UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback Anonymous Left/Right Column Visibility

On my board, I have two issues that make me want to make the left & right columns invisible UNTIL the user logs in -- at which point they will be visible unless otherwise specified in the user preferences. I'd like to suggest this as an option for the following reasons:

(a) Some boards, like ours, are entirely private, and it is uncomfortable for users to have their usernames (top posters and who's online), topic titles, and shout box entries visible "to the world."

(b) Blind people with screen readers have troubles with the shout box. Apparently, the screen reader gets stuck on the shout box -- which prevents them from being able to tell where to log in. After they log in, of course, their preferences can be set to hide the left and right columns, and they don't have further problems.

I patched my site to remove the left & right columns for anonymous users, but hopefully this can be an option for the next version.

It would also be nice, in the spirit of confidentiality, to be able to disable the calendar for anonymous users.

Shane

What I did to remove the calendar from anonymous is throw it in the my stuff drop down.

Here are my notes, by the way, to hide the columns:

Also, here's a link to manually disable the guest calendar access:
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/184025

Shane

Here's a beginner's question..
How do I adjust the php file?
Found it on the ftp server. Can open and adjust it, but can only save the file as a txt document?

When using notepad it will only allow you to save as a txt, what you do is save the file with extension with ""'s. So for example, if I want to create index.php I'd make "index.php" and notepad will allow it to save with the seperate extension.

It worked, thanks a lot!

I have a somewhat related question/suggestion.

Is there a way to have the the right column be displayed when a person is looking at the main list of forums, but once he clicks on a specific forum or topic the right column goes away?

Just a note : I find Google hooks up on the side island
more than the topics with in

Is there a way to have the the right column be displayed when a person is looking at the main list of forums, but once he clicks on a specific forum or topic the right column goes away?

Doubt it.

I have mine set so members can turn the right off if they wish
but my left is there always.

I have mine set the same.

Although I hate to compare Threads to Vbulletin, it is one valuable feature I've noticed with it.

Once someone has seen what's in the right column, it's kind of old. I'd rather preserve the real estate across the page for a wider view of actual posts.

With 7.3, permissions can set the shout box to be invisible to guests. It would be nice if permissions are available to control whether or not guests can view the Who's Online list and etc. Until then, the above hack still works to hide the columns from guests, but you need to put it in libs\html.inc.php

having more granularity on not only columns, but individual portal boxes is something that wouldn't be too hard to do..

also, i'd even go so far as to really allow the users to choose where they want the boxes -- per se..

you (admin) would turn on the default boxes and columns (you even force certain ones for ad revenue), but the user could have a 'portal layout' mode with the boxes they have control over and make their own look..

also, having the user choose from a set of 'user custom islands' (for lack of a better word)... and it's akin to what we do with the bbcode tags now..

the admin sets up all the tags that can be used, and users choose from a menu.. the same wouild be done for the user, where they could choose from 'ubb widgets' or whatever.. to have their daily dilbert island or stuff like that..

I also took a look at it, the work would be in creating the user menu's that allow them to select/create their custom columns. ubb-wise. Other then that, it's pretty easy.