and no way to dump them.
This post by Jhariden has really been an eye opener for me. Thanks for pointing out things we have struggled with this month, but could not put into words. Excellent post my man.....it's alot for Rick to address each issue, much less find solutions for! There's alot of good that can be done here. This is what W3T is famous for though. I don't doubt we will see these things on a release in the near future. Thanks to all of you for the work you do here.
- Bobby - <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.TexasOffroad.net>http://www.TexasOffroad.net</A>
The changes i would like to see in the Admin section:
Moveing posts The most important one for me. I would like to be able to move posts to another board and moveing posts to another thread as replys. I have a hack of email input on my board. The board has it's own e-mail address in the server and all incoming e-mails are sorted by operators on subject line and then submitted to the database. The operator looks like this: (boardname 3485) subject. The number is for parent post if the e-mail is reply, every parent post gets a number. The hack for numbering subject lines is not ready jet so the moderators are doing it manually now. This thing gets quite tricky when user doesn't put correct operator on the subject line, moveing posts to the right place is a headache now.
Custom rights for moderators I would like to be able to assign custom rights for every moderator. After i choose a user there should be a list of forums and a list of available rights displayed with checkboxes beside every choice.
Allso a lot of other administration jobs are quite clumsy.
I hope you understood my point, English is not my first language.
Hi there Roofdog! Hehe… Thanks for the positive feedback. After typing up that post I had to sit down, it was bad enough I have a cold and I was tired! I was having trouble thinking clearly and I was afraid my post might come out like gibberish. I knew I forgot something last night. This was a big one too…
Option to Change Username I have received numerous requests in the past from people who decide they would like to change their username to something new. It happens several times a week lately. My response has always been, I am sorry but I do not have that option available to me at this time. I realize I could do it through MySQL, but I’ve never been very MySQL savvy and while I can create databases, and adjust user rights to a degree, I never felt comfortable enough to consider doing name changes regularly through MySQL. If we had that option in the forum software, that would be AWESOME.
Search for users by User Title -- Our users are allowed custom titles. It would be nice to be able to search (without doing a MySQL prompt) to make sure someone's request isn't already in use. I'd imagine this could also be useful for those using the standard (or similar) ranking system.
Search for users by IP -- Easily identify users using multiple usernames
Ability to move individual posts -- Either to a different board or within the same board, to make it either its own new thread or a reply to a different thread. Should also be an option to make all replies to the post in question follow along, or not.
More buttons on posts for quicker editing -- That is, posts should have buttons to "Reply," "Edit," "Delete," and "Approve" (when applicable).
Expire thread button available when editing a post
Listing of unapproved posts in Admin panel with checkboxes for approval or deletion -- I think this may have already been added?
Show Statistics -- Beef it up, such as:
Total # of users Total users registered in past 30 days Average # of users registered per week Total # of posts in each forum Total # of posts in past 30 days Average # of posts per week Average # of posts per day of week # posts today # new users today # PMs sent today # PMs sent last 30 days Average # PMs sent per week
Ability to edit email messages --
- Forgotten passwords - PM notification - Reply notification - New users (Welcome email and Welcome PM)
Custom rights for moderators
Optons for how to treat new users -- Such as options to:
-- Do nothing (treat them as normal) -- Require approval before user is officially registered -- Require post approval for first X (admin decides how many) posts -- Ability to exclude a certain board(s) from this requirement, so that if you have a Test Board, they can post there without approval -- Only X (admin decides how many) posts allowed in first day or week of posting. Time period should begin from the first post they make, not from when they register or even first log in. Some trolls don't jump right in.
<font color=blue>HACKS THAT SHOULD BE ADDED IN</font color=blue>
I'm using all of these, but it would be nice to see them in the main distribution...
Option to edit a post without "Edited by Admin...." being added. -- Should be configurable whether only admins get the option, or whether moderators should also be given a choice.</b>
"Login as user" option when viewing user profile
Option to notify admin (by email) of new user registration
Ability to change usernames when editing a user's profile
<font color=blue>ADMIN BUGS</font color=blue>
-- If you go to "Delete Old Messages" and accidentally leave the "Number of days" field blank, then hit Submit, all PMs will be deleted. Found this out the hard way. My users nearly lynched me.
-- I'm guessing that the above might also happen with "Delete Inactive Users," but I'm not about to test it and find out.
-- One of my moderators clicked in "Unban Hostname" in his browser History, and the system attempted to unban a "blank" user. That is, all the moderators got a notification that " " had been unbanned.
-- In other words, it looks like most or all of these types of admin options don't check to make sure that there's a variable filled in. They really should.
His specific list of reports is EXACTLY what I would hope to see down the road. Nice list there.
