InstantASP Community Forums / InstantForum.NET v3.4 / Suggestions & Requests

Please improve the post management interface...

Tinaja — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 14:13:50 GMT

I just posted a question regarding how you make a post "sticky" in the general forums. I finally found the option in the "manage posts" section and I am requesting that you make this a little easier to use. For one thing, when you click on manage posts, you see post ID's and the post subjects, but no forums information. In a forum with high traffic, this would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

May I suggest a button (or series of buttons) that appears in the forums themselves when you're logged in as an admin (in addition to the existing administration control panel)? I would rather read the forums like everyone else, and be able to click on an icon in the post itself to manage a specific post, or modify a forum by clicking on an icon in the forum headers.

This shouldn't be too much to add for 4.0, right? You have all the management code written already - it's just a matter of adding the icons and the linking code, which is also simple. This would make the administrator's job much much easier by giving them a choice of how to manage their forums, and keep your software at the top of everyone's list due to ease of use. You would certainly make this administrator happy enough to recommend you to my colleagues.

EnableSessionState = True

AMulroy — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 10:38:48 GMT

This was pretty time consuming...

The server that I just installed InstantForum on required me to go through all the aspx pages and add EnableSessionState="true" to the page directive. If I didn't add EnablesSessionState="true" to the page directive I got the following error on page load:

Session state can only be used when enableSessionState is set to true, either in a configuration file or in the Page directive

single sign on

dhahnengress — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:38:30 GMT

Hallo,

how can I use a network login and password instead of creating new user accounts. Our firm does not want to generate additional user accounts in the Forum if the network login id can be used. Please let me know.Is it possible if you have active directory that you log on the network and that you don't have to log on a second time to come in the forum.

max. members

dhahnengress — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:36:19 GMT

Hallo,

Is it possible to have more then 2000 active members with this forum.

language Dutch?

dhahnengress — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:33:55 GMT

Hallo,

Is it possible to get this forum in Dutch language?

IP Addressses

Allan (tweakxp.com) — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:44:52 GMT

I'd very much like mods and admins to be able to see member IP addresses on their posts rather than have to search for them in the admin panel. On high volume forums where there are sometimes problem members, it's highly beneficial to be able to identify them quickly by IP address.

Manage Forums --> Manage Forums

AMulroy — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:08:23 GMT

This issue is very similar to my "Forum Groups --> Manage Groups" post

Issue #2

I'm still in AdminCP

I clicked Manage Forums (under Manage Forums) and the screen that appears is what you see in the attached screen shot editforums.gif.

Then if I click any of the buttons in the grid "Edit Forum", "Permissions", or "Delete" I get the screen you see in attached screen shot editforums_postback.gif

It seems like none of the events are firing....or they're firing and not getting handled.

???????????????????????

MaxLength Property values not correct

AMulroy — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 11:01:35 GMT

The MaxLength property values are not correct on join.aspx, logon.aspx and possibly other forms. I haven't gotten through the entire forum app yet.

I noticed when I registered here that the same problem exists because I couldn't enter in my entire email address. I had to use an alternate email address in order to register.

Examples: the database allows 255 chars for the email address but only 35 chars in the email field. The password can only be 32 chars, but the password field allows 100 chars.

Thought you might want to know.

One feature that would make IF stand out in the crowd

Mark Christianson — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 11:59:11 GMT

As Ive looked over many forums and countless user requests for forums to do particular things one thing Ive noted is that most webmasters agree integration is the toughest part of creating a quality forum on our sites.

What no forum Ive ever seen has allowed me to do is define a table and fields where an existing username and password are stored.

Imagine installing a forum and then you can either choose to use the installed user table and create all new users OR, define a table name and the fields for username and password (basically tell the forum to map itself to other tables and fields) and tie into an existing data store of users.

Now, I have only thought briefly about the logistics and coding of such a feature but the point is.. if I had 2000 users in a subscriber database and a lot of time and/or money spent building a user management system, it could be hugely beneficial to install the IF forum and then tell it to look to myTable.UName and myTable.Passwrd for its user listings.

