Re: Message Board Script

Ultimate Bulletin Board is a very nice BBS to work with. I haven't checked under the hood (as I'm somewhat new to Perl as well) but from what it says for requirements on their site and it's robustness I'm going to assume it's competently coded.

You can download a demo of here.

The Liscense:

Modifications of any kind to the UBB Demo Version code are strictly prohibited. You may not alter the program code in any manner, except to change Perl paths, if necessary, or to change absolute paths for required files. You may not add additional code to the UBB Demo.
You may not distribute, sell, or reuse the program in any manner. In addition, you may not use any code snippets from the UBB Demo for any other purpose without the express written consent of Infopop Corporation. Each download is intended for one customer only.

A BBS can be a very complex system (I'm speaking as DBA who's done the other side of it) so I can definitely understand needing some reference material. My interprettation of their license is that, as long as you don't copy or modify any code, you can get a feel for how they do it. IANAL though, so it's up to you.

Update:

I haven't been in a project that used UBB in many years, well before the current company (whether they changed their name or bought it) was controlling it. The programmer at that time were okay with it and seemed competent enough, but I'd take grinder's concerns into serious consideration as potential security issues always bear scutiny.

Comment on Re: Message Board Script

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UBBS considered harmful! by grinder (Bishop) on Jun 22, 2001 at 14:08 UTC
My memory is hazy on this one, so there is a slight chance I could be wrong (as to whether I am thinking of UBBS or some other product)... but... I downloaded this code to look at a few years ago, and I really didn't like what I saw. I wouldn't touch Ultimate BBS with a 10" barge pole. The code is shrouded, so that even if you felt like modifying the code in violation of the license agreement, the code is incomprehensible. This means that as far as learning how a BBS is put together in Perl, you could not find a worse example than this. In an valiant effort to avoid me putting my foot in my mouth, I tried to download a copy, to see whether I was thinking about the right package. I filled in the personal details they requested with random garbage, before being allowd to download the code. Turns out, they e-mail instructions to the e-mail address you specify that contains instructions on how to download the code. Looks to me that they don't want people to inspect the code casually before deciding whether you want to deploy it. Given that the code is completely obfuscated, there is no way of ruling out the possibility that the authors have included back-doors into your BBS, whether it be maliciously or just careless neglect. I don't want that sort of code running on my servers, thank-you very much. -- `g r i n d e r`	[reply]

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UBBS considered harmful!
by grinder (Bishop) on Jun 22, 2001 at 14:08 UTC

My memory is hazy on this one, so there is a slight chance I could be wrong (as to whether I am thinking of UBBS or some other product)... but... I downloaded this code to look at a few years ago, and I really didn't like what I saw.

I wouldn't touch Ultimate BBS with a 10" barge pole. The code is shrouded, so that even if you felt like modifying the code in violation of the license agreement, the code is incomprehensible. This means that as far as learning how a BBS is put together in Perl, you could not find a worse example than this.

In an valiant effort to avoid me putting my foot in my mouth, I tried to download a copy, to see whether I was thinking about the right package. I filled in the personal details they requested with random garbage, before being allowd to download the code. Turns out, they e-mail instructions to the e-mail address you specify that contains instructions on how to download the code. Looks to me that they don't want people to inspect the code casually before deciding whether you want to deploy it.

Given that the code is completely obfuscated, there is no way of ruling out the possibility that the authors have included back-doors into your BBS, whether it be maliciously or just careless neglect. I don't want that sort of code running on my servers, thank-you very much.

--
g r i n d e r

[reply]