I'll post this as a 'sticky' here as a reminder to us what features have been added to ubb classic since the original 6.0 was released. It doesn't take into account the minor bugfixes releases, but does give us an idea of the more significant changes to the code. I would guess ~60-70% of the features you see added here began in some form as modifications of some type here at ubbdev
Here's Infopop's
ChangeLog which contains all features and bugfixes added for each major and minor version
I'll update this as releases are sent out:
UBB� 6.01 released (March 22, 2001)- Member Info screen.
- Floodcheck is now used on registration.
UBB� 6.1 Released (October 19, 2001)- Optional UBB� Accelerator for enhanced efficiency & speed.
- Custom user titles (admin definable).
- Greatly enhanced control panel member management & search features � search for members by an almost infinite combination of queries.
- Custom Graemlins (up to 25).
- New Wordlet� upgrade & management tool � now you no longer need to overwrite custom Wordlet text during upgrades.
- Entire file locking scheme changed to prevent corruption issues; depending upon server or load, some boards may appear to react more slowly because the various processes are being properly queued.
- Improved upgrade tool; allows admin to simply upload an upgrade zip and click the button to complete an upgrade.
- Ability to post without cookies (some functions still require).
- Control panel ban list feature now has "reverse ban" option (IP or email).
- Admin logging shows history of admin activities.
- Private messages outbox, including ability to see whether message has been read yet.
- Improved control panel entry area, with expanded hit counter and quick links to resources.
- �Update post indicators� link added to user profiles.
- Added dozens of other minor enhancements.
UBB version 6.2 released (January 28, 2002)- Enhanced tools for COPPA support
- User birth date field (required for COPPA, optional if you have not enabled COPPA)
- Post preview function
- Printer-friendly topic view
- XHTML templates (~99% compliant, thanks to Allen Ayres of UBBDev!)
- "Recent Visitors", a superior implementation of "Who's Online"
- UBB Accelerator updated to comply with PHP 4.1.0's new security model
- After a reply or edit, you are now taken to your post in the topic
- Enhancements to the user search feature (new searchable fields, such as IP at registration, IP at last post, and birth date)
- Topic authors may now toggle email notification by editing their post (they may turn it on if off, and off if on)
- Private forums may now be set to disallow new topics or replies (previously, new topics and replies were forced 'on')
- Added Recent Visitors Wordlet list to control panel
- Added email Wordlet list to control panel
UBB 6.2.1 Released (February 18, 2002)- introduces the new polling feature to the UBB
- Also added is a new Recent Visitors Admin review area that will allow Administrators to opt to show a more in-depth look at recent visitors including guests and invisible users.
UBB.classic 6.3.0 released (May 09, 2002)- Added user avatars allowing the admin to specify avatar size, supply avatars, or allow users to link to an avatar.
- Users can choose whether to see other user avatars or not.
- Updated the search feature to use less memory and search more accurately.
- Added the ability for Admins to filter words from being searched for. This helps tailor the search for your site.
- Added the ability to turn off the display the home page link, as well as the contact us link.
- Updated the mail library for increased error checking and return of error warnings.
- Added custom Member Title Levels.
- Added the ability to create and use custom HTML and style templates.
- Added ability to import or export style sets to exchange with other UBB admins
- Added the ability to match a forum's transition templates to the forum.
- Update the message icons (same icons, just better cleaner looking).
- Added select all link to user search results.
- Added confirmation when deleting users.
- Remove the ability for an Admin to delete him/her self.
- Improved the "bread crumbs" navigation after using control panel functions.
- More XHTML improvements and fixed (thanks Allen Ayres).
UBB.classic 6.3.1 released (July 25, 2002)-
Mass Move - allows you to move many topics from one or more forums into another forum
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Control Panel Wordlets - the entire control panel has now been converted to use Wordlets, allowing easy translation
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Updated Wordlet editor - now uses pages for faster loading
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Updated Control Panel Entry - now includes more information & quick links to common functions
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Editable FAQ - the board FAQ can now be edited from the control panel
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Jump to New Posts link - Located at the top of each topic - when clicked, it takes users to the posts in that topic that were made after their last visit to the board. Also known as the "blue arrow".
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"Topic moved" icon - indicates if a topic was moved rather than closed.
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"Report Post" link - allows users to mail the forum moderator and board administrator about a post he or she feels is inappropriate.
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Mail topic starter on move - Administrators and Moderators now have the option of mailing the topic starter when his or her topic is moved
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New email preference for users - if toggled on by the board administration, users may now have a mailing form presented rather than their email address. Only registered members may mail others using the mail form.
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Admin reserved login & public names - both full and partial names may now be reserved using the Registration Settings area of the control panel
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Optional removal of Instant UBBCode� / Graemlin links from the posting template - the admin may now disable the Instant UBBCode� and Instant Graemlin links on the topic/reply/edit/private message forms. This option only disables the links, not the UBBCode or Graemlin features themselves.
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Updated JC Template set-
Misc. other changes and improvements-
New Control Panel layout - reworked to be even easier to use. Now uses Wordlets� entirely to make translation even easier.
UBB.classic 6.4 released (12/25/2002)- Content Islands that allow you to feature your board's content on the rest of your site. The Content Islands also support RSS news feeds.
- A searchable Community Directory.
