Joe Siegler
08-04-2006, 03:12 PM
Hey gang. There's a new release of the vBulletin software online now. This is the long awaited vBulletin v3.6. There's a ton of changes, both behind the scenes and publically with this. I will try and run down some of the more relevant issues in this post. If you care to read the entire list of features, you can do so in this thread (http://www.vbulletin.com/go/36features) over at the vBulletin support forums.
Anyway, here's some of the new stuff in this version:
Multiquote: This will allow you to tag multiple posts that you wish to respond to by clicking a small button on each post. When you actually reply, all the quoted text will be in there.
Mark Forum Read Changes: If you wish to mark a forum read, you can simply click its status icon on the index page and the change will be processed without a reload. Likewise, if you mark a forum read while inside a forum, doing that will no longer force you "up one step" in the category list; you'll remain where you are.
Quick Edit Reason: When doing a quick edit to one of your posts, you can now leave a reason why without going into the full reply screen.
Infraction System: This is a new way of keeping control over troublemakers. Basically a user can have an infraction tagged onto their account, and if enough of them are built up over time, further action can be automatically taken. I've yet to figure out the system and how exactly it will be implemented here, but I will eventually use it once I figure out a scale that I feel can work.
Buddy List/Ingore List: The Buddy & Ignore lists are easier to use now.
Signature Permissions: In the past, the only control I had over signatures was a total character limit, as wel as whether to allow images or not. Well, this new version gives me complete control over every aspect of what can go into a signature. Further info on how I've implemented this are detailed elsewhere in this post.
RSS Poster Robot: One intersting new feature is where vB can read rss posts, and create threads out of what it finds in there. I've been testing this for awhile on my test board here, and it does show promise, but the feature doesn't work exactly correct (has to do with formatting of inbound text). I reported it as a bug, and was told it'd get fixed in the next version of the software. For now I'm not using this, but eventually will, not sure exactly how quite yet.
PM Restrictions: You can now choose to restrict inbound private messages to only people on your buddy list. Adminstrators (me) and Moderators are expemt from this restriction and can always send a PM if needed.
Private Message Warning: Some of you guys are private message hogs. I can see that by the statistics. The system will now send you a warning message if you get to 90% of your capacity. Remember, it's not meant to be a message archive system. :)
Image Attachment Thumbnails: If you post a message with an image file attachment, said thumbnail will now have the image dimensions and size posted with it (similar to what Imageshack does). This is only for attachments, not inlined images.
Thread redirects: If myself or one of the staff move your thread from one area to another and leave behind a thread redirect, said redirect can now be set to remove itself after a certain amount of time.
As I said before, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a huge amount of new things in this software. Not all of them are things that you will see; there's a big amount of control panel/admin type stuff. However, you should go check out vB's thread on all this (http://www.vbulletin.com/go/36features). They go into a lot of detail about everything I mentioned above, as well as showing you the complete list - there's other stuff I haven't mentioned.
Today when I installed this new version of the software, I went through all the bajillion settings that vBulletin has, and checked into all of them to see if they were still relevant (if old settings), or what needed to be used from the new stuff. In going through all this, there's a few changes to the way some things run here. This is a detail of what's changed:
Changed the userlist behaviour so that you have to have at least one post to be in the user list. Don't need to show inactive accounts, as they're not really "accounts" if they don't do anything, eh? :)
Changed the number of lines the code tag will need before scrollbars are inserted in the post from 30 to 25.
Changed the time limit for editing your own post from one day to two. After that, you can't edit your old posts anymore. FYI, you have 5 minutes after posting to change your post's title, and after 3 minutes your post will get "edited by" in it (no changes on these two).
Changed the display of who is logged in at the bottom of the forums. You now have to be logged in to see that.
Changed the number of days to show a future calendar event from 1 to 3.
Changed the flood time on private messages from 60 to 30 to match the flood setting for public posts.
Signature limits are now in effect - this is a new feature, and any changes to your signature will be bound to these rules. The software won't let you get around them. This is an attempt to reel in some of the really out of control signatures around here. There's plenty of people who have 10-12 lines signatures yet post about one or two lines of text. Or have alternating color in every other letter in their sig, or have tried font size 7 lettering, etc... I've left in some of the controls, so there is some semblance of creativity, but I'm not allowing for the archy that used to exist in the old system. All existing signatures are as is, because I didn't feel it fair to wipe out everyone's signature all at once just to make everyone conform. The overhwelming majority of sigs are fine. But for people who are outside the boundaries here, if we see the sig, we'll send something privately to this user about it. Anyway, here are the limits - this is taken from the control panel area, and shows all the options available for sig control:
Max characters including BBCode: 750
Max characters excluding BBCode: 500
Max lines: 5
Allow Color BBCode: Yes
Allow Size BBCode: Yes
Max BBCode Size: 2 (regular sig text is 1 - your message text default is 2)
Allow Font BBCode: No
Allow Alignment BBCode: No
Allow List BBCode: No
Allow Link BBCode: Yes
Allow Code BBCode: No
Allow PHP BBCode: No
Allow HTML BBCode: Hell No
Allow Quote BBCode: No
Allow Image Code: HELL NO!
Allow Smilies: No
Allow HTML: OVER MY DEAD BODY!
