UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Suggestions and Feedback The future of UBB.threads

I prefer Dodge

Here we go again...

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You seem full of anxiety...or is it depression? [/]

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You make a lot of assumptions don't you? [/]

Those don't seem like statements that were of any positive contribution, nor anything that required a serious answer on my part.

Dude you're way too serious. I was just joking about getting the thread back on track. You sure seemed like a VB spy since you dindn't say anything coherant other than a few cryptic random statements.

Customer Service? It's not really my job to give customer service to anyone...except clients of mine. I don't work for Infopop - I'm an infopop license holder just like you. I wish I had a piece of every license sold - but I don't - so you weren't my customer to begin with.

If you need customer service from infopop - the official place is www.infopop.com/support. We do not work for infopop and this is a "non infopop site".

Any thing I do that appears to be "customer service", be it here or at Infopop ... in my free time.. out of the goodness of my heart just trying to be helpful to people. If you are looking to transition your site from Classic to threads you would take care of your license stuff over at Infopop.

This is a site for us users who want to modify our code and do other things with our software. If you are looking for help on that, or even general threads questions - I'll most likely be one of the people to answer them for you either here or at Infopop Community.

But that'll just be because I'm "helpful".

And you'll probably have to ask more than "You seem full of anxiety...or is it depression?" or "You make a lot of assumptions don't you?" to get a serious answer.

If you want to modify your code - welcome to threadsdev. Hope we can help you out.

[]AllenAyres said:
I prefer Dodge [/]

Nissan

Rolls Royce

Nissan!!!! *shudder*

"If you don't like my fire, then don't come around, cause I'm gonna burn one down!"

I was ready to give up threads for something else but my ISP insisted I keep UBBthreads or pay a lot more for hosting

So in my case: the low cost option was UBBthreads :-)And I have saved many thousands thanks to it since I decided to keep it...

Then I started to visit ubbdev.com, learned a bit about modifications, found JoshPet who started to help me with installations and mods, and started to like threads a lot... to the point that I do not even consider other options at this time

But for most people, without any intention, (or time) to ad mods, I see a real problem when board members start asking for features they see at other boards

At this point I see that there are more modification than I could ever want and think threads has a great future

If infopop where to incorporate all the mods avaialble here it would be fantastic...

[]janedoe said:
Then I started to visit ubbdev.com, learned a bit about modifications, found JoshPet who started to help me with installations and mods, and started to like threads a lot... to the point that I do not even consider other options at this time
[/]

Glad I helped keep you hooked on Threads.
I'm betting you will like 6.4. Changelog coming soon!

I'm dying to see the 6.4 changelog, I can't sleep at night knowing I am missing out

As soon as we get 6.3 stable and out the door I'll get it posted At this point it has 44 entries

WooHoo!!!!

But 43 of them are connected with banning of bananas

LMAO

LOL

[]but remember, these products have been around for much longer than threads, and threads is new and has been essentially re-written from the ground up to provide the best performance [/]
Threads was converted from perl to php. The last time I looked at any of the code there was still a lot of the old perl functions still there, but, converted to php. So it wasn't rewritten from the ground up.
I run both vb and threads and currently run vb3 beta on a forum that has 400 online most of the time with the exception of weekends. Hovers around 200 then.
I converted to vb on that site because threads couldn't scale. As it turns out this was more a fault with mysql then threads although there is still a problem with threads db layer that causes various tables to corrupt when using mysql 4. This doesn't happen with vb.
VB2 code is convoluted and messy. VB3 code is a total rewrite and very impressive. Can't say more because I am bound by NDA. Once released VB3 will make a huge impact.

There are some quirks in threads when running it on Windows that I have not seen in VB.

The corrupt table problem from above.
When editing the config file from the cp and saving you lose all the linebreaks and the forum dies until you open it in an editor and reformat the text. This is because there is no allowance in the code for /r/n. All linebreaks are /n.
When editing templates from the cp everything gets double and triple spaced after you save it.
Shutting off the referer check brings the forum to its knees. Pages won't load or take 10+ seconds to load.
These are minor annoyances, but, if you want threads to be portable across multiple platforms they should be fixed.
I like both products. They both have strengths and weaknesses. From what I see Rick is continuelly adding to his original perl code, but, never completely getting rid of it all. A ground up rewrite would seem to be in order. Finish and release 6.4 and then put a hold on development of that branch, other than bugfixes, and do a total rewrite. Users might have to wait for the next version, VB3 has been in development for 1 1/2 years, but, the end result is a new, more efficient product without the old converted perl functions. Somewhere along the way a rewrite is in order for any software.
BTW, all the fluff of VB can be turned off.

This is in no way a bash on threads and I am not a vbspy. I have been a loyal user of threads since the 3.0 perl days. I was probably one of the first to run the early php version on a high traffic site. It is a fine product, but, to build on the current code much longer will prove to be a bad mistake.
The competitions code is becoming modular and more efficient.
IMO the best forum software package out right now is a free product. Modular code making it easy to add hacks via plugins and a standard api. The old argument that a free product can't be as good as one you pay for is going out the window.

