Message board redesign

[34inXXIII]

One of the site's latest news articles (http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=6135) states that the imminently redesigned Bengals.com will eventually have a redesigned message board as well. Is there anything the administrators can share with us before the changes take effect, specifically regarding the improved funtionality resulting from fan-feeback that is mentioned in the article? Even if few details are available, any idea if the change is anticipated to take effect prior to Week 1? Thanks!

[Buckeyehitman]

I read that and it peaked my curiosity as well. I wonder if we will be able to embed youtube videos into our posts or add motion signatures, that'd be pretty cool.

[Cobra Commander]

Hopefully we are going back to Invision Power Board, or something similar. This current format is bad, and can be a pain to post sometimes.Personally, I think this board software is a large reason why the board doesn't get much traffic.

[Joe from Florence]

Yes 34, hopefully we can answer some questions about the new boards.
We have listened to everyone since we went with this current software, and as well as the majority of members on here, the admins also were not very happy with the new software we switched to. As well as the members having many issues, on the admin side there were many issues also we were not happy with.
All the input by you all have made this change possible.....and we thank you all for it.
Now for the good stuff......the new software is not going to be the same software we used to have, but pretty close. The enhancements it offers is very similar to many of the things we used to have.
The software is Vbulletin. and has as i've stated many of the features we used to have. We've been in the works for several weeks now and the switch over will hopefully take place very soon.
Here are some features the new board will offer.
Private Messaging

Pop-up notification when new PM received (just like the good old days)General

View and manage subscribed threads and forums
Calendar event reminders for subscribed events
Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when new buddies come online
Signature Editor
Email and password changes require current password
Joinable Public User GroupsPosts

Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available
Supports BB Code in posts
Supports HTML in post
Smilies
Avatars
Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages
Attachment images (.gif,.jpg, etc) are no longer in the database (optional, via Admin CP)
Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote)
Preview post option
Post rating
User reputation
Polls
Post Reporting - report posts to moderators (has to be easier than the current way we do it)
User post count
Admin tools for Posts - edit/delete/move/ etc
Preview safe attachmentsMembers

Member List
Member Search
User Style picker
Private Messaging
Buddy list (this is cool, it should make it easier for us to see if eachother is on instead of going thru the entire list of members logged on)
Member Birthdays shown on Forum home (like the old boards)for those who remember the old boards, something we will have will be similar to the warnings we used to have on the old boards...now when a member breaks rules they are basically given infractions and after accumulating a certain amount they are automatically banned for a period of time, and when they break the rules again they are then banned....these can also be set so after a certain period of time the infractions can be set to automatically re-set.....(like a good behaviour thing)
One of the big features we will be getting back is the ability to see at the bottom of each thread are the list of members in that thread at that time!!!!!
I believe many will be very happy with the switch.....this should cure many of the ills we all have experienced with the current boards.

[Major Bludd]

Hopefully we are going back to Invision Power Board, or something similar. This current format is bad, and can be a pain to post sometimes.Personally, I think this board software is a large reason why the board doesn't get much traffic.

Definately, remember the good old days when it was packed like every day. It used to be jammed full. I loved the old boards. I want my old angry smilie back too. This one doesn't quite facilitate the anger I am trying to express.[:@]

[Hachi Go]

Yes 34, hopefully we can answer some questions about the new boards.
We have listened to everyone since we went with this current software, and as well as the majority of members on here, the admins also were not very happy with the new software we switched to. As well as the members having many issues, on the admin side there were many issues also we were not happy with.
All the input by you all have made this change possible.....and we thank you all for it.
Now for the good stuff......the new software is not going to be the same software we used to have, but pretty close. The enhancements it offers is very similar to many of the things we used to have.
The software is Vbulletin. and has as i've stated many of the features we used to have. We've been in the works for several weeks now and the switch over will hopefully take place very soon.
Here are some features the new board will offer.
Private Messaging

Pop-up notification when new PM received (just like the good old days)General

View and manage subscribed threads and forums
Calendar event reminders for subscribed events
Pop-up auto-refreshing buddylist with ICQ-style alerts when new buddies come online
Signature Editor
Email and password changes require current password
Joinable Public User GroupsPosts

Linear, Threaded, Hybrid display views available
Supports BB Code in posts
Supports HTML in post
Smilies
Avatars
Optional WYSIWYG or standard editors for posts and Private Messages
Attachment images (.gif,.jpg, etc) are no longer in the database (optional, via Admin CP)
Quick reply box (with optional "forced" click on post to quote)
Preview post option
Post rating
User reputation
Polls
Post Reporting - report posts to moderators (has to be easier than the current way we do it)
User post count
Admin tools for Posts - edit/delete/move/ etc
Preview safe attachmentsMembers

Member List
Member Search
User Style picker
Private Messaging
Buddy list (this is cool, it should make it easier for us to see if eachother is on instead of going thru the entire list of members logged on)
Member Birthdays shown on Forum home (like the old boards)for those who remember the old boards, something we will have will be similar to the warnings we used to have on the old boards...now when a member breaks rules they are basically given infractions and after accumulating a certain amount they are automatically banned for a period of time, and when they break the rules again they are then banned....these can also be set so after a certain period of time the infractions can be set to automatically re-set.....(like a good behaviour thing)
One of the big features we will be getting back is the ability to see at the bottom of each thread are the list of members in that thread at that time!!!!!
I believe many will be very happy with the switch.....this should cure many of the ills we all have experienced with the current boards.


sounds good Joe!

for those of you who want to see what a Vbulletin board looks like, i did some searching

here's one..... http://www.sports-boards.net/forums/

another...... http://arizonasportsfans.com/vb/ (http://arizonasportsfans.com/vb/)

and another...... http://www.footballboards.com/ (http://www.footballboards.com/)

they look a lot similar to the Invision days..... which is a good thing as i'm sure most will agree.

Joe, do you know how customizable Vbulletin is by chance, i mean are we going to have the skins, etc that we have now or do those go by the wayside?

Thanks for making this possible.

[Cobra Commander]

Will this change fix the nested quotes problem?

[Cobra Commander]

Definately, remember the good old days when it was packed like every day. It used to be jammed full. I loved the old boards. I want my old angry smilie back too. This one doesn't quite facilitate the anger I am trying to express.[:@]
Yeah, I don't like these angry smilies. I also don't like that we don't have a laugh smiley either. I do wish we can take this smiley to the new board though... [:S]