frequently asked questions

what is this?
message boards that can be used by anyone, created by anyone, used in whatever way you like.

who uses it?
two types of people. those who want to host boards for whatever reason, and those wishing to chat on such boards.

why do i have to log in?
board owners get to choose whether they want people to log in before they can post. this is sometimes useful to prevent abuse, spam and to keep track of who is commenting. boards can also be made private, so that only admitted members may read the contents, to read or post to such boards, you must be approved by the board owner.

how do i create a board?
if you already administer some boards, they will be listed on your front page, and an option to create additional boards will be at the bottom of the page. if you have no boards, then you will be given the option to create one at the bottom of your front page.

how do i link to my board?
go to your own board. copy the url. that's the link.

what's a 'threaded' forum?
a forum which visually represents the structure of conversations, making it obvious from the layout which message each post is in answer to, creating hierarchies of posts and conversations. they're a pain to code, but useful in long conversations because they let you keep track of who's replying to who.

i want to display my picture / use smilies / plaster the site with animated gifs
internaut graffiti artist, begone.

how much does it cost?
nothing, at the moment. and nothing as long as it doesn't cost me anything to run it. the day it starts to cost me money, i will think about potential solutions. that day is far away.

do you ever delete posts / boards
we reserve the right to, but rarely have reason to. if a board remains unused for a very long period of time (say, for example, 3 months), then i'll delete it and all the messages it contains. i make every effort to contact the owner of the board before doing so, by emailing them and by posting a message to the board itself. the content and tone of a board is that board administrator's responsibility.

how confidential is this system and the information it contains?
reasonably. i'm never going to share your personal details with 3rd parties for profit or marketing, and probably won't ever email you either, but please don't use the forums for illegal purposes, i'll co-operate with the law if it comes calling.

why are you doing this?
something to do. a memory of once wanting a similar system for my own use, when none was available.

is the code open source?
i put up with enough abuse without having people laugh at my programming skills.

why the minimalism?
a lack of imposing styles to prevent clashes with the sites that use the system. a clean interface also demonstrates that it doesn't take heavy functionality and cluttered screenloads of buttons and gizmos, bells and whistles to make a usable system.

will this ever have it's own domain name?
if it starts getting enough traffic that it becomes a burden on other sites in this domain, yes. if that happens, i will try to make the transition as painless as possible.

i want to change the style for my own site, can i do that?
if there's enough demand for this, i will make it possible to wrap it with your own stylesheets. in the meantime, it's too much work, and i have a real job.

i want 17 levels of editor privilege, detailed user records, graphics, icons and a dozen ways of demonstrating admin power over my pathetic supplicant web visitors.
go download ubb over here.

this is great, i want to help
please contribute to the tip jar. we are eternally grateful. (doesn't work yet).

this is rubbish, i want it to go away
stop wasting our bandwidth.

i have requests / feedback / recommendations / bug reports / advice / more questions
click here and leave a comment in the appropriate place. thank you for contributing.

how do i navigate away from this faq?
click on the logo at the top, that always takes you back to the front page.

i want to email you directly
our cup runneth over. unfortunately, so doth our inbox. use the forums.