I'd like to add two similar items:
An option to toggle a User as a special guest or not... In our forums we have a great many user accounts that represent game companies and other professionals. In the past simply editing their title and changing their name color was enough. I think there should be a checkbox option in the user profile that marks the user as “Special Guest†or “VIP†if you will. The titles and colors could still be edited manually. The primary reason for this option goes hand-in-hand with my next suggestion.
An option to RESET ALL titles in the database This option would take and reset ALL account titles. It would be used to verify the number of posts the users have made, then give them the title appropriate for that post count. This option would allow the script to go through each and every account, reset the title to the proper title. The only accounts exempt from this reset would be accounts that have been tagged as “VIPâ€Â. Thus preserving their special titles.
This feature is critical for sites that decide to change the titles used on their forums. Lets say you change them all around completely, the way the system works now, your users are STUCK with the old titles until they reach that next plateau in the titles file (i.e. 1000 posts). This system would allow for changes to the title system whether by adding a few titles or changing them altogether. At the same time, the new “VIP†option would preserve those you never wish to see changed.
I currently have a great need for this type of system on our forums and I totally forgot to include it in my previous posts.
>>I’d also prefer that if a person is a moderator in one forum, but not in another, that their moderator status not be shown in the forums they are not moderating (i.e. if the post a message in any forum they are not actually moderating, they are not shown as a moderator).<<
I like this idea very much but they *are* special people so there should also be some some of flagging for that. Could we in some way show "I'm a moderator but not of this board"?
Hi-- Could we also please have the ability to change the name of the person who posted a message after the message has been posted? For instance, a registered user comes and for whatever reason does not login but leaves a message. Later it would be helpful for other users to know that jsmith, unregistered is the same as jsmith, usertitle. Or, maybe they become a registered user, but their post is so good, they want to make sure people can view their user info when reading that post.
Our installation is still in progress, but what we will need is statistics far better than there is now. I need statistics on the following: - # of different users on the system/day - # of different users on different boards/day/month... - # number of people writing messages to a board - # number of messages sent/day/month/year/board - # number of messages read/day/month/year/board etc.....
The ability to delete all posts from "joeblow" user... so that we do not have to "View all users Posts" and delete them one by one, and joeblow has 300 posts and now my day is wasted.
Let me touch on a couple of these for now. Assigning a moderator and granting admin privileges has been addressed and fixed.
Editing/viewing users. I have not been able to find any problems when trying to only display admins or moderators. Can someone else check and see if this is functioning properly on their forums?
Search by IP. Do you want this to search on where they registered from or on posts made by this IP?
Quite a long list, and lots of other suggestions from other users so I'll try to address them as I am going through the admin upgrade. I appreciate all the suggestions from you and from everyone else.
I got another for those of use who use the Group Forums Access only then I would like to have users (as i do a direct link on my site to these pages) to be forced to a login user before the get to the forum... as soon as they enter the forum setting...
ie I have a product technical support that I want only valid users to get access to so I put a user group read write only.... I want to have the user be forced to login as soon as he clicks on the technical support link in my webpage...)
As for the IP Search, the anbswer is "Yes". Hehe... BOTH would be good. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
Also, I just verified and I must apologize, that problem searching by group for admin and moderator is in the PHP version (5.1.5). I just confirmed that it is indeed working on the Perl version. But not in PHP.
Sorry if any of these have been mentioned, but then I guess the more people that mention one specific thing, the higher it will be on your list <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
1). Allow for indivdual messages to be moved from one board/forum to another, rather than the entire thread.
2). Allow targets to be set when adding a URL (ie. {url=http://some.com&target=whatever}This is a link with a target{/url} - { } replaces [ ]... )
3). Allow for messages with replies to be deleted.
2) sending email to different groups (not the whole board)
Gerrit and Phoenix helped put these together on the Perl version... sure would like to get them for the Php version.
3) Would also like to have a way of customizing a directory of all members by groups (restricted to member of group). This would allow members of certain groups access to their group only.
4) Also, the members of my main board will be participating in online courses and I need a way to set individual members cookies to expire. I sure hope there is way to do this. The board is a closed board and the new member is set up by the admin. If the admin could set the individuals access to the board to expire at a certain date, this would be tremendous!
5) It would also be nice if the admin could assign the username and password in the admin area. I do this now, but I have to move the code to the admin area.
Rick,
Thanks for asking for the admin suggestions. I really appreciate the support and the tremendous ongoing product development.
Hi-- Agree that admins should be able to set up usernames and assign passwords in the admin area. Also, we should be able to change a user's username, including an Admin. Finally, someone else suggested in another thread that Admins should be able to post in html even if the board disallows html. That would be very useful for me.
