What are the best bells and whistles to add to forum software?

What are the needed admin features, etc.

[Webwork]

If you run a forum what features of the software, unique to your forum or choice of freeware/mods, have made your forum better, easier to admin, etc.?

What features should any forum not be without?

What features are more trouble than they are worth?

[pleeker]

The one that I don't have that I wish I did is the ability to move misplaced discussions to the appropriate Topic/Subject.

It's amazing how many times people post new discussions in the wrong area.

So I'd say that is an admin MUST HAVE.

[Sanenet]

Any forum feature that allows you to modify what the user does is a must. :) They always do something wrong! (Correct spelling, post deletion, post edit, moving post, etc).

HTML stripout and formatting is always nice.

[Shak]

the best feature I ever had on a forum was the facility to read private messages people were sending to each other.

I am sure it broke many laws and I would never do it again.

but it was a nice feature, real Big Brother stuff.

Shak

[trillianjedi]

HTML stripout and formatting is always nice.

Does anyone know how to do that in phpBB2?

Thanks,

TJ

[rogerd]

A few admin/security features not every package has:

- Mass delete by user (for fast spam cleanups)
- Flood control (to slow down spammers with a minimum time between posts)
- Display users from same IP address, and all IPs for a user
- Adjustable membership levels so that new users may have more restrictions than older users or approved users

(I'm a little spam conscious these days - can you tell? ;))

[Marcia]

>>I am sure it broke many laws and I would never do it again.

It sure does. Even in cases with chat rooms where it's loudly proclaimed that private messages cannot be read by anyone (which is not true, though access is limited) there are some heavy duty liability issues.

[rogerd]

Another one: e-mail notification, but with controls. The ability to let a member know they've received a reply or that there is new discussion on a topic of interest is important, but ideally the software should limit the contacts. E.g., let the member know of the first reply, but not subsequent ones until he logs in again.

I've had members sign up for all kinds of notifications, get tired of their inbox loading up, and then mark them as spam.

Something that I haven't seen except in hack form is bounce processing - i.e., if a notification bounces, it disables further notification unless manually reset.

[Shak]

taking the notification step further.

SMS alert on private messages (paid option maybe), very handy where people do not like revealing their email initially.

Shak