mlukfc.com Forums - View Single Post

R. · 05 Nov 2005, 15:58

Ok, let's have a look ...

May, 28th 1999: The domain is registered.
June, 5th 1999: Initial webserver setup is done.
June, 11th 1999: Server is running and online.
June, 11th 1999: A new frontpage is up.
June, 29th 1999: Prepared for launch on Thursday, July 1st 1999.
July 1st 1999: mlukfc.com goes officialy live.
The final design looked like this. Note that the light, grey one never went online.
mlukfc1.png mlukfc1b.png
October, 31th 1999: 1st Layout change.
This was the first major change in the website layout. We decided to go for a framed layout, because it was easier to maintain the look and feel through the whole site. Additionally, this layout was way more friendly to smaller monitors:
mlukfc2.png
The first attempt to establish a messageboard on mlukfc.com was made sometime in 2000. We were using a lite version of UBB (Ultimate Bulletin Board), a perl script that constructed html pages/files for every thread. This experiment didn't work very well, still don't know way. Btw, the messageboard on meatloaf.net is using the latest incarnation of this software: UBBThreads. I don't have any screenshots of our old installation, so here's a screenshot from the manufacturer:
ubbc_user_cat_full.gif
In January 2001 we tried this again. This time we used W-Agora, a free very customizable set of php scripts for building guestbooks and forums. The decision for W-Agora was quite easy, because I already was using it for the news interface and as a guestbook. We made a simple approach, 4 forum areas, no registration and no moderators. We had more success this time and our guest slowly, very slowly got used to post messages. Anyway, it did work well enough for us. It looked llike that:
bbs2.png
16th July 2001 - We all knew it would happen some time, the first SPAM post.
In April 2002 I came across a software called phpBB2. I was instantly hooked. A great free software package for building forums with private messages and more. After download and the first tests, I immediately started customizing and made import scripts for our W-Agora board. phpBB was launched on April 14th 2002. Looking back, this was the best decision I ever have made for mlukfc.com. Here it is:
bbs3.png bbs3b.png
October 1st 2003: The second major layout change. While I slowly moved the site towards a database backend, I finally decided to switch to a phpNuke frontend in combination with a radical layout change. Some of the colours were actually taken from the CHSIB CD booklet. phpNuke is a nice CMS, but full of security holes. The version used on mlukfc.com was therefore using only 25% of the original phpNuke functions.
mlukfc3.png
Spring 2005: Without a doubt, phpBB2 was a catalysator for this website. While we were attracting more and more users, the limits of phpBB slowly surfaced. I had a spare license of vBulletin waiting to be used and so I decided to move on again. vBulletin is a commercial package and probably the most popular internet forum software and has gazillions of features. The forum layout slightly changed, but still was (is) familiar enough for our members. By moving from phpBB to vBulletin it was clear that phpNuke had to go aswell. It was replaced by a portal software based on vBulletin called vbAdvanced.
mlukfc4.png bbs4.png

Take a look at the Internet Archive, there's lots to see.

Does this help?

05 Nov 2005, 15:58	#8
R. You dig. Join Date: 02.04.2002 Location: On the fothermucker Posts: 7,179	Loooooooooooooooog story ... Ok, let's have a look ... May, 28th 1999: The domain is registered. June, 5th 1999: Initial webserver setup is done. June, 11th 1999: Server is running and online. June, 11th 1999: A new frontpage is up. June, 29th 1999: Prepared for launch on Thursday, July 1st 1999. July 1st 1999: mlukfc.com goes officialy live. The final design looked like this. Note that the light, grey one never went online. mlukfc1.png mlukfc1b.png October, 31th 1999: 1st Layout change. This was the first major change in the website layout. We decided to go for a framed layout, because it was easier to maintain the look and feel through the whole site. Additionally, this layout was way more friendly to smaller monitors: mlukfc2.png The first attempt to establish a messageboard on mlukfc.com was made sometime in 2000. We were using a lite version of UBB (Ultimate Bulletin Board), a perl script that constructed html pages/files for every thread. This experiment didn't work very well, still don't know way. Btw, the messageboard on meatloaf.net is using the latest incarnation of this software: UBBThreads. I don't have any screenshots of our old installation, so here's a screenshot from the manufacturer: ubbc_user_cat_full.gif In January 2001 we tried this again. This time we used W-Agora, a free very customizable set of php scripts for building guestbooks and forums. The decision for W-Agora was quite easy, because I already was using it for the news interface and as a guestbook. We made a simple approach, 4 forum areas, no registration and no moderators. We had more success this time and our guest slowly, very slowly got used to post messages. Anyway, it did work well enough for us. It looked llike that: bbs2.png 16th July 2001 - We all knew it would happen some time, the first SPAM post. In April 2002 I came across a software called phpBB2. I was instantly hooked. A great free software package for building forums with private messages and more. After download and the first tests, I immediately started customizing and made import scripts for our W-Agora board. phpBB was launched on April 14th 2002. Looking back, this was the best decision I ever have made for mlukfc.com. Here it is: bbs3.png bbs3b.png October 1st 2003: The second major layout change. While I slowly moved the site towards a database backend, I finally decided to switch to a phpNuke frontend in combination with a radical layout change. Some of the colours were actually taken from the CHSIB CD booklet. phpNuke is a nice CMS, but full of security holes. The version used on mlukfc.com was therefore using only 25% of the original phpNuke functions. mlukfc3.png Spring 2005: Without a doubt, phpBB2 was a catalysator for this website. While we were attracting more and more users, the limits of phpBB slowly surfaced. I had a spare license of vBulletin waiting to be used and so I decided to move on again. vBulletin is a commercial package and probably the most popular internet forum software and has gazillions of features. The forum layout slightly changed, but still was (is) familiar enough for our members. By moving from phpBB to vBulletin it was clear that phpNuke had to go aswell. It was replaced by a portal software based on vBulletin called vbAdvanced. mlukfc4.png bbs4.png Take a look at the Internet Archive, there's lots to see. Does this help? Last edited by R.; 06 Nov 2005 at 19:49. Reason: More typos.