Bulletin Board?

[The Hobo]

I'm working on a Bulletin Board Stystem (http://www.vbsboards.com/) and am looking for suggestions and comments. I basically want to know what are some good features to throw in or leave out.

Please note that what I have done now isn't everything I plan, it's just as far as I've gotten. Please ignore any resemblance to VBF

[nabeels786]

looks good

maybe not having to input the username/password everytime, otherwise good start

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by nabeels786
looks good

maybe not having to input the username/password everytime, otherwise good start

You shouldn't have to, actually. Only if you're not already logged in. Then it's supposed to save a cookie so you won't have to do it again. Did you actually try registering and posting a few times, or did you just see the two inputboxes?

[The Hobo]

The thing I'm worried about most is the interface. It looks way to much like vBulletin, especially when you're viewing threads. Since I've hardly ever used anything bsides vB, I don't know any other way to set things up. So maybe I'll have to look at other board systems to see how they do it or try to come up with my own way.

[nabeels786]

lol i just saw the 2 input boxes

wouldnt a cookie make it kinda unsecure so then people could just stick teh cookie on their comp and be logged in?

all BBs look like vB one way or another, they just differ in features (or lack of them *cough* phpBB *cough*)

[thexchord]

hi hobo

i made a small discussion board for my site some while ago at
http://www.avionicsquest.org/ that you may want to look at.

use "turtle" as the username and password to login and goto the Discuss area.

It's certainly not even 20% of vB functionality wise but it fulfilled my purpose

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by nabeels786

wouldnt a cookie make it kinda unsecure so then people could just stick teh cookie on their comp and be logged in?

Nope, because it checks the cookie with the database to verify the user exists

[The Hobo]

I'm surprised I got as much as I have done in the past 3 days or so. I'm still open for some suggestions.

One quick question: I'm implimented "locked threads" right now. Should I have the ability for everyone to lock threads, just admins or what? What would be the disadvantages of users being able to lock threads?

[filburt1]

Only admins/mods, because anybody could then lock a thread and anybody else could unlock it, making it useless.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by filburt1
Only admins/mods, because anybody could then lock a thread and anybody else could unlock it, making it useless.

Unlocking would only be allowed by the person that posted it or the admins. You really think the ability to lock would be harmfull if given to all members? Right now, I have it as only a mod ability, but I was considering changing it.

[nabeels786]

only the admin, like filburt said itll become useless

but what if they took the cookie from the persons computer and put it on theirs? just wondering, heh

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by nabeels786
only the admin, like filburt said itll become useless

but what if they took the cookie from the persons computer and put it on theirs? just wondering, heh

Then how would you suggest doing it? There's no way around it, unless you want the user to login every time.

[TheGoldenShogun]

good look on the forum. I was just wondering how you were storing the information? In a mysql database with blobs for the messages or were you storing the actual messages in text files that are referenced by a table that has the other information (username, timestamp, threadname, etc)?

[The Hobo]

All the information is being stored in a MySQL database. The body itself is save as a text field in the database.

I can't work on anything with this for a week since I'm on vacation.

Thanks for the replies.

[The Hobo]

A few people (like carp) have been wondering if I'm going to work on this again.

I recently started up again and made some massive changes, worked out a few bugs, and began adding more features.

So anyone who was interested, I am working on it again. But I'm on vacation until Sunday, so it will be halted.

[carp]

Yea, The boards are really nice. Suggestions:

• Allow smiles in posts
• Make forums that only mods and admions can view (that only appear to admin and mods)
• Some kinda bbCode
• Custom text unter username after 1000 posts
• Users online
• User inbox (Private messaging)
• Allow mod/admin to popup message on viewers screen next time they view a page

Thats all I can think of right now

[The Hobo]

Thanks for the suggestions. Let's review:

• Allow smiles in posts - This is already allowed for a few smiles (:-), :-(, :-/ and ;-)) and I will add more in the future. It just isn't implimented into the posting page, so you have to type them in yourself.
• Make forums that only mods and admions can view (that only appear to admin and mods) - What's the purpose? It sounds like a good idea, but I'm unable to think of advantages. Unless you mean just a discussion area for mods.
• Some kinda bbCode - Like the smilies, it's already implimented, just not documented. See the "Features" Post in "Bug Reports/Suggestions" forum. It's the same as bbCode, but not all has been implimented yet.
• Custom text unter username after 1000 posts - Maybe. But I'll let the # of posts be customizable for the board owners.
• Users online - I tried implimenting this once and something went wrong. I'll have to redo it later, but it will be included in a release (if the boards ever make it that far)
• User inbox (Private messaging) - This is the next big thing I plan to impliment once I get everything I'm working on now finished to satisfactory.
• Allow mod/admin to popup message on viewers screen next time they view a page - I don't understand?

Thanks for your suggestions. I really appreciate them. Let me know if you have anymore.

[carp]

Ok, Cool:

Mod and admin forum only: This is so admins and mods can discuss things that need to be done to the site/forums and other things.

allow admin/mod to popup a message: Say a user is spamming his/her site. You have the option to make a popup box saying stop spamming or you will be banned. and this will popup when the user changes pages (within your forums)

[carp]

I got bored...

[mralston]

I wrote some very simple forums for the students at a college I used to work at, and later transported them to my website. My forums look disturbingly like vbforums.com too, main difference being that they're written in ASP.

See for yourself...

http://www.mralston.com/forums/

I'll apologise now for this shameless plug!

[The Hobo]

This boards are getting way farther than I ever thought. I could still use some suggestions/feedback, though.

