vBulletin has always been a very revered product and one of the most commonly used forum software over the years. In the past 1-2 years different vbulletin sub versions in the 3.x series have given us lots of features to play with and also led to the official addons, such as Blog , Project Tools which maybe not as popular as its predecessor , but definitely picked up user interest. With the last few versions, vBulletin also has come up with the idea of introducing a community script and not just a forum software only( not my favourite though ) and also profile customizations.

But recently vbulletin website and forum also seems top be proceeding towards vBulletin 4 , their next major version. Some of the key improvements which they have announced as of yet includes :

• Cross content search system , facilitating centralized search for forum posts, blog entries and comments and any other supported products
• Better style templates and systems to make more semantic coding and adherence to CSS from the base templating system
• A better look and feel for the base product also using semantic markup
• SEO urls and search engine friendly options
• Options to include advertisements inherently in the script itself
• and a centralized attachment system

Features like these make you clearly feel that they have understood one of the points I had pointed out earlier – that it is time to stablize the main product and spend more time on improvements for the forum administrator. While additional features do sell the products, it is improvements like these that make the customer / forum administrator happy. From the official mini site for this release, I quote

Development efforts are prioritized towards those areas that can provide real, tangible benefits to our customers, at all times with an eye toward maintaining and enhancing the performance and reliability expected of a vBulletin product.

Although they have not yet given any pricing indication, but surely that can come . What they have definitely mentioned that the code is being rewritten. There is still no alpha or beta and no exact time given for us to view it.

OK , so I have not only decided to get back to blogging again , but this time I hope to keep doing it more regularly. You have heard that before , eh ? I agree but what can we do … as your work grows almost all the day goes into serving clients … and hardly you would get much time to sit down and pen your thoughts. Heck, I bought a 32″ plasma and I don’t even get to watch that

Coming to the topic title – Upgrading Wordpress 2.8.2 , i am happy to say that this blog is now running the current Wordpress release . This sub version does not include much but a XSS fix , but the Wordpress 2.8.1 was from what i remember a more detailed upgrade.

• The dashboard loading time was awful earlier which now seems much better.
• The automatic upgrade no longer accidentally deletes files when cleaning up from a failed upgrade.
• Extra security has been put in place to better protect you from plugins that do not do explicit permission checks.
• Disabled code highlighting due to browser incompatibilities.
• Switched back to curl as the default transport.

Although the auto upgrade feature is not new in these versions of Wordpress , but can’t get myself to write a Upgrade post without mentioning it. This single option has cut down some of our clients who often asked us to do a version upgrade for them as a charge. Now it is simply a breeze – whenever you see a message on your dashboard, all the next work is browser based – if you know your FTP password. Even the plugin upgrades hardly requires breaking a sweat.

Being a webmaster , personally … I feel a lot of other webmasters can actively help in the Open Directory Project , instead of constantly venting about the difficulty in submission , acceptance . I have also been able to harness a good amount of utility / benefit while being a voluntary editor and have recently been invited to share them on the Official Dmoz Blog .

OK , so I am somewhat happy , that I got accepted by the Boss if you know me , you would ask that I don’t work for someone , I am my own boss … so who is it that Boss and what did he accept me for, right ?

Well , I do work also as a volunteer editor on the Open Directory Project . Almost an year ago i joined under a small category and I have been learning the ropes . It’s been a informative ride mostly , save few incidents which has confused me recently in Regional/ . I like working in regional , as it helps me build up the categories with sites of local business and organizations, events and public / government utilities or important ones such as Education.

But in order to diversify my interests , I have also applied for a topical category recently . And in most occasions I have been accepted by my superiors ( Metas ) as being ready for handling more sites and categories and thus encouraged . The last category I applied for was interestingly accepted by the Dmoz Editor -in-Chief ( rdkeating25 ) – thus the Boss :p . To be frank , I was of the opinion ( from forum threads ) , that he is usually dormant / inactive in day to day operations of the directory . But maybe that is not true for all days .

You will however find him more in the new and Official Dmoz Blog – which is currently being regularly updated .

This post is about 2 new interesting developments in 4images which i have activated now as well.

1. 4images Newsletter
2. 4images affiliate system

Since a few months i am subscribed in the 4images community newsletter , which is an interesting way to stay updated with the happenings out there . Of course , you can still read about all of it here on my blog as well. The newsletter includes product updates of the 4images core gallery , warnings , exploits or upgrade information ; along with the current choicest modifications and 4images templates.

