Solution to Bulletin Board problems

[sinton66]

InfoPop's UBB Classic software (used for this board)isn't designed to handle the high traffic we're getting on this site. The sheer load causes it to freeze up sometimes, and then the Administrator has to redo some stuff to get it going again. We need to start looking into new Bulletin Board software for this site. There are several new BB systems on the market that reportedly are vastly superior. Those of you who cruise several other boards, please let us know which ones you think work best. (NOT which ones you like best, which ones WORK best in terms of speed, reliability, etc.)

PURPOSE OF THIS THREAD is to give ALL registered members a chance to research and offer your opinions prior to purchase. Please feel free to post them on this thread. Matt has made it a "sticky" so it will stay at the top for about two weeks.

Also, please bear in mind, whatever we end up with has to be acceptable to Jacket and Matthew.

<small>[ February 09, 2004, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[sinton66]

Our administrator suggests we investigate vBulletin. What ever we buy needs to be able to "import" all the data from this board to the new one. That could be a critical factor.

[sinton66]

I understand vBulletin costs about $160. Whatever we finally decide on, we will most likely take donations to purchase it, so be prepared.

<small>[ February 05, 2004, 07:26 AM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[poncho]

I'm willing to help out.

[3afan2K3]

I'd donate

[3afan2K3]

sinton66:
I understand vBulletin costs about $160. Whatever we finally decide on, we will most likely take donations to purchase it, so be prepared.$160 wouldn't be that much

[Phil C]

I'll donate too. It wouldn't be much for each of us if everyone donates a little bit. What is left over could be set in savings for future purchases as technology advances and we upgrade.

[JasperDog94]

Phil C:
I'll donate too. It wouldn't be much for each of us if everyone donates a little bit. What is left over could be set in savings for future purchases as technology advances and we upgrade.I always knew you were a visionary Phil. :)

[pirate4state]

Always willing to help, just let me know when to do it. :)

[sinton66]

What I'd really like to see first, is if ANY of you are familiar with any better software, or even know some experts who are, I'd like to hear some other suggestions to check into. I looked at Invision Power Board the other night, and it looked pretty good to my novice brain.

I just looked at vBulletin, and it does look pretty impressive. For those interested, see it at: www.vbulletin.com (http://www.vbulletin.com)

<small>[ February 05, 2004, 10:46 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[PPHSfan]

I would like a BB that allows HTML to be used directly in the post windows. Man oh Man could we have some fun then. :D

[SintonFan]

I'll help, too.
Come on now folks! Would it be so hard to give a few bucks? We all enjoy this site. I see the response on this is slow. LOL, then again I didn't see this until it said "Sticky" and was top of the board.
Thanks for the info, 66!
I'll check out that other software after the Spurs game.

[SintonFan]

PPHSfan:
I would like a BB that allows HTML to be used directly in the post windows. Man oh Man could we have some fun then. :D :D eek! :D

[jason]

PPHSfan:
I would like a BB that allows HTML to be used directly in the post windows. Man oh Man could we have some fun then. :D i agree 100% with you...html can be soo fun...

[sinton66]

PPHSfan and jason, both of you please go to the vbulletin site and read up on the features. I KNOW both of you are more knowledgeable on this than I am. I would appreciate your inputs. Thanks.

We need to set a deadline on this also. I'd like to leave this at the top for about two weeks so that everyone has a chance to see it and contribute BBS software suggestions for comparison. We're not just talking features here, we're looking for stability and reliability.

<small>[ February 06, 2004, 10:26 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[SintonFan]

sinton66:
I understand vBulletin costs about $160. Whatever we finally decide on, we will most likely take donations to purchase it, so be prepared..
Will vBulletin be as secure or greater than this site? It looks cool and it does have it's benifits(if allowed :( ).

[jason]

it looks good...you can:
*Use HTML in messages
*Word censor facility
*Integrated private messaging
*Ban users based on IP address or email address
*Posts since last visit are marked so you can tell at a glance whether there have been new posts in a particular forum
*Unlimited Forums / Messages / Categories
*Unlimited Moderators
*Blisteringly fast mysql (http://www.mysql.com) based backend database

[PPHSfan]

The only problem I see with changing at all, is the LOOK and FEEL of the 3ADL that we have grown to love will be changed. My favorite part of the program that we use now is the format and the colors. I am afraid that we are not going to feel at home once we start looking like some of those other sites.

Otherwise, I am all for the upgrade.

[sinton66]

PPHSfan, I don't know if you remember back last year when we did a trial version of new software for a short period or not. If you DO remember, I think we ran UBBx for a while, then a different one. The second different one WAS vBulletin. The "look and feel" didn't change much, except it was like lightning quick compared to our current software. That short test was what convinced Administrator that vBulletin is what we need. Matt told me that we can keep the color scheme for sure. If you have some specific questions about it, pm Administrator(member#1) and ask him.

