UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback Poll - Your top feature you want for 7.5

Besides blogs (which is already planned for 7.4), what feature would you like to see the most?

I personally would like to see public polls more than anything. Public polls would be an option for users can view who voted in the poll, without the user having to make a reply to specify who they voted for. It should be enabled and disabled at both the user and administrator level.

What feature do you want most for 7.4? single choice
	Public polls
	Thread subtitles
	WYSIWYG editor
	Nested view
	Hybrid view
	Similar threads
	Searchable userlist
	PDA skin
	Other (specify)
Votes accepted starting: 03/12/2008 8:58 PM
View Results

I would like to see a feature that would show me who is looking at a particular forum and topic.

Your wish has been granted:

https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/online.html

I'm still holding out for archival options (other than making a simple forum and shoving everything into it).

autoprune, with or without archiving.

It was a standard feature of both threads and classic, and I would *REALLY* like it back.

Lock user profiles.

I would just like to see what we have got Refined

A spelll cheker.

This is one feature I am against...

Reasons:

• It will take far too much time to maintain one, let alone many dictionaries.
• Most browsers support plugins for a spellchecker, with multilanguage support; some even come standard
• Slang, multi language slang, etc

I'd rather save development time for features which don't come standard with webbrowsers...

BTW, TinyMCE is a HUGE WYSIWYG editor, its license would support it being included in the UBB.

Amen

Agreed. Don't need the overhead when Firefox has it built in.

Besides, I like to know who can spell and who can't on my BB

The current iteration of spell check doesn't add overhead - it used a 3rd party to perform the task. Besides, most people can spell, they just can't type.

I would like to be able to add more post islands than the limited number of 10 in the 7.22.


Another great feature would be able to have more control over private messaging, making it so that when a user has 50 posts that they automatically qualify to have PM enabled.

Be able to monitor people's PM's or even search for keywords.

That's a slippery slope you'd be riding... Would you mention that in your Privacy Policy, that you can monitor all *Private* Messages??

That is a feature of 7.3. You can add them to a group when they reach a certain postcount and give that group PM permissions.

The problem we have is that we are a immigration company and other immigration company PM our user telling to use other service (like there) and and we do not know who to trust. User love the PM and sad to limit our good users.

We have not get a Privacy Policy yet I better add one ASAP any good standard ones out there?

sky news

Have to say - I'm happy with things right now.

Only thing I could wish for would be a 'self-upgrading' package.
Upload a zipfile and it takes care of itself.

- - maybe sends you an alert if there is the slightest possibility of anything going wrong

cloud tags

Ability to create most viewed & most responded to topic islands.

A view of current "hot topics" similar to what was in UBB Classic. Example:
http://forums.basspro.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=pntf

PDA and personal blogs is what I want to see

Maybe make PDA and other templates available same as the stylesheet picker at the bottom?

I am hoping for Themes eventually; would definately be nice for PDA themes that have no sidebars and minimal styling...

I'd also like the option to have no side bars once a person clicks on a specific forum or topic.

Almost forgot, integrated chat is high on my wish list.

I know we have a shout box, but whats the difference?

Almost forgot, more programmers on the UBB team to help Rick.

<snicker> IanS and SD "helping" rick this last round ended up with a ton of buglets for abandoned features when they got busy :x...

Real-time discussion... I know a site who hosts interviews with it's most popular members, really couldn't do that with the shoutbox

I think overall the contribution was welcome tho, a lot was done under the hood to move it forward. Some stuff that won't need to be done in the future now Helps to have fresh eyes looking at the code too

I *KNOW* it was welcome

I would be a lot less excited about 7.3 if it weren't for the contributions of Ian Spence and Sirdude. A lot of my personal wishlist is done for 7.3 thanks to those two. I also like what rick has added, but those are more in the line of "new big features", while Ian Spence and Sirdude did lots in finetuning and enhancing what was there. Sort of polishing the pearl. And did a great job with that.

i just got side tracked into a totally different world (asp.net, c#) and sooo the php (ubbthreads) world had to take a back seat.

at some point, i'll be back to help (if desired) on cleanup and added features.

i'll prolly be posting some 'sd mods' over @ ubbdev to get back in the saddle so to speak..

sorry for the long sabattical (sp), but m$oft work pays the bills

Your forgiven lol

Hmmmm - you're too soft Mark.
Sd should be punished for his absence

30 cracks of the whip for him!

Would be nice to include a "pm" choice when searching for members and given the drop-down of options to perform on search result.

It would be nice to rework the system to creating a poll. Now we have to know how many questions and answers we need before we create it. It would be better if we can do this interactive while creating the poll.

I agree with Zar... I can't remember how many times I've had to write out exactly what my poll will be about and how many options I'll be needing, only to have to go back and "fix" it after I have it nearly completed...

Good one i would agree.

I would love to see a Favorite Option.
Where you can Book Mark a Topic as a Favorite
so you know you can find it in the future.