And now , the 4images affiliate system … although i am not much of an affiliate marketer as i would have liked to be , reading all the huge profits they make sitting at home , or in their bermudas at the beach sipping iced tea and what not… but i still always try to create / find options for affiliate links / product options of softwares / services i buy or like. Because those are the softwares and services i also recommend to my clients .

I do wish they however allowed us to withdraw our affiliate income ( when that happens ) in a PayPal account . Currently they have only Direct Deposit , which goes without saying is only for americans ( damn them ) , Wire Transfer , which is quite costly , or check – which would take ages to actually happen .

10 things to remember if you want to satisfy a Dmoz editor – this was not my original blog title , but i decided to change this as i continued writing and noticed , this is what i want and also what many others might want to know.

1. I visit many a webmaster forum and even though I am a web developer myself, it often pains me to see quite a few webmasters constantly cribbing about how ODP editors do not wish to hear their requests, DMOZ does not give attention to its customers and Dmoz is no longer valuable. Such posts does not do you much good ( i for sure do not enjoy seeing it, nor does it make help your cause.) Your time is more valuable than ranting about it.
2. I would have liked to write ” don’t be the problem, be the solution” . But i know the smartass answer to that . That being, ‘DMOZ meta editors are a secretive and scheming bastards and they do not approve XYZ’s application, so if my attempt at being a solution is blocked, i would rather be a problem‘.
   Wrong again – DMOZ meta editors who have the extremely difficult task of handling multiple responsibilities, along with checking your submitted applications are bound by even more difficult set of protocols and norms to maintain while review yours. Make sure you comply with all the requested tasks in the application form. if you have complied with it , you have already done your bit. Do not dilute that good deed.
3. During my not so illustrious career as DMOZ editor, my first few days was filled up by studying the guidelines , which drives my editing operations every day. As an editor I am supposed to find and select links, websites and resources to fill up my category. A librarian’s bookmarks, a link list created by an obsessive surfer cum webmaster of a particular genre / interest, were the origin of web directories . As an editor, I will take more time in locating such over user submitted websites . Deal with it . And even better – become the resource I have a probability to find.
4. The next part of the guidelines also explained how to write titles for a website. When you create a website, you already have a true name for it – it is helpful if you keep that in mind while submitting . If you are Bill’s Plumbing, i will name you as Bill’s Plumbing only and not Plumbing, Pipes, Cheapest plumber, Best Customer Support etc etc. Sounds good ?
5. Coming to descriptions – I know what would irritate me . If i see an Ad on the local yellow pages of a carpenter , and visited his shop only to see that he currently only sells hammers and nails . Or again, How would you really feel if you decided to order a 5 tier birthday cake and went to the bakery, only to see it is a single guy standing outside a shop with a basket with a few muffins ? I am hoping you understand what I am getting at here .
6. Describing a site, I feel requires knowing it’s content , and also gaining some knowledge about the owner / organization of the site and his/ her intent. If you have ever purchased an SSL Certificate before , you will understand this scenario – just like the certifying authority ( such as GoDaddy , Verisign etc ) , I am certifying , in a way , that your site is what I am saying it is . So please , make it obvious on your website what you really do and even better – have examples of what you have done / can do, and identify yourself / your organization .
7. You have made a product , or you are offering a service – very few times there would be someone better than you who can best categorize you or your website . So make sure when your submit your url, do it in the exactly right category. It could so be that where you have submitted may not have a exact category editor , and it may be reviewed by someone with relatively less knowledge on the topic . If that happens, your submission may cause the passing reviewer more trouble in choosing the right category for you, and if it does not get sent to the proper category , it may remain in the loop – thus extending the delay of your approval.
8. Do not submit your site in the DMOZ if all you need is a link from a PRX page . There are hundreds of other ways to get that . Inside the directory , if you are submitting for the first time and if you have a physical business, it is of utmost importance that you submit it first in your local regional category, even if that means submitting to a page with Zero Pagerank . There is a high probability that such a low level category might have lesser submission reviewing workload for the editor. It might also quite possibly happen that the editor who is reviewing your site may already know of your business.
9. Do not offer bribes , donations, congratulations letters masked as submission status requests, endorsements of any kinds. If you really want to do good , save the world from corrupt dmoz editors, there is a button for that . ( Push the button ) :p
10. Do not create duplicate , triplicate clone websites just for submission to the ODP . I can not possibly recommend business strategies for you , so you can easily have multiple websites for gaming, seo , traffic , profit and all important reason, but do not make it your intent to submit all of them to us – we can by rule only accept and review any one of them.

