Might as well... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I like UBB. Nice and clean interface.

I don't know about vBulletin; most of the boards that I've come across with it haven't been as user-friendly.

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I LOVE UBB, the problem with some other boards is that they feel the need to turn on every single option the control panel has to offer, making them hard to read and hard to operate. However, there are most certainly some features Flyertalk needs and with the amount of posts here moving seems a necessity. The fact that Flyertalk is the worlds largest board on UBB Classic says something http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Yes, it hasn't been an easy task to continue to nurse FT along with UBB, but we've always tried to engage members in the clean interface - as noted above. When we migrate, We promise to not get too fancy and turn on all the features, just those that make sense. We will likely combine all the boards into one huge one since we would like to engage in the "MyFlyerTalk" feature that will allow you to just have the FT that you want. Combined that will move us up the ranks as we'll be past 2.5 million posts.

You all have something to be proud of and I still think your best days are ahead - as in search via all forums and not just one at a time.....

Cheers,
Randy

Will the archives of past and current FlyerTalk posts be moved over to the new system?

Yes, we'll actually get rid of the Archives as they are and melt tham back into the actual forums so that they are easily searched. We never wanted to archive topics as they are but was given that as the best path toward trying to stabilize the board for it's traffic using UBB.

Now, this will likely mean that many olderthreads will become active. We think that will balance the practice of starting newer threads of the same topics in archives and that with better search, will help alleviate repetitive posts and information. i've noticed that at times we all feel like, OK, how many times do we have to answer this same question. With a steady growth of new members, this is a constant and hopefully an integrated full forum will help.

Randy, I like easy to use boards but one feature I'd really like to see on Flyertalk is for "sticky topics" that remain on top of the thread list in a board. These "stickies" can contain links to the most active threads, frequently asked questions and other information relevant to that specific board. Is that an option you will have activated in the new board?

Agreed! That would be most helpful in Coupon Connection where it would be nice to "sticky" the Coupon Connection FAQ and/or the thread that says "If you're new here please read the FAQ." I've been bumping these every few days (every time FT gets some press a horde of newbies pour in, most of them great new potential FT'ers, but a few of them wanting to trade their PanAm drink coupon for a Sweet Spot http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif )

I also agree that stickies are nice. Additionally, how about leaving the "number of times a topic is viewed" column, along with the number of responses?

I don't think we should be patting ourselves on the back too soon.

That rating site has a LOT of holes in it. They only rate forums that are SUBMITTED to their site.

I frequently post on a UBB board for home built and traditional Hot Rods that easily has four times the posts, although mabey not as many lurkers as FlyerTalk, and it's not even referenced by their site.

Anyway, UBB is very good software, but it's been updated a few times recently. Are we running the most recent version?

This might be the only major bulletin board in the world that still runs on this old software...I would say it is most definitely not the most recent version...maybe three years old? Looking forward to the overhaul!

Ah, and while I am here, happy holidays to Randy, his staff and all Flyertalkers http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

Perhaps I'm (still) beating a dead horse, but would one of the features include an "ignore poster" function? If so, I'm hoping you'll see fit to include it.

(And maybe also a "preview post" function to cut down on the edits by those klutzes like me who can't seem to get the coding to work right half the time.)

Some features that are, if so chosen by the administrators, supported by, e.g., vbulletin:

- Ignore user function
- Edit within a certain timeframe without "Last edited..." notice appearing
- Shortcuts for certain font characteristics, smileys, etc.
- Posts since last visit are marked so you can tell at a glance whether there have been new posts in a certain forum (a particularly useful feature)

etc.

However, I have to say that I have seen a board similar in size/traffic to Flyertalk crash many times with vbulletin as well (as it did when it used UBB before) when a large number of users was simultaneously online (they were running it on a server that was not meant to handle that much traffic).

Something I would really think would be great would be the ability to post pictures in threads - for travel reports with hotel pictures, lounge pictures, airplane pictures, etc. I think that would increase the attractivity of Flyertalk by a lot - even though I am aware that it would also increase the need for moderation a lot.

Overall, the new software takes a little bit of getting used to (for moderators and users alike), but it is not difficult at all and the user experience is vastly improved with it.

Looking forward to seeing the new board! (any timetable yet on when we can expect it to come? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif)

I don't know if you knew it, attorney28, but the more recent versions of UBB (I think starting somewhere around 6.0 -- FlyerTalk currently uses version 5.47e) offer many of those features, and some were even offered in the earlier UBB software.

Examples:

- Posting of pictures (although that really burns up bandwidth);
- Shortcuts for smilies and other emoticons;
- Edit within ~5 minutes without "Last edited..." notice appearing (and also a "preview post" feature)

So, I think the main feature that would be newly available would be the "ignore poster" feature. Some of the rest (I think to include posting pictures) were offered at one time on this board, but were removed due to bandwidth consumption issues (IIRC).

Maybe the new software will permit them to be offered again.

Yes, but like UBB 5.47 the UBB 6.XX classic series relies on "flat HTML" for it's post database, which is both slow and unreliable when you reach more than 500k posts. Packages like Vbulletin and PHPbulletin use (My)SQL for their database making it much faster and better equipped for large boards.