[sinton66]

SintonFan:

sinton66:
I understand vBulletin costs about $160. Whatever we finally decide on, we will most likely take donations to purchase it, so be prepared..
Will vBulletin be as secure or greater than this site? It looks cool and it does have it's benifits(if allowed :( ).There are security/vulnerability issues associated with any Bulletin Board system and for that matter, practically any computer program written by anybody. I would think the primary concern is to buy something that is still supported in order to get the "fixes" when they come out. I have also posed a question to Matt about the necessity for add-on security software also. (thinking along the lines of a firewall/security program). I'll let you know what he says.

I also am getting my software development engineer son-in-law to do some investigating for me. Hopefully we'll come up with some neat stuff.

<small>[ February 07, 2004, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[onfirebball05mustang]

I'll help in any way i can, i'll also check into some stuff that may help us out with some friends of mine!

[sinton66]

I just heard back from Matt on the firewall issue, and he thinks we're ok on that one. He explained some things to me that he's done to improve access security, and I trust his judgement on this one. I prefer not to discuss these things openly, because that would give too much info away. So, we're concentrating on the software issue alone.

[sinton66]

I just heard from my son-in-law, and he agrees with Matt that vBulletin is probably the most robust program on the market. He checked into their history, and they are keeping up with "fixes". In fact, they just had a new release. He also provided me with a link to a list of BBS systems so that we can investigate others. Here is the link:

http://www.thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm#ideal

<small>[ February 07, 2004, 10:24 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[Old Green]

You guys can count on me to make a donation.Just tell me when and where to send the money.

[slpybear the bullfan]

Guys,

I get a great deal of enjoyment out of this site. If we need to upgrade software, then lets do it. When we needed to upgrade hardware we supported that. And if we need to purchase software, then I am sure we will support it too.

Here are a few things...

1.) I think the ability to transfer the files would be cool. But, if we can't do this, I would not let that deter us from choosing the best software out there.

2.) If we cannot transfer the old data, can we go ahead and leave the old site up for a certain amount of time?

3.) As many others have said, I too would love to help pay for this software. Paypal works really great and I would vote that you guys do that again.

4.) I shudder to think of the things that some of my old friends and I can do with HTML... (Yes, PPHSfan... I can *hear* you drooling. wink )

Old friends, I look forward to a new BBS...

[3afan2K3]

I dunno if this would fix the bandwith or whatever other problems but maybe the admins should delete some of those accounts with 10 posts and havnt been posted on in forever or the ones that don't get used no more. I know I have 3 other ones from a while back that I lost my password to.

<small>[ February 08, 2004, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: 3afan2K3 ]</small>

[sinton66]

That is done already about once a season or so. That's why there are folks saying they've had to re-register. It's the level of the TRAFFIC that causes the board to freeze up. That is what caused the inability to post and to make new topics last week after all the talk on realignment. Vbulletin is THE BEST there is out there that we've found so far. The next best I've seen is WOWbbs. There is a freeware program called phpbb I'm looking at and experimenting with right now.

If we're going to get this done, I need all the investigative help I can get so that we can get geared up and ironed out before next season starts.

[3afan2K3]

I think we should use whatever boards www.gamefaqs.com (http://www.gamefaqs.com) is using. I dunno if that is what we are looking for though

<small>[ February 08, 2004, 08:37 PM: Message edited by: 3afan2K3 ]</small>

[sinton66]

That appears to be a custom deal created by the site host, CNET. Probably might not be able to get it.

[3afan2K3]

Actually CNET just took it over less then a year ago, the site has been running 7-8 years w/ the boards.

If we can get whatever they are using we should because there are always atleast 5,000+ poeple on the boards at a time and it never slows down. It could handle the number of members we have, gamefaqs alone probably has 50,000+ members

<small>[ February 08, 2004, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: 3afan2K3 ]</small>

[SintonFan]

3afan2K3:
Actually CNET just took it over less then a year ago, the site has been running 7-8 years w/ the boards.

If we can get whatever they are using we should because there are always atleast 5,000+ poeple on the boards at a time and it never slows down. It could handle the number of members we have, gamefaqs alone probably has 50,000+ members.
I can guarantee that site hasn't been around for eight years or so. Eight years ago there was not the huge internet that we have now.
Back in 1996, we had to go to CNET in the snow and uphill. All the while with a 14400 modem. eek!

