Wilford Tibbetts

Have to agree with my fellow IPB3 users here. The UCP could use some work. Takes me a bit, even now, to find settings to change. The last UCP was easy right out of the box.

Also, the comments section of the Profile/UCP. It could a reply-to link when someone leaves a comment that takes you directly to it's own discussion thread of sorts. If I'm not mistaken, vB has this. It's one of the few things I like about vB software.


Regards,

Wilford Tibbetts

I would love to see more attention put into the reputation system. Some suggestions:

1. Make people spread reputation around before being able to give the same person reputation again and allow the admin to set the number needed before they can give the same person rep again in the ACP.

2. The ability to disable a specific members ability to give reputation.

3. The ability for the admin to be able to change someones specific post reputation. I have had members accidentally give a member a negative point and they wanted to change it, but as an Admin, I am unable to do so.

4. The ability to leave comments about the reputation that only the person receiving it can see.

5. The ability to see where you got your reputation point from, and who gave it to you. Even better would be to have a setting so you can allow people to only see who gave them positive of negative reputation.

Here's one that I'm sure will get some +'s

Reverifying account information, namely, email addresses. Over time, some members may switch to a new email account and forget to update their account information to reflect this. So with that in mind, a few ACP settings.

Tools & Settings/Security
Enable account email re-verification? Yes/No
How long after notification before member loses access? [__] immediately/minutes/hours/days

Then, per member group
How often to re-verify email address? [__] days (0 to disable for that group)


When the member visits again, they get sent to a special page that tells them that for security purposes, they need to verify their information. They can be given the choice to do it right then or to continue without it at that point (unless the time limit is set to immediate). After the notice and the specified time period, any visits to the board will require that they verify their email address. What this would mean is that they would be shown the currently used email address, with the ability to change it. If they put in a different email address, then they need to enter it again (to make sure it's correct). After that, they press a button to verify and then click a link in the email they get. The email simply tells the board to reset their account (ie, account was last verified at date/time).


This would help keep email addresses current and in doing so, could reduce the risk of an email address being dropped, but then someone else making the same email address (like on sites where email addresses can drop and someone else can register the same email address). Because then all that new person has to do, if they know an account with that email exists, is do a password reset and then they can gain access to an established account.

Not only that but if you need to contact a member for any reason, it helps to know that you have a valid email address to reach them at. Also, if someone sends them a PM or if they are watching forums/topics/etc, when notifications are sent out, less chances of something bouncing.

This would be different from putting an account into "awaiting validation" mode, as it would be specially flagged to either give them a warning of impending doom (ie, account will become disabled) and once disabled, the account would be unusable until re-verified. This should also disable any other emails sent to the member (the aforementioned PM's and watched forums/topics notifications). That way if an account does end up with an invalidated email address, there won't be bouncing emails.

One other thought on this. If the email address IS changed during the re-verification process, an email should be sent to the old email address, giving notice of the change. The drawback is that if the account is closed/etc, it will bounce. But if someone is changing it without authorization, then the original account holder would be alerted to the action.

Also, changes during the re-verification process should be logged. Account name, old email address, new email address, IP used (as well as browser and OS type). For an admin that knows the member being affected, if they say it wasn't them and they see strange information (I know for a fact that they'd never us Windows! gasp! for example), then they can easily restore the account.

:D

What I want to see in 3.1.


Thread Tagging Option for users to ignore/hide threads based on tags. Option to make it so that when moderators ban a user the user's group is changed to the banned group. it is so annoying having to log into the admin CP and change a member's group manually. And it makes it extremely hard to make a system where banned members can view an appeal forum, because if they're banned by a moderator then there's no way to give them access to an appeals forum until the admin changes their group. No more hard coded special permissions for super moderators. I don't want my mods (or admins for that matter) mass deleting posts, but if I have super mods they're automatically allowed to mass delete and there's no way to set it so they can't. This seems so stupid when you realize that you have pretty much complete control over admin permissions yet all these super mod permissions can't be changed at all...

Also a few ideas;

Bump feature - to be able to bump topics, group permissions obviously.

Glance feature or Top 5 stats, this would be in the form of a box across the top of the main forum index page show the latest topics and replies

I would love the ability to override a usergroup's permissions on a per-forum basis the way you can with vBulletin.
Example: You run a company board, with a "help desk" forum, you want to give members the ability to open/close their own topics in that section, but not across the entire board. At present this cannot be done with IPB3, but it can with vBulletin.

I would also love a "changelog", such that when a member or moderator edits their post after so many minutes the edited-by link would bring up a post comparison option. This would be very useful, if a moderator edits a members post, as you could see what was edited out and compare the versions. It is also useful if a member tries to delete their posts by editing them as you could see what was previously written.

I would like to see the reputation system expanded to include the 'standard' features present in other systems, including the mods for IPB 2.3 and vBulletin:

When giving a member rep, member should be required to enter a reason. Members should be able to list in their profile, the different reps given to them by other members. Require members to rep X number of other members, before being allowed to rep the same member again (useful to prevent someone neg-repping the same person over and over).

With the Reputation System, I would like links in your profile to show what posts you have given and what posts you have received rep for.

OK guys, here is my view of IPB now I have had a chance to play with it properly on my own licence etc and what I think it is missing in comparison to vbulletin. To me these would be the key areas that should be concentrated on in order to pull vbulletin apart at the seams ;)

Search functionality - Yep, I can see this has been mentioned over and over so not gonna go into it. You guys know what it needs and I can see your working with it.

Modification area - This needs to be easily viewable to a new customer even if they cannot download. I had to go looking for it and this shouldnt be the case. This is of most importance to a lot of people. It also doesnt seem to have the 'flashyness' of the main website and looks to me as it needs a bit of overhall in order to make it more friendly. Things like people becoming coders/designers etc once they have given so much back to the comunity are a big thing over at vb.org in my opinion and would be a great idea for here. We all know coding is competition to be the best, so give the guys something to compete with. Mod of the month, coder tags, feedback etc (yes I know some of this is there however its not visible enough to a new user)

wysiwyg editor - When I make a piece of text bold, I want to see it bold. Im not interested in the bbcode tags as a user (however I should have the option to view them if I so wish). This to a none technical user of IPB is a massive massive issue which to you or me looks like nothing. However we are the admins not the registered users who struggle to shutdown their pc without a manual.


Will add more as I find them, as its clear your aim is to beat the biggest and you are in a possition at present to do so with ease ;) .. And personally I hope you do

On another note, if I can only find these three annoyances at present, you guys are doin damned well lol

OK guys,
I am currently running a vbulletin forum with a professional design set. My first and foremost worry about moving over to invision was the design of my forum. My thought behind this is that it is going to be a big enough move over to invision as it stands without the fact that the forum will look completely different.

NOW, bare in mind I only purchased invision less than 24 hours ago. I have almost managed to duplicate the look of my forum with only a very very basic knowledge of CSS and some knowledge of photoshop. How have I done this? I would seriously urge you to have a good read through the topic on this forum http://www.smartestcomputing.us.com/index.php?showtopic=37422

This tutorial, I would print out and have at the side of you throughout your transition. Its simple, and it works...... Dont worry about your skinning guys. IMO its easier than vbulletin 3.8 and at the end of the day, you would have to learn 4.0 anyways.