My Own Message Board

[Doan the Nado]

Can anyone say "obnoxious"? I think Proboards just changed their software today in order to display ads mid-page in the threads. This is just the push I need to motivate me to write and host my own message board.

To that end, this thread is designed to get your input on what you would like to see. I will be building this from scratch, so any crazy ideas you have are quite welcome.

Here are some notes that I have so far:

Admin:
---------
Users should not have to be in a special group to moderate forums.
It should be easy to add new smileys.
Look into making it easy to add custom UBBC buttons.
List members by last login date.
Recount members every time someone joins or deletes their account.
File manager (sort by most downloaded, most recent, etc).
Add "forum owners", where the owner can add html content and customize stylesheets on their forum.
Integrate board images along with board names.
Silent edits

Users:
---------
Add file upload capabilities.
Functionality associated with uploaded files (view most downloaded, most popular, most recent, update files that you uploaded, etc).
Customizable pages.
UBBC or HTML?

System:
-----------
Should replacements be done while posting or while serving?


Those are intended as a basic starting point. The driving idea I have is to fully integrate the message board and an associated site. The site's front page would be tied to a certain forum's threads (like the Pavilion), and members would have personal home pages which have front pages tied to their individual forums. I feel that as it stands now, the website is too separated from the message board, and I would like to have some kind of overarching layout that is all-encompassing.

Images would no longer be linked to external files because that just encourages bandwidth stealing and leads to images disappearing after a while. Instead, you will be able to put images in your posts either by referring to the image's online address or by uploading an image of your own. Upon posting, the software will automatically go grab the image (if an online address is given), save it on the message board server, and include it in your post where you specify.

In addition to images, other files would be able to uploaded as well, from game saves and videos to guides and entire webpages. The only limitation would be a cap on the number of MB each user can consume. To manage all of these, each member would be able to access a file manager where they can add, update, or delete their files.

I would also like to get away from the table-based layout. I'm not sure yet what the best approach would be, but I think there is a better way than these rigid lines and this mess of table elements. Just look at the source for this page to see what I'm talking about; it's a waste of bandwidth and it's not very elegant. If you have any ideas for how it should be laid out, by all means post them. I'm thinking of something very simple which would be just as effective as this layout. At some point I'll get a prototype page up to show what I'm talking about.

I would like to integrate ads in some non-obtrusive-yet-effective way. I'm not expecting to reap huge profits from these, but they will certainly help. I would also like to create a way for members to give donations in order to receive benefits like additional space for uploaded files and removal of ads from the site when they're logged in.

Again, if there are any ideas you have, don't hesitate to post them, no matter how crazy or hard-to-implement they might seem. I am especially looking for feedback on the UBBC vs HTML question (maybe it should be an option) and suggestions on thread layout.

I would like to note that whatever is done, the posts here will not be lost. They will be "slurped" from this site and posted to the new message board whenever a transition does occur, so things like post counts and all of our posts here will transfer over seamlessly. I will of course have to write the software that does this, but I don't expect that to be too difficult, because I've written software like that before, and there are plenty of tools out there to help.

Thanks for making this board the place it is and for sticking around even as some things have changed for the worse. I really appreciate you guys (and gals).

[Doan the Nado]

I am reserving this post in order to add good suggestions and also new thoughts of my own.

New user features
quoting multiple sources

Supported UBBC/HTML functionality
bold
italics
underline
strikethrough
scrolling text
preformatted text (fixed-width characters, maintain spacing)
centered text
horizontal line
font size
font color
quote
links
images
tables
bulleted lists
smileys
spoiler tag

Am I missing anything? I intentionally left out some of Proboards' features that I don't think we ever really use.

I am planning to use AJAX to allow members to do various activities without requiring a page refresh:

Ajax functionality
Quick reply box - simply add the reply to the page without refreshing
Chat box - avoid constantly-loading problem which exists now
PM handling (deleting messages, etc)

Any other suggestions?

[realitybites]

Sounds like a good idea, but for HTML you would have to have certain limits to what you can do, cause people could easily change the whole site with HTML.

[Doan the Nado]

Yes, I am aware of that. The allowable HTML would be explicitly included in the software, so that it would look for things like <i>italics text</i> and it would leave it intact, but <script>html.refresh("http://mysite.com")</script> would see the script tags converted to &lt;script&gt;

That said, any suggestions for what HTML/UBBC functionality to support? I know that what we have here is a good starting point, but is any of that unnecessary? Is there anything missing?