Watched Topics / Forums Show too much. (Even with Filters)
If i see a post i want to use in the future let me tag
it some how, for future reference and easy to find

Good call! Gets my vote

Actually i have thought one that i have often needed when managing my forums...

Whilst you can merge/move whole topics, i'd really like the ability to create a new post/topic from part of an existing topic.

Quite often you get a topic that spawns off-topic discussions within the same topic. It would be nice to be able to hive certain posts to a new topic.

I've finished my ramble now and someone is bound to say that this already exists (i'm not running 7.3 yet :o)

You can do that now; move the parent and it's off topic children; then assign other off topic children to the post ID it's to thread off of... All from the move topic option...

how about a user Blog section similar to the photo forums.

Did anyone mention Custom Islands?
I really could do with more than 10

I believe Rick has all but said this will without a doubt be in 7.4 ...

Limit indicator on the file attachment and image upload windows:

You can attach (x) files. Max size per file = (x)K

You can upload (x) images. Max size per image = (x)K

A very simple addition I would have thought. How many times do we see text instead of images in the gallery here for example or a download link instead of an inline image because people don't know what the file size limit is?

A way to manually enter subscribers (i.e., for people who want to pay by mail). There are always going to be people who want to pay by means other than PayPal. There needs to be a way to manage these accounts in CP.

yah Mitch... i have about 700 users who need to be manually (or script) entered with expire dates too..

i'm gonna have to do a mod for this

Heres another vote for a "manual add" portion for subscriptions (checks, money order, etc).

files/gallery enhancement.

By that I mean a listing of files I have uploaded under 'My Stuff' that I can 'manage', or visitors to my profile can see what files or pictures I have uploaded (hence a user album or gallery so to speak) of course depending on the visitors permissions.

Oh yeah, and the blogs of course.

Hi - sorry for posting this earlier, not realizing that this topic was out there.

If no one minds me cheating a little bit I would like to list two features that come to mind that I would like to see added, apart from in my view the really good suggestion of adding a nifty WYSIWYG editor :

1). Allowing the admin to truncate any particular thread from any point without any kind of time limitations as to when admin can perform this process.

2). Whereby the admin has the choice to freeze one or more areas such that they are not scrolled when a user/member scrolls down the page. Areas such as header section, left and right panes/columns.

Many thanks,
Naz.

Hi Rick,

Would it be possible to add a Unregister feature to ubb.threads? Our forum is located in Belgium and there we have laws that gives a member comlete control over his own personal data.
That means that if a member requests to have his data (e-mail address, name ....) erased, we do not have to only comply, but the member is supposed to be able to do that himself.
Therefor it would be better if a member can unregister him(of her)self.
You should compare this to email mailings. If you register for such a mailing, you have to be able (by law) to unregister as well. As the sender of the mailing you are even required to provide unregister information or a unregister link within every maling you send to that person.

Mike.

Looking at the current changelog for 7.4, it looks like the searchable userlist feature has been added.

My Other is ---> Blogs

I want the Daily Digest feature back.

When do we get the improved or old search features for topics and posts?

I concur with Ruben - improved "searchable word length". One of my sites has MANY products with 3 character names that cannot be searched for. I get hell for it. Please,please fix this one!
Margaret

3 character minimum search word length can be set through control panel, but you need to configure your MySQL installation to 3 characters (my.ini:ft_min_word_len=3 , default install is 4) in order to receive results.

My most desired feature request is Search functionality. Our test 7.3.1 installation has the same Search pull-down menu (no matter which category/forum) providing a global quick search field and link to the Advanced Search form. While the Advanced Search form does get the job done if a member selects specific forums or categories. I'm requesting a feature that would give administrators the option to enforce in-category/forum search. For example: while in a specific forum or category, the search pull-down will by default perform a quick search in the current forum or category, also providing a link to the Advanced Search for all categories and forums.

Well, since the feature set of 7.4 is now locked, this poll is now for 7.5. From the poll options, we got the searchable userlist feature added to 7.4.

Still, the top feature I would like to see for 7.5 is public polls. Other features that I perhaps would like to see are a WYSIWYG editor, nested view, and thread subtitles. Similar threads may be okay, however, it isn't really a feature I use much.

WYSIWYG should be easy enough, TinyMCE (which everyone else uses) falls under the license we can use in threads; it's just a matter of retrofitting it ...

I'd like to be able to search the userlist by location or custom field too

My top feature would be still a better search engine optimization

The current SEO urls are far away from perfect; on the contrary, the current implementation cause a lot of duplicate urls. Additionally, automatically generated description and keywords tags would be nice.

Auto update utility.

Upload 2 files onto your server. hit the run file and tell it where your board is located. Have it then check your current running version then decide if it needs to update it or install it completely. After this it would unpack the proper files after closing your board and then set up everything for you.

This would be great as sometimes, even I do this, people upload it overwrite the wrong thing accidental and crash the board and then have to start over.

UBB Manual

It would be great to have a built in manual for people to find out how to use most of this stuff with either a click on something to go to a complete manual or something. Most of these features are great but if no one uses them as if they do not know how to or are afraid of new things then the features are pretty much useless.

