Fanlisting Script Requests

This is generally only applicable to fanlisting owners, so if you’re not an owner or not interested in fanlistings, move on..

For those who do own/join fanlistings — what are your favourite features of the scripts that are currently available, and what do the scripts do that you absolutely hate? BellaBuffs (no longer BellaBoffins because that name suggests expertise) is 99% ready for release and I want to see if there are any last minute changes that could be made. In case you’re wondering, the current features include:

  • Spam word and IP blocking
  • Valid country checking to prevent text injection
  • E-mail scrambling and JavaScript protection
  • Optional favourites field and spam-preventing captcha
  • ‘Paginate’ members — in admin panel too
  • Sort members by country/join date
  • Button (‘code’) upload & management
  • Affiliate management (inc. button upload)
  • Valid XHTML Transitional by default
  • Auto-update date when approving member
  • Optional update ‘details’ (single-entry) log

For those worried about using a captcha on TFL-listed fanlistings, I spoke to a member of the Senior Staff and they confirmed that captchas are ok, as long as an alternative method of joining is also provided (i.e. an email address).

You can see an example of how BellaBuffs works at my Laptops fanlisting. Most of what you see is incredibly customiseable.

Edit: my new fanlisting management script is out: BellaBuffs. PHP, flat file goodness I tell ya!

14 comments so far

  1. Gemma said:
    On 22 Jul at 9:45 pm

    Does the ‘valid country checking’ still allow owners to amend the countries list? Just wondering. My #1 peeve with the two most popular scripts is the lack of a UK option by default – well, you’ve got that… my #2 peeve would be the unnecessary emails that Enthusiast sends (both to members and affiliates). I don’t know whether it’s worth making a note in your documentation about the accessibility implications of a captcha, if you haven’t already done so… given the sometimes sketchy lack of awareness of accessibility in the fanlistings community, I could imagine someone turning on the captcha option without realising that it can be problematic. It sounds like a great script!

  2. Paola said:
    On 22 Jul at 9:56 pm

    I run all my fanlistings on Enthusiast which I love. I’m wondering, will the admin panel be like Enth’s or like PHPFanBase? In the sense that you can update all fanlistings from one page, instead of having to go to each fanlisting’s installation of the script to updated. Likewise, does the code management not have a “view all” option for codes?

  3. Jem said:
    On 22 Jul at 10:07 pm

    @Gemma: the countries list is controlled by a text file, so as long as the country is added to the text file it can be validated against. Although, United Kingdom is already in there. ;) Also, all emails in the script are optional — they can be turned off and on at will. @Paola: each fanlisting will currently be managed through the admin panel for the specific fanlisting, although I’m sure at a later date I will be able to come up with a central control panel. I will get a view all option added to the buttons/codes page ASAP.

  4. Gemma said:
    On 22 Jul at 10:30 pm

    Sorry, Jem – when I said, ‘you’ve got that’, I meant that you’d offered the UK as an option, not that you’d ‘got’ the problem :). I saw that the UK was in your list.

  5. Amanda said:
    On 22 Jul at 11:05 pm

    Out of curiosity, will BellaBuffs use a mysql database, or is it purely a flat file script like BellaBook? It sounds like you’ve got all the features that I would need (I’m really happy with PHPfanbase, but I’m sure I could be convinced to switch)…but would you be planning on adding any of the extra ‘collective’ features? For instance, with my FlinxCollective (click on my name), you can see all the listings, as well as their member counts, pending member counts, etc. If you had something like this, then I’m sure I’d be willing to switch over. Oh, but I’d need a “convert from phpfanbase” type of script/tutorial…is that in the pipelines as well?

  6. Cheri said:
    On 23 Jul at 2:46 am

    I think that your script should offer a sorting option in which the members can be listed alphabetically, by their names. I find that some other scripts don’t offer that sorting option, and I always wish they would. Other than that, I really like your fanlisting script, and I can’t wait till you decide to release it publicly. =)

  7. banshee said:
    On 23 Jul at 5:11 am

    I love the pagination for the members list! My favourite feature would definitely have to be the ability to update ALL of my fanlistings from the one admin panel, rather than going to the admin page for each individual fanlisting. At the moment I use a script called PHPFanAdmin to manage all of my fanlistings, but I was thinking of changing to Enthusiast.. I’m just a little lazy. But if you are considering adding a central control panel as you mentioned? Well, I’m pretty sure my laziness would disappear and I’d loev to switch scripts ;)

  8. Adastra said:
    On 23 Jul at 11:07 am

    I have re-coded FanBase to my liking, so you can get an idea about the features I think a fanlisting should have if you visit some of my, for example New Jersey, my newest one; http://fan.psychollection.net/nj Generally: An automatic editing script is very important. I’m also all for personalisation – you can never have enough extra fields. My script have 5 optional extra fields, which can be de- and re-activated any time without trouble. And an admin panel for all fanlistings is also very important, with features such as affiliates, codes & so on…

  9. Tish said:
    On 23 Jul at 12:39 pm

    Sounds fantastic to me! I can’t wait for it to be released ;)

  10. Tracy said:
    On 23 Jul at 5:12 pm

    Sounds good to me. I’ve used phpfanbase before and now I’m using Enthusiast, seeing the php fanbase script had some bugs I didn’t know about and my host deleted my whole complete site. Enthusiast is alright I guess…

  11. Heather said:
    On 23 Jul at 8:10 pm

    It sounds like you’ve got things covered. I’m currently using Enthusiast for all my joined/owned fanlistings, and the only complaint I have is that code management isn’t included. I think I’d like if there was something similar to WordPress’s page feature, where you could edit pages through an admin panel so I didn’t need to open up my FTP every time I wanted to change/update something.

  12. Shannon said:
    On 24 Jul at 5:55 am

    Awesome. I’ve tried to make a fanlisting script before, by using a incredible amount of looking at other scripts and php.net, but I quit after getting about the basic features down. Not even close. Awesome new script, it seems. But, can you add a ‘next page’ or ‘previous page’ or so in with the pagination? I’ve always liked those because I don’t like searching for that next page number and clicking it. Yeah.

  13. Riitta said:
    On 24 Jul at 1:22 pm

    Wonderful, all in all. :) What I’d like to see is – like Cheri already mentioned – the possibility to sort members alphabetically by name. That makes it a lot easier to search for your own name for example, especially when there are lots of pages. It’d also be a bonus if all the fanlistings could be managed via one admin panel, much like Enthusiast, as well as the joined fanlistings. Will it be possible for a user, such as myself, to customise the script so that the “Sort by country” format is the default for displaying the members, instead of how you currently have it at the laptops fanlisting? And if not, is it then possible to move the “Sort by country” link on top of the page? .. yeah, I guess that’s all I can think of right now. =D

  14. Julie said:
    On 25 Jul at 7:56 pm

    When I sent you the email, I forgot to mention the quintessential “sort by name”…thingy. I despise lists by joined date. :D