MyBB wishlist

[Nebulous]

What are some things you wished MyBB had?

What features is it missing and what current features do you enjoy?

 

[euantor]

Alerts as core would be nice, along with likes. A more modern and responsive theme would also be welcome.

As for what current features I enjoy: the ACP layout is IMO one of the better ones, the easy to use plugin system is nice too. The community also tends to be fairly friendly which is great too.

Of course, I would say all that

 

[IntoxNitram]

Alerts as core would be nice, along with likes. A more modern and responsive theme would also be welcome.

These three would easily top my list also. Aside from that, I don't really notice anything else too much.

 

[matt4]

More plugins, I guess I am looking for the community that MyBB once had.

It's still my favourite software, but the lack of plugins for 1.8 and the lack of activity is very worrying. A new theme is not too much of an issue for me as I use custom themes most of the time anyway.

 

[Azareal]

Let's see..

Alerts with AJAX updating.
Mentions.
Conversations.
Avoiding removing a dozen features between versions.
Less hacks in the code (if its MySQL then, do this otherwise.. Do that. There are tons of these).
More consistency. Username mark-up works in some places, but not in others.
Responsive Designs.
There are effectively two different topic engines. The announcements system and the regular topics. Why not have one?

 

[LeadCrow]

What are some things you wished MyBB had?

- Far better, responsive theme.
- Visual declutter on the model of Xenforo.
- LIEKS ! (with the associated 'feelgood' notifications)
- Bigger focus on postgresql.
- Official addons, maintained by their own teams (download system and a portal/'frontpage' my main concerns).
- ways to rank users using criteries other than alphabetic order, postcount and chronological registrations. Ideally site-editable ones to incentivie specific types of activities or posting trends, with a default available (XF's trophy system would be a great model to embrace).

 

[euantor]

I highly doubt we'll be doing official addons any time soon, due to the small team size.

We will be providing better support for other database engines, and removing all of the associated hacks, by using a query builder library rather than manually writing SQL queries. Whether plugin authors follow suit is another question

 

[LeadCrow]

I highly doubt we'll be doing official addons any time soon, due to the small team size.

Making existing addons official alongside their maintainers would not require herculean efforts from the forum people, unless there's a reason the small team has to stay small.

 

[euantor]

Making existing addons official alongside their maintainers would not require herculean efforts from the forum people, unless there's a reason the small team has to stay small.

No, it wouldn't, but providing official level support would be the problem. The team doesn't have to remain small, and we always consider volunteers. Unfortunately, we don't get many people applying to join the team

 

[Azareal]

Unfortunately, we don't get many people applying to join the team

I thought the MyBB Team got rid of the concept of "applying to join the team" with the new Contributor system?

 

[euantor]

I thought the MyBB Team got rid of the concept of "applying to join the team" with the new Contributor system?

People can contribute without being part of the team. The badge is earned by making contributions. However, certain roles are still applied for (e.g.: SQA, full Dev roles, support) as they include access to staff forums.

 

[Starpaul20]

The one feature I'd like to add is post likes. Alerts would be cool too.

 

[euantor]

The one feature I'd like to add is post likes. Alerts would be cool too.

You should be pretty happy with the current plans then

 

[Andrew B.]

I'd like to see spoilers as a feature. I'd like to see a page manager, but I realize they won't do that because it's cms. I'd also like an easy way for members to subscribe to all forums without doing it individually. And I realize these are already plugins.

 

[BioWarfare]

Core Alerts
Conversations
Core Post Ratings like Vanilla - This can be accomplished with 1.8 plugins, though.
Profiles with comments - Can be accomplished with My Profile plugin.

Favorite features in 1.8 right now

Soft Delete
Amazingly high quality plugins

I know there are more things I like about MyBB, but I can't for the life of me think of them now.

 

[Azareal]

Some AtomBB features which on-top of the other suggestions would be nice:
Simple Custom Pages.
Menu Manager.
A large library of possible widgets to choose from.
Better anti-spam.
Less hacks. I'll go into this below.

Code-wise, I don't have that much of a problem with the MyBB code-base, although there are some details that bother me like..

if(my_strpos($thread['closed'], "moved|"))
    {
        $query = $db->query("
            SELECT p.pid
            FROM ".TABLE_PREFIX."posts p
            LEFT JOIN ".TABLE_PREFIX."threads t ON(p.tid=t.tid)
            WHERE t.fid='".$thread['fid']."' AND t.closed NOT LIKE 'moved|%' {$visibleonly2}
            ORDER BY p.dateline DESC
            LIMIT 1
        ");
        $pid = $db->fetch_field($query, "pid");
    }
    else
    {
        $options = array(
            'order_by' => 'dateline',
            'order_dir' => 'desc',
            'limit_start' => 0,
            'limit' => 1
        );
        $query = $db->simple_select('posts', 'pid', "tid={$tid} {$visibleonly}", $options);
        $pid = $db->fetch_field($query, "pid");
    }

Personally, I find this to be a bit of a.. Hack?

// Figure out what page the thread is actually on
    switch($db->type)
    {
        case "pgsql":
            $query = $db->query("
                SELECT COUNT(tid) as threads
                FROM ".TABLE_PREFIX."threads
                WHERE fid = '$fid' AND (lastpost >= '".(int)$thread['lastpost']."'{$stickybit}) {$visibleonly} {$uid_only}
                GROUP BY lastpost
                ORDER BY lastpost DESC
            ");
            break;
        default:
            $query = $db->simple_select("threads", "COUNT(tid) as threads", "fid = '$fid' AND (lastpost >= '".(int)$thread['lastpost']."'{$stickybit}) {$visibleonly} {$uid_only}", array('order_by' => 'lastpost', 'order_dir' => 'desc'));
    }

The reason why support for other database engines is so flaky. Certain pieces of functionality are nowhere near as centralized as they should be, like the above example for instance.
And some of the MyBB Coding Standards are somewhat questionable (makes it harder to develop / write plugins for it), while most of them are fairly sensible.

 

[euantor]

The codebase will be overhauled entirely in 2.0, using modern standards. The code style also follows the PSR-2 open standard for PHP, along with the PSR-4 standard for autoloading. We'll also likely adapt to future PSR standards as they are finalised.

As to supporting other database engines, that will also be a lot easier as queries are written using a query builder rather than writing SQL by hand. This means that supporting another database engine is as simple as writing a grammar for it.

Regarding actual features, I can't go into that. I've already mentioned a few in the past such as the widget system, but others will be announced through our 2.0 blog series