Version 5 UBBC Preview

ProBoards is still hard at work on our next generation forum software, ProBoards Version 5, and while it isn't quite ready yet for public beta, we thought we might share some of what you can expect from us in the future.

Many of the UBBC (also known as BBCode) tags you know and love have received new options. In this blog entry we'll walk you through a few samples of changes being made.

Right now there are many different UBBC tags that you can combine to achieve a desired effect. For example, you may want to change the color, font, and text size of your posts. Currently, all of these options have separate UBBC tags. With Version 5, you can achieve the same effect with only one tag.

Using the current system, this is how you would change the font to Arial, the color to blue, and the size to 5:

[font=Arial][color=#0000ff][size=5]... your text here ...[/size][/color][/font]

With ProBoards Version 5, we have introduced all new options to the [font] tag. You can now achieve the same results as above with the following code:

[font family="Arial" color="#0000ff" size="5"]... your text here ...[/font]

Both of these codes would output:
... your text here ...

Another example of a tag with new options is the [list] tag. Currently you can only put a bulleted list in your posts like so:

• Option 1
• Option 2
• Option 3

With Version 5, we are introducing both ordered and unordered lists along with many different list styles. Here is an example of what a list could look like with our new list options:

• Square 1
  1. Upper-Roman 1
  2. Upper-Roman 2
  3. Upper-Roman 3
• Square 2
  1. Lower-Alpha 1
  2. Lower-Alpha 2
  3. Lower-Alpha 3
     • Decimal 1
     • Decimal 2
     • Decimal 3

We'd like to go over one last example of our new UBBC tag options, and this one relates to how tables are displayed. This section may be more suited to those who understand HTML tables and a bit of CSS.

Currently our [table], [tr], and [td] tags are very basic. They have no additional options that you can add in. We felt that tables were very lacking in customization, which is why we have introduced a whole new host of attributes that you can modify.

For the [table] tag, there are new attributes width, height, border-style, border-color, and border-width.

With the [tr] tag, we have added the attributes background-color, vertical-align, and text-align.

Finally, with the [td] tag we have added rowspan, colspan, background-color, vertical-align, text-align, width, height, border-width, border-style, and border-color.

With all of these attributes you will have unprecedented control over how your posts appear on ProBoards forums you visit. There are many other tags that have received changes that are not listed here. A complete, detailed list of all attributes our new UBBC tags support will be provided in our help guide.

Please note that the upgrades to our UBBC tags are part of our upcoming ProBoards Version 5 forum software. We currently have no date available for when these features will be released for testing through our open beta. When such a date is available we will announce it here on this blog.

Updated Privacy Policy

Here at ProBoards are are committed to your privacy. We want you to know what our information gathering practices are and how information you submit to us is utilized. To that end, we have released our updated Privacy Policy and invite you to read it.

New Feature: Free File Attachments

ProBoards is proud to announce our newest feature: Free file attachments for all forums. Previously a paid feature, our attachment service now provides 100Mb of space for all forums free of charge with a maximum file size of 1Mb per file.

When uploading an image, a thumbnail preview will appear that is clickable to view the full size image. Normal files (such as zip files) will include a link to download the file.

Forum administrators can manage their attachments in the Administration Area under Manage Posts -> Attachments. If you wish to set who is allowed to upload files on specific boards within your forum, go to Boards -> Modify Board. Once on this page, select which board you want to modify. Next, scroll to the bottom of the page and pick which option you desire from the Posting Restrictions sections, specifically the option titled Post Attachments.

Want ProBoards to Feature Your Forum?

Every week ProBoards will add one new forum to our Featured Boards list on our homepage at the top right as well as feature you on our Twitter page. Want to have your forum featured? It's easy.

All you need to do is follow us on Twitter and send a tweet @proboardsdotcom with a link to your forum with a few words describing it. You can suggest your forum to be featured once a week.

For example, your message could be:

@proboardsdotcom http://support.proboards.com/ - Best support forum on the web!

We highly recommend that your forum not have the "Guests must login" option enabled if you want to be featured so that new visitors can see what your forum is all about.

Remember, you can enter once per week!

Follow ProBoards on Twitter!

You can now follow ProBoards on Twitter! To get the latest updates from us or to leave us comments, please add us on your Twitter account!

Now Hosting 3 Million Forums!

ProBoards is proud to announce that our 3 millionth forum was created! This is an amazing milestone for us, and we thank you for your continued support.

We have many exciting changes on the way, so stay tuned for new information regarding our upcoming Version 5!

Introducing Numberless URLs

For quite some time now, ProBoards forum URLs have included your server number in the domain name (e.g. your-forum.proboards40.com). We are happy to announce that all forums have been seamlessly upgraded to numberless URLs.

When accessing your forum through it's normal URL you will be automatically redirected to your-forum.proboards.com. All redirects are seamless and will direct you to the correct page you were attempting to access at the old URL.

Forums which use custom domains are not affected by this change.