- The ability for an Admin to view the board when it is turned off.
- Simplified Upgrade procedures. The "Upgrade Button" will now run any necessary maintanance procedures for you.
- Today's Active Topics is now a rolling 24 hour period rather then rolling over at midnight every night. Great if you have users in more than one time zone.
- User passwords in the uber cookie are now MD5 hashes.
- User level based permission to allow users to set their own custom titles.
- Time based edit options. Allows users to only edit their posts within an admin settable time frame after posting.
- Time based "edit by" options. Admins can set when the "edited by" message should appear, if at all.
- Toggle for last post column (and contents) in forum summary.
- Toggle for last post column (and contents) in topic list.
- Forum summmary last post now links to the actual post.
- "Re: " is now added before replies to topics in forum summary.
- Forum name in <title> tag in topic list has been added.
- Added <label> tags & some CSS magic to forms in the control panel for greater usability & accessability.
UBB 6.5 Released (February 21, 2003):
- Featured topics. (sticky threads)
- Private Message notification.
- Signature length limit adjustments for admin.
- Admins now have the ability to set the board to send a welcome PM to new registrants. The private message is customizable.
- New favicon.
- User adjustable date/time view. (timezones)
UBB.classic version 6.6 released (Sept. 4, 2003)
What's new? The entire control panel is what's new! This is not a re-skin or a cosmetic update. The entire control panel has been rewritten from scratch making it quicker to find the controls you need and making it easier to use them. It has been thoroughly modernized and greatly simplified and streamlined. Using DHTML, tabs, expandors, simplified wording, check boxes instead of radios, and more modern web standards we've made a control panel that is easy to use, less cluttered,and easy to expand upon. The new control panel does come with new browser requirements (requirements for the front end are still as they have been). Please see below for a note on these requirements.
Along with the redesign are some new functionality enhancements to even further make your administrating tasks easier, such as:
- Added the ability to prune more than one forum at a time
- You can delete declined members from the Moderation queue
- You can moderate user registration requests in the queue and opt to bypass sending notification email.
- Actions from the User search screen are far more streamlined.
- Mass mails can be sent directory from the user search results screen allowing for a more fine grained search and more targeted email lists. The former 200 user emails limit has also been removed.
- The 4 moderator per forum limit is gone. No more limit.
We've also added some other smaller updates.
- COPPA registration procedures updated.
- User email preferences are not filled in at registration time by default. The registrant now must opt in or out of mass emails at registration time.
Browser requirements (for the control panel)-
MSIE 5.5 or up for Windows
Netscape 6.2 and higher, all platforms
Opera 7.0 and higher, all platforms
MSIE 5.2 and higher for Mac
Safari 1.0
Any Gecko based browser
UBB.classic 6.7 released (02/03/2004)- Spider-friendly URL option to allow your board to be indexed by most major search engines.
- Member Moderation Queue notification mails now include quick links to approve or decline the new member directly.
- Import/export tool to import your data from competitor's products, as well as from other Infopop products.
- Individual forums may now have a default DaysPrune that overrides the user preference.
- Category enhancements, including style templates, category descriptions, the ability to hide categories, and collapse categories.
- Users may now subscribe to topics when replying.
- Unsubscription links are included in all topic subscription emails.
- Updated the My Profile page layout. New links have been added to your own post history and list of subscribed topics.
- New profile edit confirmation screen allows users to see a preview of their signatures and public profile information.
- User logins and visits are now tracked by date and IP. Tools to search for user activity using login and visit dates have been added to the Member Management area of the control panel.
- Administrators (only) may now view or add notes to a user profile via the control panel.
- A link has been added to a user's public profile that allows an admin to jump directly to that user's edit page.
- Multiple forums may be searched at once (a multiple select box is used instead of a drop-down menu), and categories may be searched. Admins must enable these features.
- New admin option to restrict public profile viewing to registered users only.
- New admin option to hide member numbers from view entirely on the front end.
- New admin option to hide the "Moderated by: " text inside a forum. This is to make things cleaner if there is no moderator.
- A new Quick Reply box has been added to the bottom of each topic. Admins or users may choose to hide the box. This saves one page view every time it is used, and saves two if you have the iframe post review feature turned on.
- New user preferences to check (or uncheck) the "Show Signature" or "Disable Graemlins in this post" boxes on the posting forms by default.
- Admins may now force all registered users to review the user agreement upon their next visit to the board. This will also trigger a date check if the user has not provided a birthday. This provides and easy way to ensure that your users see changes to your user agreement if you change it.
- The minimum age required to pass the age check is now admin-defined.
- New "Remember Me" box on the login form (checked by default) allows users to optionally be logged out at the end of their browser sessions.
- Users may now be given express permission to use an avatar, even if they normally could not. This control is available under the Permissions tab in the control panel edit profile page.
- Forums sorted by topic subject are now also indexed by date, meaning they can be sources for Content Islands, and can be the target of a prune or mass move.
- Updated the way Member and Forum metadata are built to ensure that we stay within many hosting provider memory limits.
- Updated age verification implementation, including, but not limited to, the changes noted above.
- The UBBCode page has been updated to properly use Wordlets.
- UBBCode and URLs are no longer included in signature length checks.
- Admins can now add users via the control panel.
- Control panel reskinned to match ubbcentral.com.