[mralston]

They do look good so far, but I can't seem to register:

Duplicate entry '0' for key 1

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by mralston
They do look good so far, but I can't seem to register:

Duplicate entry '0' for key 1

Thanks. Somehow auto_increment got turned off. I fixed the error so you should be able to register now.

[The Hobo]

Updates:

• Allow smiles in posts - This is implimented into the posting form now.
• Make forums that only mods and admions can view (that only appear to admin and mods) - I made "locked forums" where only mod/admin can post in for announcements and such.
• Some kinda bbCode - Fully implimented and documented.
• Users online - I just finished implimenting this.
• Allow mod/admin to popup message on viewers screen next time they view a page - I still think an email would be the preferred way to handle this.

I have a question. How do most forums handle "unread threads?" How do they store whether or not a user has viewed that thread or if there's new posts since they last viewed it?

I figured I could store the last time they visited and compare it to when the post was created, but that would just be erased when they visit again.

[Gimlin]

I would like to know how you did the users online.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by Gimlin
I would like to know how you did the users online.

It took me a great while to get working right.

<?php

    session_start();
    
    //current time
    $dag = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    //current time minus 6 minutes
    $expiretime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:i:s')) - 360); //time() - 360;
    
    $db = mysql_connect ("localhost", "vbshelf_kristoph", "********") or die(mysql_error());
    mysql_select_db("vbshelf_bb", $db) or die(mysql_error());
    
    //if the cookie shows no current session ID:
    if ($_COOKIE['lastsessionID'] == '') {
        $SID = setID();
   //they have a session ID in the cookie:
   } else {
        $SID = $_COOKIE['lastsessionID'];
        $sql = "SELECT * FROM vbsCurrent WHERE SID='" . $_COOKIE["lastsessionID"] . "'";
        $result = mysql_query($sql);
        //make sure their SID still exists in the table
        if ($info = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
            //UPDATE:
            mysql_query("UPDATE vbsCurrent SET SIDTime='$dag' WHERE SID='$SID'") or die(mysql_error());
        } else {
            //SID didn't exist, give them a new one
            $SID = setID();
        }
    }

    function setID() {
        global $dag;
        global $expiretime;
        
        $_SESSION['recent'];
        $SID = session_id();
        
        if (isset($_COOKIE['user'])) {
            $type = 'user';
        } else {
            $type = 'guest';
        }
        
        setcookie("lastsessionID", $SID, Time() + 7*24*60*60, "/");
        //add them to the database
        $sql = "INSERT INTO vbsCurrent (type, name, SID, SIDTime) VALUES ('$type', '" . $_COOKIE['user'] . "', '$SID', '$dag')";

        mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
        return $SID;
    }
    //Delete all entries that are older than 6 minutes
    mysql_query("DELETE FROM vbsCurrent WHERE SIDTime <= '$expiretime'");
?>

I tried to comment it as well as I could. vbsCurrent looks like this:

id, type, name, SID, SIDTime

Type is either 'guest' or 'user.' Name is ther user name (if they are user). SID is their Session ID Number. And SIDTime is the last time they viewed a page.

Then something like:

$numguests = mysql_num_rows(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM vbsCurrent WHERE type='guest'"));
$users = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM vbsCurrent WHERE type='user'");
$numusers = mysql_num_rows($users);

So:
$numguests = number of guests
$numusers = number of users
$users = recordset of all users online

That's basically it.

[The Hobo]

Note that I used a session_id in there, but didn't really use sessions. You could easily do away with it and generate a random number on your own.

[Aerials]

awesome boards
dont worry all boards look like vbf unless they really suck
check out yabb and ikonboard if u want
www.yabb.info
www.ikonboard.com

[The Hobo]

Thanks Aerials!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for me.

Edit: Uh, about the boards, that is.

[The Hobo]

What do you think about thread ratings and polls? Personally, I think I'm going to leave them out for now.

[mralston]

To be honest I've never looked, but they've never jumped out and hit me over the head with an exceptionally thick programming book either.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by mralston
To be honest I've never looked, but they've never jumped out and hit me over the head with an exceptionally thick programming book either.

[mralston]

Those were my thoughts on thread ratings.

Incidentally, I was having trouble posting to your forum last night...it kept taking me to the login screen instead of the new post screen. I logged in several times but it wouldn't let me any further.

[chrisjk]

You know that's pretty damn good, nice one, I'm impressed

[chrisjk]

does it use some sort of template system for the HTML?

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by chrisjk
does it use some sort of template system for the HTML?

The only think that uses a template right now is the post itself (like when you view the post). But I'm going to make it as customizable as I possibly can.

There's also a header.inc and a footer.inc file, so you can customize it that way.

But I just have a huge list of things to do, so I'll get to it eventually.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by mralston

Incidentally, I was having trouble posting to your forum last night...it kept taking me to the login screen instead of the new post screen. I logged in several times but it wouldn't let me any further.

Sorry about that. It should be all fixed now, let me know if it isn't.

[Pc_Madness]

On the Login screen, consider making the Tables Title larger (User Login as it kinda blends with the text below.


Umm.. ok... I tried to register, went well, sent me to the login page, and then sent me back to the register screen again...You need a "Success Message" for the Registration as well.

[Pc_Madness]

Since I can't upload images there,


I got that when I tried to edit my message...

[Pc_Madness]

Another Error,

An error has occured:
An error occured when trying to access the users table. Please report this as error #1.

I tried to reply to my thread


I had swear words in my post, do u think it might have died of shock??