Well, thats my epiphany for the month... what does everyone think? Am I out of my mind or would something that did this allow people to quickly link up existing users with an IF forum?

Comments?

IP: Special Quotes

Mark Christianson — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 12:04:08 GMT

Ok, let me START by saying Im not asking for this for the upcoming release (lord knows we dont need further feature creep) but one thing that I noticed that I thought was kind of cool was the specialized quotes on this Invision Powerboard.

http://www.sg1archive.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10711&view=findpost&p=270515

The spoilers are hidden unless YOU click on them to show them. And each quote has a small icon that links back to the original post.

Pretty cool I think.

Polls

Dean K — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 07:21:32 GMT

Is it possible to add poll as a topic? Somthing folks can select via a radio button, checkbox etc?

Multiple Categories

SueK — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 08:20:56 GMT

I would like users to be able to belong to multiple categories so that they can have access, defined by the administrator, to specific lists but not others. We have people who belong, for instance, to multiple committees and they should only be able to see the lists for their committees, and not other committees, but each person has a different pattern of committee membership. Perhaps this is in the current release, but I can't find it.

On another note, I would LOVE to be a tester for the new release because we desperately need to tie it to a backend database that would appear much easier with the new release. Is there a date for a beta/test option yet? Is there a way to participate? Thanks! -Susan

Plug-in architecture?

Sleazy — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:10:27 GMT

I have discovered quite a few features that I would like to add to the forum and I am sure that others have too. Being that this is a open source style application, the question I have is if the architecture of InstantForum designed to facilitate the ability to add new features and components in a modular fashion (ie, no recompile or snap-in style).

Thanks

We ever discuss locking a topic?

Mark Christianson — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:37:44 GMT

Earlier today I had need of locking up a topic... the gang found a dead horse and then found some clubs and wouldnt let up on the poor dead equine... went into the admin and was thinking I'd just lock that little bad boy up so nobody can post anymore and that would be the end of it... hmm... no simple LOCK TOPIC..

Administrators & Moderation

Neas — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 15:07:45 GMT

Since the purpose of an administrator is that she has total control of the forum, it seems to me that administrators should automatically be able to moderate all posts on moderated forums even without being explicitly granted moderation privileges in that forum. If the administrator does not want to do all the moderation herself, then she delegates specific forums to be moderated by the moderators. But she shouldn't have to grant herself moderator privileges in all the forums; she should have them by virtue of being an administrator.

Asp.net 2.0 + Xhtml 1.1

Neas — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:36:09 GMT

It seems that Microsoft is getting into Web standards with Asp.net 2.0. By default, all web controls will emit valid Xhtml 1.1. However, for browsers which don't support or render Xhtml 1.1 fully or correctly, the controls can emit markup compliant with past standards such as Html 4.01 or Xhtml 1.0 Transitional. (I'll be very disappointed if that turns out not to be the case.)

It would be a great innovation if InstantForum.NET 4.0 - or whichever version will be released after .NET 2.0 is released - could do the same and emit valid Xhtml 1.1. It would be a lot of work, but then all innovations are.

Initiative to halt comment spam...

Mark Christianson — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:39:12 GMT

http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html

Basically, you get these people who post thier links in your site in hopes of boosting thier own page rank on the search engines. Google has identified a need to block these links from getting credit in the search engines and has setup a tag that thier engine will use to ignore such links.

The blog community is worst hit on this so its started there but I would have a look at it and see if this isnt something that could be implemented into the IF forum as well.

Reasonable page size in Sort Forum Groups and in Sort Forums

Neas — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:33:32 GMT

Have a textbox - or a spin control - to accept Sort Order values. This is instead of having, for every single forum group or forum, an additional 500

Batch update in Sort Forum Groups and in Sort Forums

Neas — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:31:21 GMT

Allow admins to modify the sort order of potentially every forum group or of every forum all at the same time, and have an update button at the bottom to record the changes all at once. This is instead of updating the sort order of one forum group or forum, and then clicking update, and then having to wait for the page to reload before being able even to update the sort order of another forum group or forum.