The above list is not exhaustive, neither endorsed in any way by DMOZ , Netscape, and any one else but me in my personal capacity as a adviser of you – my web visitor . . I do not take responsibility of any good as well as bad effects which may or may not occur to you and your website in its endeavor in getting listed in the ODP. However , if you do get a kick out of it , and also benefit from these points, feel free to share this article to your friend and social circle .

Wishing you all the best .

4images gallery management script from 4homepages.de came out with their latest update / version 4images 1.7.6 . If you subscribe to their newsletter , you probably already know it .

The new version 1.7.6 of the 4images – Image Gallery Management System has been released!

This release comes with lots of improvements, bug fixes and minor changes, e.g.:

* Added possibility to sort by filenames in CP image search form
* Improved download of big files
* Added onchange javascript for “per page” dropdown
* Disabled download button in lightbox if there are no download permissions for all images in the lightbox
* Fixed issue with paging tags
* Fixed missing image name escaping in alt tags of thumbnails
* Fixed redirect bug in admin/admin_global.php
* Fixed problem with brackets in template vars
* Updated URL for ICQ status image
* Fixed sql query in download.php
* Fixed logout problem where guests can delete other guests sessions
* Fixed displaying non-active images on details.php
* Improved download of big files

Theres already a feedback thread on the 4images forum if you are really into German language . Since I am more of the English language speaking crowd , i skipped the first 2 pages . Lol . I guess they really got too many bug reports or frustrations from sites using 4images having large files for download … that they mentioned it twice in their newsletter which i pasted above
One of these days i must learn .DE language to better grasp what all the super members such as jan , nicky , rustynet ivan say in there . *sighs* At least V@no speaks more English . thank goodness for that .

In the past few weeks, I have been a little side tracked by the happenings in the Search Engine industry and also seo for my own sites. So i have not been posting about vbulletin and also invisionboard . But with every new release – be it from any of the big 3 in the forum softwares ( vBulletin , Invisionboard and phpBB ) , I am noticing the growth or development of the softwares is mostly being directed towards making plugins or addons / modifications as default feature .

Example : In vbulletin version 3.7, some of the major changes or additions are -

• Reciprocal friendship between forum members
• Public messaging along with private messaging
• User Picture galleries
• User created social groups
• Member profile page
• Profile page Design and Customization
• Social bookmarking and tagging

Earlier , quite a few of these features were also introduced in Invisionboard and they also have their official gallery component .

What are the advantages of these modules being added as features : The best possible advantages is that features means , they are coded by the official developers – thus most secure, most easy to template and continuous support. Any modification always have the difficulties of 2 types – one that they are often made for the developers personal forum , and directed towards the site’s goals, which may or may not be the goal of other users of the modification. And the other being , the weaning of support due to lack of time or rather “free volunteer time”.

What are the disadvantages of the mods being added as features : Yes, there are direct disadvantages , such as … a software’s growth is often contributed by the plugins and modification community. Most mods developers spend months of their volunteer time building a modification and even for supporting it and provide it for free , in the hope of getting some donation money or related work in the future. This keeps them interested in contributing codes and time , and even build sites for supporting the modification . This comes to a close / end , with their mods being adapted as default features – which makes them loose their credit / money / fan following.

But all that is for any kind of mods and features … but these current modifications , turned feature sets, IMHO are not necessary in a forum software … a Forum is a Forum , a forum can not be a gallery . Same way , a forum is a forum , and IMO should not be a social network site . A social network site comes with a plethora of features which is often unworthy of being in a forum , which is typically a Message Board . A profile page … earlier the profile of the poster was recognizable through his posts , his posting habits , signature and maybe his avatar . Now, with a full blown profile page in place , i feel , the identity , the secrecy , the charm would be lost . Now , we have public messaging ( read profile commenting ), along with private messaging . All in all , every new element is taking the members and their “friends” away from the message board to the frills and fancies ( like MS Windows software ) . Will this really increase the value of the individual messageboards ? I feel it will only lower the posting and discussion on topics and people will be so besotted by the features .

