Ultimate BB Helping Sites to Build Web Communities

Prime-Web’s Ted O’Neill yesterday
released a new version of his Ultimate BB, or UBB system.


UBB 3.0 is being used on sites to allow interactivity and to create a sense
of community among visitors. The bulletin board system is full-featured,
customizable, and, best yet, it’s free.


Ted O’Neill (ted@prime-web.com),
Director of Digital Media at Prospect Associates, a communications firm in
Rockville, MD, first created the UBB in early 1996. O’Neill continued the
tradition started by Matt Wright
(WWWBoard), Selena Sol, and Gunther Berznieks (Bulletin Board), and
developed the system to be as full featured as he could make it.


Features of the Ultimate Bulletin Board Version 3 include:



  • Up to 9 customizable forum names and descriptions per UBB
  • Support for users who have strict CGI-BIN policies
  • Forums that can be individually switched off or on
  • Support for HTML within messages as well as UBB Code (a proprietary
    HTML-like code)
  • A moderator that can be set up for each forum
  • Built-in registration system
  • User permissions that are set by administrators
  • User profiles, which may be updated by users themselves
  • Extensive administrative features accessible through the browser
  • A classic, clean design
  • An FAQ generated online


Many top-notch Web sites are using UBB for their forums instead of the
expensive commercial BB systems available. Mecklermedia’s BrowserWatch has been using the
UBB for the last couple of weeks with successful results. The system
enables BrowserWatch to
feature several different moderated topics in which users can discuss the
latest Web browser ins and outs.


Version 3.0 enables administrators to be able to edit, delete, and prune
messages from the forums. Messages my be mass-removed based on the number
of days they have been on the system. The BB may be customized to match the
look of the site, including graphics and logos. Users may set preferences
so that when they come to the board only a certain number of days worth of
messages are displayed.


The source code is included, and developers are free to modify it
as they see fit. The only catch is that the very small copyright notices
must remain in place. There is no support available, but Prime-Web has
set up a forum specifically about the UBB so that users may report problems
and
answer each other’s questions if Ted is not available.


For more information, or to download the UBB for your own site, visit
Prime-Web’s UBB Web
site
.

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