BUG: Forum Description in Add New Forum

Neas — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:26:42 GMT

BUG 1: Whenever I attempt to create a forum with an empty forum description, either the software or ASP.NET throws an exception.

BUG 2: The Forum Description in Add New Forum seems not to be in the tab order. Tabbing between input controls skips Forum Description.

Ascending/Descending in Sort Forum Groups and in Sort Forums

Neas — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:23:22 GMT

Include the ability to determine whether the forum groups, or the forums within each group, are sorted ascending (up the numbers) according to their sort orders, or descending (down the numbers). Currently, the bbs sorts all of the forum groups and all of the forums descending, with no option to switch their order. This feature could take the form of a select list with two options, one for ascending and one for descending.

Disable image uploads from the editor?

Gregfnor — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:19:30 GMT

Hi guys!

I may be missing something, but is there a way to disable image uploads from the editor?

Thanks,

Greg

Checkboxes in Manage Permissions

Neas — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:18:37 GMT

Simply have a list of member groups with checkboxes next to them, instead of the complex two-pane, four-button moving-them-around system.

Archiving Old Messages

greddin — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 13:10:32 GMT

Is there a way to archive old messages in the forum? Ideally automatically by setting a date?

Thank you,

-Greg

Posts

jp123 — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:29:14 GMT

When a members posts to a moderated forum, they can then edit without it being moderated. It would be good if this 'edited post' could be moderated once more before going live (rejoining the waiting to be moderated queue).

Also showing when any post is edited 'Last edited 12.30' etc

Edit: Ooops - forgot to add that searching for users via their e-mail address would be very useful instead of just their username as usernames are sometimes forgotten.

New member registration email alert & auto-responce message!

yewya — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:13:25 GMT

1. I would like to be notified by email when a new member registers.

2. I would like each new member registration to recieve an auto-response "Welcome" message of my choice.

New version and new language

shapper — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:44:36 GMT

Hello,

I have two questions:

1. When will a portuguese version be available?

2. When will a new version be launched?

I will buy this forum but i need a portuguese version and if a new version with new features is to be released soon then i would like to know.

Thanks,

Migue

Limit size of "signature"

Minnie — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 16:46:24 GMT

Is there any way to limit the size of the "signature"? Lots of the ladies who use forums that I frequent love to create signatures with HUGE graphics (either images or lots of "text" that forms a graphic). This can literally take up 3 screen inches of space, such that you can only get 1-2 topic responses per screen! I really want to limit them to only the equivalent of 4 lines at 12pt. This should be enough for their name, the names of their husband and kids and where they're from.

Search option to find posts with attachments

ginog — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 15:24:06 GMT

on our forums (http://forums.sccm.org/), our users commonly share ICU protocols with each other. Many of them may be looking for a specific one and would only like to display the topics which contain attachments.

.gino

Converter from other boards

AWeX — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 05:43:23 GMT

Hi,

we want to buy your fantastic forum software.
in the moment we use the WBB 2.2.0 Forum software (http://www.woltlab.de).

What can we do to convert our 40.000 Posts ?

Thanks!

Email/Global PM admin announcer

Mark Christianson — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 12:26:06 GMT

A good thing to include in a future release is a tool for the admin to send out email or PM (this should be a choice for the admin which they want to send) messages to the users.

In a situation where something major may be instituted (like me clearning out old accounts with no activity etc) it would be good to be able to fire off a message to all users informing them that the change is going to happen (or did happen).

Admin: PM Cleaner

Mark Christianson — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 12:23:45 GMT

Just thinking... how many people on my boards simply never clean out the PM. I was thinking that there could be an admin that would report on total PM by user and/or totals so that PM chat monsters can be told to clear out the old... maybe even have some manual override where the admin can clean out PMs older than x days old. Wouldnt be able to read them.. thats privacy.. but could force a manual archive in the event the PMs start stacking up.

Hot Issue: Forum level moderators and a new twist.

Mark Christianson — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 09:43:44 GMT

First off, I need to reiterate my need for forum level moderators, those individuals I can assign to moderated and unmoderated topics that have the ability to move, rename, edit, delete topics so that I can delegate some authority to my fairly high traffic board.