Edit: I added a list of UBBC/HTML support to my second post to provide a starting point. If there's anything else you want to see, let me know.

[realitybites]

What language do you plan on writing this in?

[Doan the Nado]

Probably Lisp. I really enjoy programming in Lisp and have not had enough opportunities to do so, because most of my programming projects for class require me to use either C++ or Java (boo).

Of course, the stuff that the Lisp generates will be web-based stuff like HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I will have to write this as well, but it shouldn't be too hard once I have a design in mind. I also plan on using AJAX for various features (special Javascript plus HTML functionality).

I'm guessing that everyone on this site has a fairly recent browser and has Javascript turned on. If not, please let me know.

[NASH7777]

Spoiler Tag
Move UBBC
Oh and a nice lounge for the admins :-)

Some mass PM'ing options for you more so
Update or Event options for individual user's forums
Multi-quote options
~~~~

I'd be glad to work on some new graphics and icons for it. Just let me know.

[Doan the Nado]

Spoiler Tag has been added to proposed functionality. I don't know what you mean by "Move UBBC" or "Multi-quote options", and if you could tell me what you have in mind for "Update or Event options...", I'd be happy to listen.

Thanks for the offer to work on graphics and icons. I'll probably end up taking you up on it, once I have a better idea of what graphics are needed.

[Rodak]

Sounds quite ambitious!

HTML would allow embedding video, but the same code (iframe, embed) can be the security risks mentioned above!

Some boards have a "Flash" tag for embedding swf files (The Next-Gen VFX Guide may well have some flash (swf) components) but again - unless you trust the source... Even Tripod won't let you upload swf files to your free site!

I've never seen the proboards admin stuff, but I've re-skinned an smf forum and played in their admin panels. I may have more suggestions soon.

Oh yeah... I think Nash meant quoting from multiple posts. SMF Forums have an "Insert Quote" button which shows in the topic summary while posting a reply. That way you can just scroll down the reply page and click one button to quote from another post, or as many other posts as you like, without any Hoopy Editing of Quote tags.

Sorry if I'm wrong, Nash. Didn't mean to second guess you. But I was going to suggest it anyhow, and I think you just did!

[Doan the Nado]

Ahh... but being able to quote multiple posts would make too much sense . I have added it to a new section in my second post.

As for embedded videos, I have never been too impressed with those. I may consider adding e.g. [youtube] tags which would allow you to embed a youtube player in your post, but I would have to ensure that it is done in a way that the video does not begin downloading until you click the play button. It may be that current implementations already do that; that would be great. I just want to avoid the situation where videos begin automatically playing or downloading, because that really annoys me, especially considering the number of times a thread is viewed vs the number of times someone would want to watch the video.

As for the admin features, those were mostly for my purposes, I guess. Proboards has a good amount of features, so the ones I listed are in addition to those. That whole section of my first post was something that I had stored as a GMail draft for about 3 months now, so by posting it all here, I was finally able to clear it out of my mailbox .

Anyone have opinions on UBBC vs HTML, or both? I could personally go either way; it won't affect the difficulty of writing the software. Any opinions should be based on posting preferences.

[The Final Rune]

[white]Personally, I think you should stick with Proboards. Sure, they're not the best thing around, but this forum, as it is, has served its purpose really well. I don't even notice the ads myself. Everything on the internet is so congested with ads that I treat them like white noise--they're really annoying at first, but eventually you get so used to it you forget its even there.

I hate to imagine the what would be involved in coding a forum. Between moving everyone's information from here to a new site and moving all the information contained with in the forum boards themselves, well, after all these years it doesn't seem worth the effort.

I have been a member of this board since its first days and its a real home for me. I have nothing against the other rpgmaker forums personally, but neither of them have the same welcoming feeling as the Domain. I love the warm colors and the general layout and design of the board.

If you are dead set on moving the forum I sincerely hope you don't change a thing, other than a few of the improvements listed above. Rodak's right about the HTML posting. As a member with extensive use of the UBBC built into these boards, I have grown rather comfortable with them. Other than the fact that the UBBC doesn't act the same in the chat box, I've never had any complaints.

I'll support any action you make Doan, as you've not led our community astray yet, and I doubt you ever will. My vote, if there is a vote, is to leave it as it is right now.[/white]

[NASH7777]

MOVE HBBC

Yeah Rodak got it, and as far as some of the Video Options, for security purposes we could have it so only 5 star members could do it or something, also with guidelines as to the privilege, aka if you screw up you loose the privilege for x many days.