Overall though, I still think UBB.threads is better written, faster, and more secure. Also, UBB.threads has the advantage in interface, becuase vBulletin's interface is cluttered. vBulletin 3 also has a useless "similar thrads" box at the bottom of the threads, which some of the threads shown there are not similar at all.

Rick, in about how many weeks will version 6.3 be released?

[]Pink Jazz said:
Overall though, I still think UBB.threads is better written, faster, and more secure. Also, UBB.threads has the advantage in interface, becuase vBulletin's interface is cluttered. vBulletin 3 also has a useless "similar thrads" box at the bottom of the threads, which some of the threads shown there are not similar at all.

Rick, in about how many weeks will version 6.3 be released? [/]
I disagree. Threads code is getting messy and is far from what it used to be. You can't keep adding features without losing efficiency. All software at some point has to modularized or you get bloat. Bloated code is slower to compile and execute.
If you want to see tight modular code take a look at IBforums. With the structured api features can be added as plugins without adding bloat. In the future threads and vb will just be an after thought as wwwboard is now. One thing vb has going for it is they see the light and are doing something to stay competetive.

To each there own. I do see so much effort put into quality code and preservation of speed and such. While every line of code may not have been rewritten... so much the way it all functions has been changed, particularly with 6.2. Being on the beta/development team - I really see how Rick really struggles with making sure that everything added to threads does not comprimise the speed or stability of things.

Anytime I have to "track something down" to make an adjustment etc.... I really find the threads code easier to follow and cleaner than most of the other stuff I deal with. But it really is still an infant compared to other software packages... .just getting warmed up.

But the biz is a never ending process of new server software, new configurations and new options - so it's continually evolving.

I really believe it'll only get better from here.

You'll never please everyone; so don't even try.

Just a couple of quick points on this. Though the php version was a convert from the perl version, very little remains from the original port. The last couple of versions have been extensively rewritten already. Not from the ground up, but quite a change nonetheless. Definitely more to be done though.

As for code bloat. This isn't really that much of a factor since most everything is handled by it's own script. Obviously the code does grow abit but I don't try to do a ton of different things in the smallest number of scripts possible like alot of software I've seen. The php version has been around for a couple of years now. In that time here's the growth of some of the main scripts since 5.4.

ubbt.inc.php has gone from 58k to 70k
ubbthreads.php has gone from 13k to 18k
postlist.php has gone from 37k to 39k
showflat.php has gone from 35k to 38k
showthreaded.php has gone from 38k to 40k

Anywho, yeah, there is a ton of room for improvement and we'll keep up and do whatever is necessary be it a total rewrite or whatever. Been doing this for almost 6 years now and I've never been one to look to the competition for how good the software is or what we should be doing next and we've done ok so far

Yeah, you are doing great. I've been using the software since 1998 I believe and never regretted it a second. I do look at other systems as well from time to time, since some sites have different needs, but I still think threads is the best, as a sysadmin, forum owner, a user and as a coder.

I agree. Threads is an awsome piece of software. Someone had complained about it not being moduluar enough. It looks to me like threads is already very modulaur by design and that as it grows it will become more so. We use our license as a file system as well as a message board system. One of the great things about threads is the community behind. Someone is always ready to answer questions, sometimes even if it is just to say that they don't know. With out this site or installation would have been vanillia with me up all night every night teaching myself php and ubb code. But thanks to the love that the user community has for threads there are constantly people looking to make it even better and help it grow. Thanks Rick for a great piece of software and thanks Threadsdev for being such a warm and welcoming community. I practically live here.

That's great to hear.

I prefer a Dodge...

Would I have achieved so much intergration with VB - I doubt it. Threads is the centre of my site, even when people are using major non threads parts of the software - as they still retain threads features even when using other software.

I suppose my only suggestion to all this, would be for all thread variables & classes to be called something very unique so that no clashing will occur

Yes threads has bloated - but this has nothing to do with threads - it is all down to the loads of extra scripts that threads allows me to intergrate with it

I still prefer a Dodge... that is, unless you are giving me a mazerati

Nissan.

Jeep

Pizza!

ok, I change my vote to pizza too, I didn't know we could vote on food.

Gellato!

Didn't know we could vote for food either.

gellato for desert, pizza most any other time

Chips Ahoy!

[]http://www.joshuapettit.com/beta/ubbthreads/uploads/678-chipsahoy.gif[/]

SEAFOOD!

Lobster, crab, Lobster, clams, Loster, shrimp, Lobster, scallops, Lobster... Did I mention Lobster?

[]Scream said:
SEAFOOD!

Lobster, crab, Lobster, clams, Loster, shrimp, Lobster, scallops, Lobster... Did I mention Lobster? [/]

Yuck

I don't eat any seafood.
If it swims.... I don't eat it.

(cows and chickens don't swim... or don't swim well anyway. )

Typical - Pink goes off a for a few days, and the thread goes off topic - he will not be happy