That's about it - if you have any questions, feel free to ask. But I also urge you to read the thread (http://www.vbulletin.com/go/36features) on vBulletin.com's site which goes into further detail.
Anyway, here's some of the new stuff in this version:
Multiquote: This will allow you to tag multiple posts that you wish to respond to by clicking a small button on each post. When you actually reply, all the quoted text will be in there.
Mark Forum Read Changes: If you wish to mark a forum read, you can simply click its status icon on the index page and the change will be processed without a reload. Likewise, if you mark a forum read while inside a forum, doing that will no longer force you "up one step" in the category list; you'll remain where you are.
Quick Edit Reason: When doing a quick edit to one of your posts, you can now leave a reason why without going into the full reply screen.
Infraction System: This is a new way of keeping control over troublemakers. Basically a user can have an infraction tagged onto their account, and if enough of them are built up over time, further action can be automatically taken. I've yet to figure out the system and how exactly it will be implemented here, but I will eventually use it once I figure out a scale that I feel can work.
Buddy List/Ingore List: The Buddy & Ignore lists are easier to use now.
Signature Permissions: In the past, the only control I had over signatures was a total character limit, as wel as whether to allow images or not. Well, this new version gives me complete control over every aspect of what can go into a signature. Further info on how I've implemented this are detailed elsewhere in this post.
RSS Poster Robot: One intersting new feature is where vB can read rss posts, and create threads out of what it finds in there. I've been testing this for awhile on my test board here, and it does show promise, but the feature doesn't work exactly correct (has to do with formatting of inbound text). I reported it as a bug, and was told it'd get fixed in the next version of the software. For now I'm not using this, but eventually will, not sure exactly how quite yet.
PM Restrictions: You can now choose to restrict inbound private messages to only people on your buddy list. Adminstrators (me) and Moderators are expemt from this restriction and can always send a PM if needed.
Private Message Warning: Some of you guys are private message hogs. I can see that by the statistics. The system will now send you a warning message if you get to 90% of your capacity. Remember, it's not meant to be a message archive system. :)
Image Attachment Thumbnails: If you post a message with an image file attachment, said thumbnail will now have the image dimensions and size posted with it (similar to what Imageshack does). This is only for attachments, not inlined images.
Thread redirects: If myself or one of the staff move your thread from one area to another and leave behind a thread redirect, said redirect can now be set to remove itself after a certain amount of time.
As I said before, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a huge amount of new things in this software. Not all of them are things that you will see; there's a big amount of control panel/admin type stuff. However, you should go check out vB's thread on all this (http://www.vbulletin.com/go/36features). They go into a lot of detail about everything I mentioned above, as well as showing you the complete list - there's other stuff I haven't mentioned.
Today when I installed this new version of the software, I went through all the bajillion settings that vBulletin has, and checked into all of them to see if they were still relevant (if old settings), or what needed to be used from the new stuff. In going through all this, there's a few changes to the way some things run here. This is a detail of what's changed:
Changed the userlist behaviour so that you have to have at least one post to be in the user list. Don't need to show inactive accounts, as they're not really "accounts" if they don't do anything, eh? :)
Changed the number of lines the code tag will need before scrollbars are inserted in the post from 30 to 25.
Changed the time limit for editing your own post from one day to two. After that, you can't edit your old posts anymore. FYI, you have 5 minutes after posting to change your post's title, and after 3 minutes your post will get "edited by" in it (no changes on these two).
Changed the display of who is logged in at the bottom of the forums. You now have to be logged in to see that.
Changed the number of days to show a future calendar event from 1 to 3.
Changed the flood time on private messages from 60 to 30 to match the flood setting for public posts.
Signature limits are now in effect - this is a new feature, and any changes to your signature will be bound to these rules. The software won't let you get around them. This is an attempt to reel in some of the really out of control signatures around here. There's plenty of people who have 10-12 lines signatures yet post about one or two lines of text. Or have alternating color in every other letter in their sig, or have tried font size 7 lettering, etc... I've left in some of the controls, so there is some semblance of creativity, but I'm not allowing for the archy that used to exist in the old system. All existing signatures are as is, because I didn't feel it fair to wipe out everyone's signature all at once just to make everyone conform. The overhwelming majority of sigs are fine. But for people who are outside the boundaries here, if we see the sig, we'll send something privately to this user about it. Anyway, here are the limits - this is taken from the control panel area, and shows all the options available for sig control:
Max characters including BBCode: 750
Max characters excluding BBCode: 500
Max lines: 5
Allow Color BBCode: Yes
Allow Size BBCode: Yes
Max BBCode Size: 2 (regular sig text is 1 - your message text default is 2)
Allow Font BBCode: No
Allow Alignment BBCode: No
Allow List BBCode: No
Allow Link BBCode: Yes
Allow Code BBCode: No
Allow PHP BBCode: No
Allow HTML BBCode: Hell No
Allow Quote BBCode: No
Allow Image Code: HELL NO!
Allow Smilies: No
Allow HTML: OVER MY DEAD BODY!
That's about it - if you have any questions, feel free to ask. But I also urge you to read the thread (http://www.vbulletin.com/go/36features) on vBulletin.com's site which goes into further detail.