My people in my site have to sit and take the time to make special post's on how to use all the stuff or spend most of their time assisting others in learning how to use the stuff taking away from their experiences in my communities.

In Closing

This is a great software but very complex. In some cases it is easier to setup a server and configure it then figure out how to operate some of the functions of the software as you have no reference material to go to.

Private Messages

Another good idea is to have the PM read / unread like the UBB.Classic where you didn't actually have to open the PM to see if the other party had seen it or not.

Hear here!

I am not a regular posted, but things I would like to see (they ere already mentioned so I am just adding a YES)

Rework the Poll setup and ability to change or modify if you mess up instead of having to start all over.

Limit Picture upload or display size. It really funks up a thread when someone put a picture in that is 1200 pixel wide or larger.

Val

1. Search Enhancement. Rewrite the search tool, add AJAX keywords (servers are fast enough now to handle this easily nowadays), make it less klunky. People are used to google where they don't have to enter in options like timeframe. This is the number one complaint by my users.

2. SEO. Forums are found through search engines in most cases. The better we are ranked, the more traffic we get, the more we make on advertising, the more we are willing to pay for message board software. Pretty simple.

3. Inline moderation. Make all moderation possible without a page refresh ie. deleting multiple posts. It's hard enough to get moderators and keep them happy.

4. Tags. Tagging threads can help with search, custom apps, and targeting advertising.

5. Facebook/MySpace-like profile page. The user profile page could really use some enhancement allowing users to have some customizable content, a personal blog, select photos. Possibly make a Facebook app. Again, the whole idea is to drive traffic to the forum.

I believe you guys need to start offering two products, a basic cheaper version for people who are just starting boards, and a more feature rich version for established boards that are revenue driven where people are willing to pay the extra money. If you implemented those 5 features my traffic would probably jump a good 25% and my revenue 50% and I'd be more then happy to pay you guys a couple more hundred a year.

Your ideas are where we're heading. But we'll still offer everything under 1 product

Just as a bit of insight on what we'll be doing for SEO friendly stuff. Our URLs are pretty friendly now since when friendly URLs are turned on, however there is just a lot of duplicate links in various places, most of the side content makes it pretty rough for search engines to get to the actual content itself.

We can already identify who's a search engine and who's not as long as they are in the search engine list of the control panel. So, what we'll probably eventually do is when a search engine lands on the forum, they'll get served their own template. The side islands won't be shown, the duplicate links will be cut down, no reply options. It will somewhat look like an archive view probably, so it's easier for them to get to the topic content, instead of getting stuck looking at calendar days, or the list of top posters, etc.

This is just an idea currently, but it's something we'll be looking at.

That sounds good to me
Its good to have idea's

I was not taking the side content. To give you an example, the main link to this current thread is
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/208471/Poll_Your_top_feature_you_want.html

Now if you go to page two and click on the link to page one the url is https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/208471/1.html

The whole thing is even getting worse. If you click the message icons on page 1 you will get the following links, all linking to the same page:
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208472
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208473
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208477
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208482
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208505
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208512
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208522
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208527
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208528

Same for the last post columns on the forums overview/topics pages.

I fixed nearly all problems on my forums, but it was a massive code modification so I am still running 7.3b5 . I may redo this, as soon the final version of 7.4 is available and will document everything this time. As far I can tell you it seems to make a huge difference.

That's one of the things I was referring to Phillip. An example of multiple templates.

The individual icons for regular users give them sort of a permalink directly to the post if they want to bookmark.

However, search spiders don't really need those, so if a search engine is detected, they would get a template that wouldn't have those links.

Yes, but it can be done without 10 new urls

Instead of:
you can do this:

Well, that really doesn't make it bookmarkable as a permalink. The bookmark would rely on the actual post number in the topic, and not just the anchor. So, if you were to click on the icon and it just had the anchor, you're bookmarked URL might look something like this:

.....topics/208472/Re_Poll_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post208475

Post is still set to 208472. Anchor is 208475. Say you come back to your bookmark and 208472 has actually been deleted, but 208475 still remains. You'd get a message stating post cannot be found even though the post you're looking for is still there.

Ok, I guess it works in my forum because I also changed the urls. Basically, my thread urls are always using the post number of the first post.

Features much hoped for:

• The ability to publish one or more selected posts on other websites without resorting to 3rd-party RSS software, publishing that will correctly display UBB codes.
• An "Unsubscribe from email" link in every automated email that will work without forcing the user to login.
• User blogs confined to a defined area (revokable permissions by groups).
• The ability to switch off "Magic URLS" in the control panel (I currently hack the code to stop auto-conversion of text to clickable URLs at this time)
• A wider selection of professional-looking CSS stylesheets/themes that comes packaged with the product.
• Improved graemlins & post icons.

I would like to know how many people login per day, how many posts I have per day. I have 8000 visitors per day, but only a few really posts, but I really want to know how many exact.

Is it?