![]() ![]() |
Re: "Death Valley Talk" Message Board...Posted by Red Scout on March 24, 2002 at 11:37:49: In Reply to: Re: "Death Valley Talk" Message Board... posted by Last Chance Rand on March 23, 2002 at 00:25:47: I have a bit of experience running web-based BBS systems. Though I am a newcomer here, and would certainly not presume to suggest how you should run things, you might nevertheless wish to check out a product called "WebBBS". It has a number of important advantages over WWWBoard -- especially as your number of posts grows larger. 1) Messages are stored as separate text files, not as "HTML pages". 2) The "Index Page" is assembled on the fly by your web server, according to preferences selected by each visitor, or according to default values chosen by the administrator. For example, you can configure WebBBS to always display the last "two weeks" or "one month's" worth of messages. This prevents the index page from becoming unbearably long. 3) Older messages remain accessible, either by searching or by changing "preferences"to display a longer date range. 4) WebBBS is written in Perl (just like WWWBoard). If you can run one, you can run the other. Nothing special is required from your hosting provider. 5) User preferences -- as well as their names & e-mail addresses, and the date of their last visit -- are stored in a "cookie". Name & e-mail do not need to be re-typed with every post, and visitors can easily sort & see just "new messages" since their last visit. My WebBBS installation receives 250-300 new posts each day, and has a total of nearly 300,000 messages. If this sounds interesting, check out WebBBS at the link below. I have no commercial interest in this product; I'm just a satisfied customer. And I suspect it will make your administration of this fine facility easier for you. Bill P.S. - WebBBS is free. The freely downloadable version is complete in every way, and not at all "crippled". If, and only if, you like it, you're invited to register the product for $50.
|