Why this has been done : I believe this is entirely a marketing decision , only to generate hype , and compete with other scripts , but all in all this only Adds to the workload of a typical forum admin and moderators as they will have to check for more places which might go against forum policies . Every addon module as large as a gallery , friends network and the same , will only increase a web and database server requirement . Furthermore, with every one speaking of the web 2 and social web, most companies are feeling a need for making their offering more web 2.0 oriented and the frills such as “friends” and”networking” and “profiles” are the key features seen elsewhere.

To keep to the main topic as well , vbulletin 3.7 also comes with some good feature sets , undoubtedly . These are :

• Inline Spam Management and Prevention Tools
• Thread Tagging
• Thread Prefixes
• Attachment Viewing Lightbox
• Post Edit History
• Navbar Notices
• New Human Verification Systems

Spam and spam prevention is a constant complaint or nuisance for any and every forum administrator – the more tools the merrier . Thread tagging helps in quicker searching and less repeat posts by noobs , Thread prefix – a mod i always sought after
The attachment lightbox would surely be a welcome addition for preventing the stretching of template / board width etc .
To be quite frank , I have not tested all of this on a liver big board yet , as this is totally a Beta version , but I will do so soon and update this post , so stay UPDATED through the FEED.

I am sure most people are by now aware of Microsoft’s hostile offer to buy out the internet portal Yahoo! A lot of people have discussed about their views on the same . If Yahoo’s board of directors do accept to be taken over by MS there might be several changes to the company, it’s employees, culture, the portal , the services etc. Since Yahoo! has not yet given any proper response except the typical “we are looking at the benefits of the offer and those of our shareholders”. Instead of posting what I think could go or stay , I have put up a poll cum survey ( made free by Polldaddy), for the visitors like you to participate in. You can have your say which of the services of Yahoo you like , which stand a chance to be replaced by a MSN venture and so forth. Enjoy .

Shocking the search industry, Microsoft has officially submitted it’s bid to acquire the search and internet giant Yahoo! for a stunning 44.5 Billion USD. I do say , a shocking news, but many would easily say that such a bid was forthcoming, following Yahoo!’s recent downfall in share prices, clubbed with its sacking of near 1000 employees. Openly inviting the press in a conference call, the software giant’s CEO Steve Balmer spoke to Jerry Yang and the board of directors of the most popular website / portal of the world and express their interest in furthering the expansion and synergis-ing their resources and efforts to counter the search #1 , the big G.

Microsoft has proposed to Yahoo’s Board Of Directors that Microsoft acquire all Yahoo shares for $31, which is currently estimated to be worth $44.6 billion. Yahoo shareholders would get either cash or Microsoft shares (0.9509 of shares per 1 Yahoo share)

As a follow up , Yahoo! inc. accepted :

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Microsoft to acquire the Company. The Company said that its Board of Directors will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.

This would probably be too early to analyze what this means, what the repercussions would be on the search industry along with the internet / web in general. However, it would not be out of place to mention a few points i can think of :

This is not the first time MS has submitted a bid to acquire Yahoo! , the last time they did was in previous year almost 10-11 months back, when Yahoo! board of directors openly refused saying , it was no time for such offers.
Even with the current low Yahoo has hit , Yahoo.com is still the website with highest traffic in all internet – in every metrics available on the internet, and Yahoo! also has several important acquisitions which fare highly in the current social web – namely, Del.icio.us , Yahoo Answers, Alibaba, Flickr , Facebook to mention a few. Yahoo email, Yahoo finance rates pretty highly on the radar of very many users , ranking over Gmail and similar applications.

On the other hand , Yahoo! has lost lots of ground on the search front , where Google has grown by leaps and bounds and truly a synergy of Yahoo and MSN could be the only force which might even come close. Microsoft on the other hand might gain a good deal by coming close with the Yahoo Publisher Network users and advertisers – which does have a sufficient base and development.

My personal feeling : I always liked Yahoo as a site , as a brand ( which Microsoft does as well, as Steve Balmer said in his note – intelligent minds think alike ), and a place to be. Google never had that and even less in Microsoft . As a person who has been on the net since 1997, i somehow would not feel impressed by a MSFT-YHOO clubbing. But then , it might be in the best of interest of the shareholders of Yahoo – What do you think ?