UBB Weekly caught up with T_T on the set of his latest project, "Examarama"UBBW: We've heard you've seen the board at SFA. What's you take on their "fluff," as Mr Capps has referred to it?
T_T: I think that place has always taken undue pride in every basement-dwelling would-be-Picasso that's registered at their site. The drawing of attention to their member count, the slapping on the back of the newest member, the continued references to their monthly hits. But to write everything they've done with their bulletin board off as excessive is a bit strong.
UBBW: Such as?
T_T: The who's online feature might come in handy once in a while around here. And I'd probably use private messages rather than emailing forumites.
UBBW: As a moderator, is there anything you think UBB's ought to have?
T_T: Auto-archiving. My fingers are so dead after moving a month's worth of Flameboard posts that I'd strangle Charles with them if they could move. But I've heard throught the grapvine that's he's procured the mysterious technology to implement this and is merely waiting until everything else for Flare2 is ready to go. Aesthically speaking, I'd like to simplify the moderating interface a lot. I'd have a simple "moderate" button on the bottom of each topic page which would bring up a pop-up box into which I'd punch in my username and password and submit. It would then display a unified little panel where I could lock, delete, move or archive the thread in question.
UBBW: Wow, you've given this some serious thought.
T_T: I've gone so far as to bug Charles to get rid of the little red X's in the first post of each thread because they serve as whole-thread-deleters and not single-post-deleters, which means they commit the cardinal sin of "appearing to be the same but not being the same." He had the audacity to tell me it couldn't be done. Hah!
UBBW: Well, isn't Charles meant to be know his stuff
T_T: He does, for the most part. I.. don't know if I should tell you this, though... he's struggled for years with style. I mean, at one point he was considering replacing icons with pastel multicolor <h6> text links. Agh! He may be a Sheep god, but he still shouldn't forsake the lowly icon.
UBBW: So, icons in Flare2?
T_T: Of course. Icons are the highest form of art.
UBBW: Speaking of style, what's you position on the controversial organic/boxy debate
T_T: Well, I'll obviously have to side against Frank. Organic all the way.
UBBW: Any other changes that come to mind?
T_T: I'd overhaul the thread date display thing. It doesn't jibe with the forum thread listing page splitting system.
UBBW: Huh?
T_T: Every thread in the forum that hasn't been archived should by default be displayed, just stuck a few pages back. You should be able to set from what date range threads appear on the first page of threads, but all the others should just have 50 or so all the way back to the point where they hit the archive.
UBBW: I think we got that.
T_T: I'd also like to add that if forums will continually shed threads to an auto-archiver, a thread count on the front page doesn't have much of a point.
UBBW: So, what exactly do you look for in a good-looking UBB?
T_T: How different it is from an unmodified UBB. The old logo to top-left, links & title to top-right formula is so ofer-done that the farther a forum gets from it, the better. That doesn't mean going to background images and over-complex icons.
UBBW: Again with the icons, eh?
T_T: (laughing) Yeah... I do have a bit of a thing for them, don't I?
Next week, UBB Weekly interviews Daryus Aden on implementing curry into UBB interfaces.
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The above post was mulled-over, composed, and posted during time Tom would have better spent on his plethora of homework and homework-related exercises. Now don't you feel special?
[This message has been edited by The_Tom (edited May 13, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by The_Tom (edited May 13, 2000).]
I just couldn't think of anything witty... hang on I'll change it now, but don't expect anything too... something... 
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