It was tough! We had to do our homework! Not just download it... :p

This is for all the younguns. :D

<small>[ February 08, 2004, 11:52 PM: Message edited by: SintonFan ]</small>

[sinton66]

3afan2K3:
Actually CNET just took it over less then a year ago, the site has been running 7-8 years w/ the boards.

If we can get whatever they are using we should because there are always atleast 5,000+ poeple on the boards at a time and it never slows down. It could handle the number of members we have, gamefaqs alone probably has 50,000+ membersOkay, so figure out how to contact them and ask about the costs, support, etc. and let us know. I would, but have no idea how to do that.(Also, bear in mind, whatever we end up with has to be acceptable to our admins cause they own this site.) If you look down at the bottom of the page, you can usually see if they use a board that is commercially available. For instance, ours says "Powered by InfoPop UBB Custom ver x.x.x. I don't see that message on their board.

<small>[ February 09, 2004, 07:26 AM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[3afan2K3]

SintonFan:

3afan2K3:
Actually CNET just took it over less then a year ago, the site has been running 7-8 years w/ the boards.

If we can get whatever they are using we should because there are always atleast 5,000+ poeple on the boards at a time and it never slows down. It could handle the number of members we have, gamefaqs alone probably has 50,000+ members.
I can guarantee that site hasn't been around for eight years or so. Eight years ago there was not the huge internet that we have now.
Back in 1996, we had to go to CNET in the snow and uphill. All the while with a 14400 modem. eek!

It was tough! We had to do our homework! Not just download it... :p

This is for all the younguns. :D It might of been 7 years

[Tiger Turtle]

If it has word censor, can we outllaw references to anything that starts with "Pud..."? (Just kidding). wink

[ej2525]

Just tell us where to mail the check... And make it out to whom?

[sahen]

Baylor's message board runs w/ vbulletin...its pretty cool it says who is online and logged in at the time, how many people are browsing the board, and at the bottom it has ur info such as if you have any PMs or not....i dont know anything about these things just Baylor's has worked pretty well and i figured if a college uses it then it'd work for this site....if you wanna look its at:baylor message board (http://www.baylorfans.com/forums/)

[sinton66]

We'll leave this up here for another week or so, then we'll post the info for donations.

<small>[ February 09, 2004, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[j_dog]

Of course, I too will make a donation. :)

[SintonFan]

3afan2K3:

SintonFan:

3afan2K3:
Actually CNET just took it over less then a year ago, the site has been running 7-8 years w/ the boards.

If we can get whatever they are using we should because there are always atleast 5,000+ poeple on the boards at a time and it never slows down. It could handle the number of members we have, gamefaqs alone probably has 50,000+ members.
I can guarantee that site hasn't been around for eight years or so. Eight years ago there was not the huge internet that we have now.
Back in 1996, we had to go to CNET in the snow and uphill. All the while with a 14400 modem. eek!

It was tough! We had to do our homework! Not just download it... :p

This is for all the younguns. :D It might of been 7 years.
just giving you a hard time :D

[sinton66]

I've now looked at four different BBS systems, and have pretty much concluded that vBulletin appears to be what we need. We even set up some demo boards to play with, and vBulletin seems to rule supreme. So, unless somebody comes up with a better one between now and Monday, that's probably how we'll go. For 3A DownLow software, we'll post and info packet about how to contribute. Administrator(member #1) will handle those details. I assume he'll put something at the top of the board like he did for the original donation thing.

<small>[ February 11, 2004, 06:54 AM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>

[BHKrystal06]

Has anyone checked www.yabbforum.com (http://www.yabbforum.com) or www.boardhost.com?? (http://www.boardhost.com??)

[sinton66]

yabbforum is written in the same cgi/perl scripts that UBB is. I assume it would have similar problems with traffic. Cgi/perl is sort of a clunky command language. The other one, didn't say anything about how it was written, but looks like they strongly support use of html code. I hear HTML is a lot of fun, but I understand it opens your site up to hacking. Does anyone on this board have any personal experience with either of these?

[Bandera YaYa]

I am 100% computer illiterate......you do not want any input from me, but I would be happy to donate towards whatever is decided is best for us!

[sinton66]

Okay, Monday is the deadline. We did it this way, because we don't want anyone to complain they had no input on the software that the donations are spent on. So, everybody, speak now or forever hold your peace.

[jason]

sinton66:
Okay, Monday is the deadline. We did it this way, because we don't want anyone to complain they had no input on the software that the donations are spent on. So, everybody, speak now or forever hold your peace.i would like to request a change of my 'title' on the new board...i think you know what im talking about...

[sinton66]

Looks like we've come down to it. Since no one has come up with a better package than vBulletin, I gues we don't need to take a vote. Any disagreement?