I would like to see the following enhancements: a: allow moderators to move threads to forums they don't moderate (with an option to keep the existing thread where it is but close it) so the poster and people who replied will know what happened to the thread. This should be implemented both in the admin/moderate backend as well as the moderator's -edit- function. b: better board / section read/write setting administration, meaning a system that requires fewer clicks to get the job done. c: the ability to allow file attachments to different forums, rather than allowing / disallowing them globally on the board. I would not allow file attachments for my users, but in a private moderator's corner it would be helpful if i could use file attachments.
I was finally able to get the ability to move individual posts, or branches of a thread. The code I wrote to delete all posts from a certain user came in handy for this, so this will be an option in the next release. When editing a message, if it isn't the main post for the thread you will get a button for moving that individual post and it's replies to their own thread.
Wonderful! Great! *VBS* <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> Is there a chance to get a "preview" version of this feature to beta test it?
Rick, What I've noticed since running wwwthreads for about a month now, with over 35,000 posts. Is that the forum count takes a really long time with that amount. What I'd like to see is some kind of archive function, that will allow me to move posts that is x amount of days old into this archive, let us have the archive on the first page. Without the "new" checking. I do not want to delete any posts, I want to archive them...
For the problem of Mods moving stuff to formums they don't moderate, I came up with the idea of having a hidden "Holding Tank" board that all Moderators are made moderators of. They can just move stuff out of their boards into the "Tank" and whoever wants it can pick it up and move it into their own boards.
Hey, that is a solution that anyone can have, I already implemented that (without the need of any hacking) a few months back, called it something like "Recycle Bin", only visible to moderators, just have to make every moderator a moderator of that "Recycle Bin" board as well. This is where questionable stuff could be moved to, for Admin review. That's what I had used it for. But this way it could easily be used for what Eileen just suggested. However, it would be nice if W3T could be set up be default to have this "Recycle Bin" and automatically have all moderators fully authorized for this board.
Hehe, great minds think alike! I originally called it the 'Sin Bin' until I realised we could use it as a half-way-house as well. I'd love it to be standard.
Hmm sounds too me that the Recycling bin might be a bit cumbersome? It would take 2 mods to take action before the thread could be moved to the appropriate forum. It also doesn't solve the other wish on the list <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> when moving a thread it would be nice to have the option to keep a closed version of the thread in the original location with a note that it has been moved to x forum for x reason. That way the users won't be confused about what happend to the thread.
Allow me to drop off topic a moment, folks, but I believe this may be the most important thread ever discussed on a forum in the history of the web. I am convinced that the work Rick has done with the W3T distribution is by far the most completely Admin satisfying experience a forum webmaster can have...mostly due to the incredible community of users gathered here on this forum....building a better base for our own forums to grow on. The teams that form here, and the collaborations I've witnessed, generate moments of genuis....IMHO. I am in awe of it all. This is what the web should be....and I am proud to simply be a tiny part of it.
Cheers to all of you who take the time to monitor and submit your thoughts and suggestions. The ideas these dialogs has created for me, and the ideas that followed those moments, are what makes this the finest group of forum masters on the web. Now, it is up to Rick to work all of these inspired thoughts into a usable package. Who would have known what dialog would follow his simple "heads-up" during the Christmas season? Poor Rick got slammed by those who admire him in the hope that he will provide us with more of his talents!
***** ***** *****
Another Suggestion? - a stronger dynamic News.pl
Maybe this has been addressed, but the ability to easily designate precisely which forums or categories of forums to assign to a series of SSI calls onto a frontpage would be awesome. For forums like ours, with over 50 forums in a dozen categories, this would be great. If we could select groups of forums to call up the topXX threads from (not just posts) and designate X number from this "group" and X number from that Category and so on, then as some forums become popular and others fall off, we would be able to dynamically change with the users' daily or weekly momentum and reflect that on the frontpage to attract a more diverse range of users into more forums.
***** ***** *****
Thanks to all of you here....what a month this has been, eh? Looking forward to the revisions in 2001.....Bobby.
I went through all these posts here but I didn't see an option that I think would be good.
The ability for the board to ignore the admin, in my case the owner, in the stats.
It would be nice that when I am hoping around on the board, tweaking here and tweaking there that the board would be just ignoring all my hits. Then when I read the stats I would know it's a fair approximation of actuall counts.
Just have a link or check box in the admin area saying "Ignore Admin In Stats" would be good.
Is there a summary of the changes made or being made to the Admin area?
One of our concerns with the Admin interface has been the fact that the edit functions reflect more the structure of the wwwthreads database tables architecture than the Admin functions to be performed.
For example, to create a board you have to do the following each step using a different form: 1. Create the board 2. Edit the Read groups 3. Edit the Write groups 4. Assign the Moderator
It woud be better to provide one entry form that accepts all this information, then updates the various wwwthreads tables.
Please, please, please! And to make the code change simple, if the first post is deleted in a thread - zap the entire thing. I have the notes if you want me to resend them...
