UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback Da .02 for the new Threads...

For what it's worth, here is my .02

• The new version of UBB should have the same feature set that the 6.5 release has. Anything less would be a letdown for the people who are use to the way UBB looks and feels now.
• XML compliant script and full use of CSS.
• Every element on a page should be contained in a separate variable. As an example the $instant_ubbcode variable is a pain in the backside -no way to really move the graemlins, ubb code, and font colors to different locations on the page without creating new variables for them. UBB would be easier to "skin" if the elements on the page are seperate...
• The way that data is presented to the user of the forum needs to be selectable. As an admin I should have the ability to choose different templates for each forum, so that an article doesn't look like a forum post, which doesn't look like a blog, etc. Then people could script different templates for different uses and provide them for download at Threads Dev or here at your site.

At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging you can check out some of the things that I've mentioned at my site:

Redesigned posting pages

Article templates

Using Threads for your index page Note: That's not the IIP mod, it's a script that I wrote from the old add ons that use to come with Threads.

A post in the database is just text, so controlling the way it is presented is easy -you just change the template that you are echoing out to the client. What UBB needs is an easy way for an admin to control the way that the data is being presented -without it UBB will never be more than just a forum (unless you do a lot of hacking).

Here is what I think:

• Polls should be the style of UBB.threads. It definately beats UBB.classic's pop up window.
  
• Make a new version of the Frosted stylesheet for the new product!

Re: Feature set... No major features are being cut. There are a few sacrifices in order to enhance performance - in particular, as pages are cached, many options that won't work well with the cache have to be eliminated. The largest three are user-selectable page sizes (posts/topics per page), sortable columns on postlist, and daysprune on postlist. (Admins will choose the page size globally, and the sort order on a forum-by-forum basis. Daysprune has been eliminated entirely.)

Re: XHTML + CSS - this is certainly a goal. While the layout is still table based, almost everything is styled using CSS and a plethora of new classes.

Re: The template system is much more complicated and therefore much more powerful in the new product. For normal users (meaning those that don't give their boards entire makeovers <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />), it will still be easy to use and manage. Power users (meaning you) will find all sorts of cool things are possible that weren't before.

The problem with things getting stuck in variables that are assembled before passed to the template no longer exists because the template is responsible entirely for all output, including HTML. (No display logic in the business logic.)

There will still be certain global HTML fragments, such as the table open/close, etc. The Instant UBBCode/Graemlins block is probably not going to be an external component, as there will be one and only one post/reply/edit template instead of separate ones for each function.

Re: Because of the caching, users can not choose HTML template sets. (Well, OK, they could, but we're not going to let them in the stock code. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />) They'll be able to choose CSS skins, however. Admins will be able to select alternate HTML template sets on a forum/area basis, as in Classic.

Re: More than a forum... I think you'll enjoy the new framework... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Re: Inline Threads-style polls are being used.

Re: Stylesheets... as we haven't started on the style system, no less designed styles, I'll refrain from comment. (The development style is red, orange, and hot pink, among other colors. Dave loves it. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />)

Thanks for the comments Charles - so far nothing I have read is turning me off. Dalantech hit some big 'needs', ones I pretty much agree with, so its good to see a number of them in the implementation.

I cannot see Users losing the ability to choose posts/page, sortable columns on postlist, and daysprune to be a big deal - the vast majority of my users don't access those functions.

Has there been any external studies done with some UBB.Threads admins on what is used and what is not?

[]Has there been any external studies done with some UBB.Threads admins on what is used and what is not?[/]Not at this time. This would be interesting to see, especially under the new control panel.

Everyone and anyone should feel free to make suggestions for new features or enhancements. While the feature set is pretty much frozen, we'd love to get a larger list of things to consider after the .0 release. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

>Everyone and anyone should feel free to make suggestions for new features or enhancements.

pssst.....subforums....... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Not unless we can find a UI that isn't as potentially confusing as just sticking forum rows in a table above topics inside a forum.

Ah, that sounds quite different from "no, never" <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Seems like there is still hope.

You'll never see them with the current "industry standard" UI of sticking forums right there, on postlist. Unfortunately, the very definition of "subforum" is built around the very idea of sticking forums on postlist. That doesn't fly here. It's safe to say that "never' is about as good as it will get, as far as that's concerned.

We understand the need to represent nested ideas, but in our opinion, all of the current implementations suck. Until we can find a way to make it not suck, you won't see much that resembles subforums.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post Charles: I know you're busy with the new version and I appreciate you taking the time to clue the rest of us in!!!

I agree with Medar -you're cutting functionality that most people don't use. I like the idea of being able to control those functions globally anyway -on a busy board limiting the number of posts per page would be a good thing. Making the size of text entry boxes global (not user selectable) would help from a design standpoint and could also reduce the load on the database, since you wouldn't have to make a query to determine the user's preferences...

Combining the posting templates is GREAT news! It will make it easier for me to "rearrange the furniture" <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Pretty cool that you are moving toward total separation of PHP and HTML script -well done!!!

Being able to control what template is used for a specific forum would be excellent! I'd be able to fine tune the look of different forums for different uses...

BTW: I was updating my mod list today and realized just how easy it is now to add and remove moderators and to control what they have access to. WELL DONE!!!

I'm not sure if we're keeping or discarding the textarea size pref. We don't need to query the database to fetch random prefs anyway though. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I hate to say it, but don't get too used to the ability to control moderator permissions like you can now. The main problem is in the ability to change a single user's ability to perform moderation... it's global, over all forums that he moderates. This doesn't mesh with the new model, and that particular UI is being removed. It will be possible to achieve the same effect, but without the centralized UI.

User prefs in stored in the cookie? Hmmm...

So will you be able to assign mod rights per forum, so that on one forum a mod can edit posts but on another (s)he can't?...

Prefs and other various chunks of data are cached in the user session.

The exact UI to deal with permissions hasn't been finalized, so I can't really explain it properly. More details will be provided later on...

Is there something I can study now to prepair for the way the new version will handle the templates?

Not until you see them for yourself. There are actually a few different ways that the templates work, depending on if the page is cached or not.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Charles,

Has Infopop even considered making an asp.net forum?

Not really, no. We prefer cross-platform solutions, and despite Mono's best efforts, I don't see ASP.Net ever being offered on non-Windows servers.

(Though I'd love to dabble in the area, especially as Perl can be used in the .Net environment. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)

Ok - had to ask. It just seems like a segment thats screaming for a serious software provider.