Hi all,
I've converted the SubTalk bulletin board to WebBBS 2.25 software. This has a lot of new features that I thought it was worth it to convert.
We made the switch from the old WWWBoard system for a number of reasons. WebBBS provides a number of administration features that will make my life easier and at the same time provide a ton of useful new features to you, the faithful surfer.
First and foremost, the display of the message index is completely generated by a CGI script allowing full customization of the display. The script uses web "cookies" to retain your preferences from visit to visit. You can also change between threaded view and chronological view, view old messages, and search the messages from the Search/Personalize Display page.
Archiving of posts is now "automatic" in the sense that by default it will only display posts made in the last week. To view posts that are older, you can visit the Search/Personalize Display page and change your preferences for this session. The Archive posts remain threaded and part of the active WebBBS for followup and searching purposes.
Other new features that will possibly be implemented are E-mail notification of responses and automatic generation of an E-mail "digest" of posts that you can subscribe to. This feature is still under evaluation.
WebBBS also prevents duplicate submission of the same post and has better file locking to prevent accidental overwriting of posts.
The old posts from the old SubTalk system will be available in the NNTP archives at news://nycsubway.org/subtalk for the foreseeable future. It is unlikely they will be folded into the new system.
Enjoy!
-Dave