WWWBoard Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

Here is a brief explanation of some of the questions you may have about WWWBoard.

What is this "security" feature?

One of the major problems with this message board has been the ease with which someone can impersonate other people by using the other person's commonly accepted posting name. To prevent this, a security check has now been integrated into all posts. Here's how it works.

  1. The name used is checked against every nickname already chosen by registered users in the Teenage Wildlife registry.
  2. If the name used does not exist in the registry, then the message is posted as is.
  3. If the name does exist in the registry, then an error message is displayed and the poster is given the option of either
    1. changing the name to something else and trying again
    2. clicking a "Secure Post" button.
      1. If the Secure Post option is chosen, the poster is asked for their username and password (the same one used for voting, contests at Teenage Wildlife) if they haven't already typed it in that session, and the name used for the post is checked against the nickname they entered in the registry.
      2. If the name and the stored nickname match, then a ® symbol is appended to the name to indicate that the poster is indeed who they say they are.
      3. If the name does not match, then another error message will be displayed, and the poster will have the option of changing the name to something else.
  4. The net result is that you can now verify that a registered user is really posting with a registered name and is not being impersonated. Yet at the same time, an unregistered user or a registered user can maintain anonymity by using an unassigned nickname.

Can I put html tags anywhere in my posts?

No. You can not use HTML tags in any field except body of the message. The maintainer of the script has the option of allowing or disallowing any HTML in the Message part of your posting. If they disallow it, the script will just throw out everything in <>'s. If they allow it, your html markup will appear in the posting. It can't hurt to try.

Why are there colons in the message when I try to post a followup?

Colons appear in the message dialog box when you try to followup up on a message to indicate that those lines are quoting the previous document. The owner of the WWWBoard can decide whether they wish to enable or disable the quoting of previous messages.

Why didn't my post show up?

Your post most likely did not show up, because your browser did not reload the page, it simply pulled it out of cache. Please reload your browser and it should then appear.

Where can I get the scripts for this program?

These scripts are written in Perl and were originally created by Matt Wright. The version used here has been extensively modified for reliability and security features by Etete Systems. If you are interested in the original version you can get them as well as other scripts at: http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/. Enjoy!