Feature Requests and Suggestions Thread

I think this thread is a good idea. It would help me be responsive to member needs, and it could also serve as a focal point for members who have an interest in the development of bulletin board software. I'm the only developer at present, and more developers will be required to effectively implement a full-featured board.My eventual goal is a commercial bulletin board product with vBulletin-level capabilities. The value-added would be a lower price, greater performance because it's implemented in Perl instead of PHP, and, because it isn't dependent upon SQL, lower costs and greater flexibility choosing webhosting companies.I'm hoping to release dBoard 1.0 to this site before Christmas.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

also works for boxes, as you can see above.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Rather than creating new tags for each alignment or format, I'd instead add modifiers, e.g., [h]. Formats would be inherited by all other fields lower in the same column, unless otherwise specified. Font settings would not be inherited.You also mentioned comma as the decimal separator, and this, too, is easy. The only difficulty I can see in making tables flexible and useful is the sheer number of possibilities. This only means a lot of typing of code, not thinking, so it isn't hard.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

This has been on the "todo" list for a while now. I'm pretty sure I know how to do this efficiently. At the user level, there would be buttons to "mark all messages as having been replied to" and to "mark this message as having been replied to".I also hope to add the button "display all messages in this thread that are waiting for replies from me," as well as some buttons not directly related to this request, like "display all messages in this thread from me" and "display all messages in this thread from this user" and "display the thread of messages for this message" (i.e., follow the "reply" links). This last would dovetail nicely with the "reply to all these messages in a single message" button, but this might be problematic as I'm having trouble visualizing a simple interface.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

The double post problem was part of the initial release, but perhaps hasn't been tested yet. Try clicking "Submit Reply" twice in a row.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

The forum categories are now valid selections. In other words, you can now search all the forums of a single category by selecting the category from the search menu.Categories are now also included in the context banner that appears at the top of most pages, e.g.: (By the way, if there are any HTML/css/Javascript hackers out there who know how to get the first line of the context aligned left and any remainder that wraps to a second line aligned right, please let me know.)You can click on a category link and be taken to a list of the forums for that category.The jump table that appears at the bottom right of most pages also now works for categories.This message has been edited by Admin, 12-30-2004 08:14 AM

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Though dBoard is new software, it uses many of the UBB assumptions and databases that we started with. This includes case sensitive user names. Requiring new registrations to be unique when checked case-insensitively makes a lot of sense. I've added it to the list. This would differ from aliases, because you actually want users to be able to create case sensitive aliases. One of the common requests I get is, "I registered as 'tom', but I really wanted to be 'Tom'."

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Yes, you're right. The way it would have to work is to only allow creation of create case-insensitive unique aliases, except when compared with the suer's own aliases. For example, this would mean you'd be able to create an alias called "NOSYNED", but not an alias called "PERCY".

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

This makes a lot of sense, and it would fit neatly between the message number and the date. I might have to play with the appearance a bit, but I'll see what I can do. I've added it to the list.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Something along these lines has been on my list for some time. I hold off because I'm not sure how strict to be.Should it be advisory, e.g., "dBCode errors exist, post message anyway?" Plenty of dBCode errors could slip through with this approach.Or should it be strict, e.g., "dBCode errors exist, they must be fixed before you can post this message." Computers have been thrown out windows for less.I *could* make it a user option, so members could select the level of automated checking they want. But that might not satisfy the sensibilities of some board administration pedants (I count myself among them) who are easily annoyed by sloppy posts.Anyway, it's already on the list.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

All fixed. The RAZD8 account has been merged into the RAZD account. Ignore any email you receive about a new password, you're original password is still in effect. Your email address is now razd8@yahoo.com.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to make a couple suggestions for people.

1. Many people know this one already, but there are always newbies. You can always bring up a link in a new window by right-clicking on the link and selecting "Open in new window" (Internet Explorer) or "Open Link in New Window" (Netscape). Other browsers probably work in a similar manner.
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   Hardwiring a link to always bring up a new window is rarely done (profile pages are one exception), because there is no option to instead bring up the link in the current window.
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2. There's a new feature that places a blue dot in the left hand column next to threads with new unread messages. If you click on your name, which always appears in the banner at the top of most pages right after the words "Welcome, Member", you'll get a list of all the threads in which you've participated, and the blue dots will indicate which ones have messages you haven't read yet. By returning to this page you can always easily tell when there's something new to read in one of the threads that interests you.
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3. I've noticed that many people go to the trouble of creating avatar images that are precisely the same size as those displayed, which is 100 pixels wide. This isn't necessary. An avatar image can be any size and will be automatically scaled to be 100 pixels wide. The only restriction is that the avatar file size must be smaller than 131,072 bytes. On my list is to add the ability to choose an avatar image directly from the web, instead of from your computer.
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   If you click on an avatar image it will display at full size in a new browser window, so avatar images can include very small details. Even though the small details won't be visible until displayed at full size, many people find this feature useful.

This message has been edited by Admin, 01-14-2005 09:02 AM

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

The thread tracker cookie is updated after you post, so you'll never see a blue dot because of a message you posted yourself.If you delete cookies then the thread tracker cookie will be deleted with all the rest, and you should see blue dots for every thread posted to in the last 48 hours.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Great suggestion! I'm adding it to the list. Sorry, nothing can be done in the short term.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

If problem is fixed, this should be a proper link to message 5: Message 5

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director