Next... I have paid subscribers, these subscribers are in thier own member group and have access to additional forums, I would like to setup my forums to moderate new topics only... but this only effects the non subscribed users, this would spur more paid members because it would remove this delay in thier post and ultimately improve the level of content since your instigators and boneheads wouldnt want to pay to make stupid posts.

One last thing... and this is gingerbread... if your in a group (my paid subscribers for instance) Im wondering if there is a good way to assign an icon to denote folders with availability beyond the "registered users". This way if you look at all the forums.. you'd see which ones are "additional" that you have access to vs the ones the general public sees. Obviously if you dont have access you wouldnt see anything so the icon just helps those higher up the food chain to differentiate forums... thus keeping someone from wondering why a new topic or post isnt getting the attention they figured it might.

Lessons Learned... Mass changes etc

Mark Christianson — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 15:05:46 GMT

Well, in doing really crazy stuff, Im learning what new features we should be looking for...

I 86d a bunch of users in a raw sql call via SQL EM and since Referential Integrity isnt on... I dropped a whole bunch of users but gained a whole lot of orphaned records. Its apparently making IF crazy by having the number of pages show based on posts but they dont show up IN the the actual thread/topic.

I think there should be two ways of bouncing a user... one is a full on delete... deletes them and all the posts they ever made... a complete user abortion so to speak... then another delete should remove the user from the members table but leave all the topics and posts... WHY? Well, imagine a user has been around and made a lot of contributions.. if you delete them.. the topics or threads they posted might still be relevant and yet without parts of the thread.. the whole thread could be useless because it would appear that the other members are just talking to themselves... At the very lease maybe the WHOLE wipe should leave thier name yet modify all posts to read [User Removed] or something.

Post counts.. obviously since I have orphans... post counts might be hosed up... A couple users got nailed in my zeal and in putting them back in... they signed up under thier old username and I manually went in and updated thier ID to match the old ID and reunite them with thier posts... worked fine.. except thier post counts dont reflect the additional old posts... need a tool in the admin (I used this in snitz) that will force all post counts and page counts in the system to reset... a RECOUNT.

Admin interface to generate a list of users who have not accessed the forum in a set period of time... this way admins could get a list of users who might have abandoned thier accounts... add the ability to mass email this same list so that an admin might be able to say "Your account has not been active in [insert your date period here] days/months/years and is subeject to termination, if you intend on remaining a member of our forum please login sometime in the next x days to ensure you dont miss anything"

... along with this tool, a DELETE key bound to the delete types mentioned above so an admin can then neatly remove one or all old accounts.

PS. Maybe archive option to dump list to .csv for record keeping may be a good step.

Member "Time Out"

Mark Christianson — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:34:58 GMT

I read about a board featuring this kind of lesser than a ban punishment. Moderators and Admins' could effectively short term ban a member... give a couple day TIME OUT.

Might be an excellent item to add when you get into building the new power moderators we've been talking about.

Sub Forums?

Gary — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 04:37:09 GMT

Is there an ETA for Sub Forums?

Adding images to the topic header

simonettaj — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 03:19:08 GMT

Is there a way to add an image other than a message icon to the topic heading?

I want to setup a review site and have topics like digital cameras, DVD's, clothes and so on as individual topics or forums and have pictures next to the heading text so its more attractive to the eye.

Moderator Visibility

Peter67 — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 03:15:27 GMT

I think it would be nice if you could make the "Moderator" title stand out a little. I was thinking you could make the "Moderator" text in a bold red color and maybe even throw in a small gavel image.

Just a thought.

Peter

Forum Polls

Triniti — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 10:28:00 GMT

I would like to see polls within threads like on the jelsoft messageboard.

Thanks.

Name of sender in emails

John Russell — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 02:44:53 GMT

Could I also suggest that there be an option in the config file to add the NAME of the sender of emails. At present, all emails from the board come from a simple email (i.e. something@somwhere.com). I tried to format the email in the configuration file as the "standard NAME SURNAME <something@somewhere.com>" and it wasn't having any of it!