Lothy's Ramblings

Former Pros and Cons of ZetaBoards (ZetaBugs)

I made this gigantic list of bugs, quirks, and features I'd like to see incorporated when I was first investigating switching from IF to ZB. This is my public record of which of those concerns have been resolved. It is the supplement to another blog post of mine which is the running record of ongoing issues I'd still like to see resolved.

Bugs - Things that don't work like they should, miscellaneous quirks. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.

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• Preview button stopped working.
  
• Whichever "include sig in this post" option you initially choose can't be changed later (check/unchecking the box does nothing).
  
• Don't know if it's just for converted boards, but on IFS when you click a category to view only forums in that category, not all the forums show up.
  
• Skin changer doesn't work.
  
• Skinning system is messed up. When you make a new skin its CSS replaces all the other sets of CSS.
  
• Skinning system is messed up. When you edit the layout for one theme, it overwrites the layout for all themes.
  
• Forum rules don't show up in the forum!
  
• View Full Theme Preview in custom themes doesn't work (probably because of broken skinning system).
  
• When you're at Admin CP → Themes → Image Sets → Editing Image Set, the "Image Sets" link is clickable but when you click it you get "Error: The ID you selected is invalid. Error Code: 58008:161"
  
• The link to ZetaBoards at the bottom of the ACP has the address of "#".
  
• While member managers can't promote themselves to the root admin group, if there is another group in existence with full admin rights (co-admins, for example) then they can promote themselves to that group.
  
• When viewing a member's profile their avatar gets eaten.
  
• The "new poll" button doesn't show up in forums that have polls enabled. Why have a "New Poll" button in the Images section if the only poll-starting options are in a link on the "New Topic" page? Which is hard to fricking find. (They removed this button from ACP.)
  
• I still have to log into the ACP using the name "Lothlómendil" instead of "Lothlómendil".
  
• When you have a member group listed as forum moderator, clicking the link just takes you to the full member list.
  
• The old ZB logo is still in the ACP.
  
• The main ACP page still has information about the beta.
  
• The ACP's BBCode page's examples are messed up.
  
• When I view this page in IE the title is "BBCode#new#new#new#new#new" :huh:
  
• Using the "Topic History" moderation option gives you an error. "Invalid Input - Error Code: 17087:161"
  
• Blog appearance is screwed up in IE6. There is a whole page of empty space where the blog should be, adjacent to the ads. Then the blog is at the very bottom.
  
• They are still using border-collapse, which is buggy in Firefox. (Did Firefox fix this bug?)
  
• Automated (non-HTML) line breaks in forum descriptions don't work. (Forum descriptions are HTML-only?)
  
• Can't edit a member's signature or profile (interests etc.) if they don't already have information entered. This is especially annoying when you have a text custom profile field that is admin-only editable. The member can't edit it ever, and neither can an admin because the member hasn't put any data in it. Admins can now edit blank signatures.
  
• ACP -> Board Customization -> Preferences -> Posting Prefs -> Maximum images per post. I set the slider to 100 and hit save, but it keeps defaulting back to 50.

TheEnigma's Bugs

• Avatars get cropped in profiles and PMs (caused by the .av_wrap class).
  Bold, italics, underline, and other formatting buttons for creating posts do not work in Firefox. edit: Ok, they're working correctly on this computer, will try again when I get a replacement power supply for my dead PC.

Cons - Anything I don't like, big and small. Ones in red or orange are serious issues.

Spoiler: click to toggle

• User group online list pre/suffixes have to be done in BBCode. Because we have a skin changer, and the colors that go with one skin may not be visible on another skin, the lack of the ability to use CSS classes is a pain in the ass. Problem could be solved if [doHTML] or an equivalent is added. [class] tags added, they work in the online lists.
  