I understand Rune's concern with the change, right away I felt a little uneasy, but I'm one to love change, although it takes some adjusting what change doesn't? I'm all okay with it doan if your willing to script it all and figure it all out.

[Doan the Nado]

I can definitely appreciate where you're coming from, TFR, but I am pretty set on doing this. Let me try to explain my reasons:

1. Some features are missing here that I would like to add, especially from an administrator standpoint, such as sorting members by various criteria in order to remove inactive ones.
2. The message board and website are too separated, so I would like to write something new that can nicely integrate them.
3. Some of the new member features I have in mind could lead to great changes for the better for everyone here.
4. Proboards gets the money for all ad clicks that occur on the forums. It would be nice if I got that money instead.
5. It would be good for my programming "street cred" if I had a significant project completed, and this could serve to do that.

So that should answer a lot of the points you bring up: even if the ads are white noise, I would prefer to get the money for them; if a lot of coding is involved, that is probably a good thing. I would expect that I could implement a solid prototype within a couple weeks if I could work steadily on it. Of course, being something I wrote, there would always be things I could add to improve it.

I completely understand your concerns with maintaining what we have; I would like to do that, too. Once a working prototype is in place, the first order of business would be to copy all user info and all posts over to the new location. I expect that I could write a program in about an hour or two which would be able to accomplish this, then it would just be a matter of running the program before the transition to the new board. I would never close this place down without first being able to do that, so have no worries there.

As far as maintaining the warm colors and general layout, I do expect to do that. I am considering some changes to the way that threads are displayed, but one thing that certainly will not change much is the color scheme. I am a huge fan of light text on dark backgrounds, mainly because I don't like to stare at a lightbulb when I'm reading stuff. Any layout changes will be discussed in detail before I implement anything that is dependent on them. I plan on writing everything using proper CSS and good design so that layout details will not be difficult to change at all; that is one reason I would like to avoid using tables.

Thanks a lot for your continuous support. Trust me, I would not consider making any changes that would lead to the message boards being worse. Everything I do should be a change for the better .

Note: the one thing I wouldn't be able to avoid is that I would have to require members to re-register, because I don't have access to your accounts' passwords. After registering to the new board, I would be able to give your old profile information to you.

[The Final Rune]

[white]Well, I look forward to seeing what you come up with then. My only final concern is that you maintain the off white coloring of the text. It may be a little selfish, but I love being able to pick my own posts out with just a quick glance. Good luck with your programming.[/white]

[Deleted]

The blue/gray circles that indicate new post(s) in a forum (or whatever you choose for the design instead).

Otherwise, I agree with this part of TFR's posts:
"I'll support any action you make Doan, as you've not led our community astray yet, and I doubt you ever will."

[Doan the Nado]

williamkirk said:

The blue/gray circles that indicate new post(s) in a forum (or whatever you choose for the design instead).

This will definitely be part of the design. I use the heck out of these things, but I'm not sure how many others do. Whatever I use, I will try to make it a little clearer what the meaning is than it is on this forum.

[NASH7777]

I don't check things unless they're blue or say new, haha

[realitybites]

admin said:

Ahh... but being able to quote multiple posts would make too much sense . I have added it to a new section in my second post.

As for embedded videos, I have never been too impressed with those. I may consider adding e.g. [youtube] tags which would allow you to embed a youtube player in your post, but I would have to ensure that it is done in a way that the video does not begin downloading until you click the play button. It may be that current implementations already do that; that would be great. I just want to avoid the situation where videos begin automatically playing or downloading, because that really annoys me, especially considering the number of times a thread is viewed vs the number of times someone would want to watch the video.

As for the admin features, those were mostly for my purposes, I guess. Proboards has a good amount of features, so the ones I listed are in addition to those. That whole section of my first post was something that I had stored as a GMail draft for about 3 months now, so by posting it all here, I was finally able to clear it out of my mailbox .

Anyone have opinions on UBBC vs HTML, or both? I could personally go either way; it won't affect the difficulty of writing the software. Any opinions should be based on posting preferences.

The youtube tag is actually relatively neat, it doesn't start untill you play it, and you can only have 1 video per post.