• Trash can permissions aren't adjustable enough. I would like for admins, global moderators, and only some of the forum moderators to be able to view the trash. I have 2 moderator groups: global and per-forum (though it is most of the forums). Then some people can "buy" their own forum (guilds) and they get some small moderator abilities in there (pin, unpin, close, open), but they should not be allowed to see the trash or any other staff forum because they are not staff.
  
• You can only bulk mail one user group at a time.
  
• Can't use special characters in passwords.
  
• Can't delete PMs.
  
• All links to view a topic still always go to the last unread post instead of just letting you read the damn topic form the start.
  
• No forum jump!
  
• No IP address option in the member search page.
  
• Admin doesn't receive e-mail notification of new registrations. (The admin digest solved this.)
  
• Can't disable a member's ability to edit their own member title?
  
• If you choose to remove sig / emotes / edit by line in a post, those options aren't remembered when you re-edit the post. (They're "remembered" now, you just can't ever change them!)
  
• No e-mail notification when subscribed topics get replies. (The option is there but I'm not sure if it works.)
  
• No e-mail notification when subscribed forums get new topics. (The option is there but I'm not sure if it works.)
  
• Forum moderators (individuals & groups) still don't appear in the moderating team list.
  
• Profile field list options are not stored as arrays with unique identifiers. If I remove an item in the middle of the list, all the options shift and screw up what has been entered in people's profiles. This means I cannot remove any options from list-type profile fields! It's creating a mess on my board that is confusing and irritating for me and members alike.
  
• In the "today's posts" list, where it lists the forum the topic was made in, the forum name isn't a link to that forum. It's not a link at all, which is annoying!

TheEnigma's Cons

• It acts as though you can change the default theme's CSS, but any changes you make do not stick.
  
• Theme selection dropdown appears even when you have no alternate themes to choose from.
  
• There is no BBcode for numbered lists, e.g.; [list=1][*]blah[*]blah[/list]

Desired Features - New features they don't have that I want. Ones in red or orange are highly desired.

Spoiler: click to toggle

• Pre-register member option.
  
• "View topic history" option.
  
• Automated PM tracking.
  
• Certain text areas, especially those in the ACP, should have a width of 100%.
  
• Post delete confirmation.
  
• An IP / e-mail auto-matching "member tracking" system. It would display info such as IP addresses used to post with, most recent IP address used, matches to other accounts that share the same e-mail address, matches to other accounts in the same IP range for both registration and posting (to identify secret duplicate accounts [despite AOL repeats...]), and uhm... maybe some other stuffs.
  
• IP address in PM's (visible to only admins, and carried on from a forwarded / reported PM).
  
• A comment field for IP and e-mail address bans. Mostly to keep track of *whose* IP is being banned. It's often the case that the IP banned is not the IP registered with, so it's impossible to track down.
  
• Change member's password via ACP.
  
• An actual "view today's posts" page that shows all the day's posts one at a time, instead of just links to today's active topics. [Like SMF]
  
• Joinable group leaders don't have an easy way of knowing if there are new requests for membership. They have to go to their preferences and then click on joinable groups to see, and I know people well enough to know that they will never check there. It should have a notification system like that of the report CP.

TheEnigma's Desired Features

• Functionality for easily quoting multiple posts.

Upgrade Concerns - Annoyances when converting and potential losses.

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• Multi-Mod loss.
  
• Post / forum / member ID confusion because of the new server-wide IDs.
  
• PM loss.
  
• Old BBCode conversion into new BBCode, for example, [align=center] -> [center].
  
• Loss of ACP logs.

Pros - Favorite features of ZB that seem to have disappeared or stopped working.

Spoiler: click to toggle

• Working directory.
  
  • Seems frozen in time, doesn't remove offline/deleted/shut down/inactive boards.
    
  • Directory has stopped updating altogether.
  
  
• Custom board e-mail messages.
  
• Working search function.
  
  • Stops indexing if your board excedes 150,000 posts.
    
  • May have another type of bug as well that has ended its ability to update.

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