Remove VB Code & Use HTML Instead

austingecko

<rant> HTML is easy to understand and I am convinced that the majority of users here know HTML. And, if not, a user would benefit from utilizing HTML as often as the user can. HTML is also universal --- the method of code is consistent. If I use <a href> on Slashdot, I know what it will do. If I use <b> on Kuro5hin --- the same result will occur on popular community sites elsewhere. If I use HTML in my PHP code, I know what will happen when I insert an IMG.

VB Code, however, attempts to remake the wheel and <b>simplify</b> HTML. When, in fact, VB Code is as much work as HTML (it uses brackets rather than '<' and '>'), and even with these changes it adds confusion. If I know HTML, why should I adopt to VB Code? With this message, if I want to make a word bold, I am accustomed to using <b>, but cannot. It is as if there is some sort of HTML penalty much like a user who is accustomed to browsing the Web with (gulp) a browser such as Mozilla or IE, and then attempts to use AOL. Perhaps AOL can reinvent Web browser because of its large market share. Certainly a like market share is not owned by VBulletin.

Where else is VB Code used for than on a proprietary message board? Perhaps a user study would conclude VB Code is more user-friendly on some forums, but on a forum for development --- with users accustomed to HTML, at least in my case, it is annoying. </rant>

jmcneese

enabling HTML is a serious security risk, both for the server, but also for those viewing the site. imagine a malicious javascript that reads sensitive information from your workstation and then sends it back to some source? i personally have seen a script that invisibly collects passwords and other information.

by your own argument, vbcode is just as easy/hard as html, and so there is no extra overhead to use it. do you honestly need to include images or tables in your posts? what if you put a </form> tag in your post? don't you think that would mess up the rendering of the rest of the page?

austingecko

You're right, security is important. Like the tens of thousands of other message boards, blogs, and communities that use HTML rather than VB Code --- I think only certain HTML tags should be allowed, such as <b>, <i>, <a href>, etc... This is true with content management apps such as Drupal, PostNuke, Geeklog, Scoop, Zope(I'm pretty sure), PHPSlash, Squishdot, thatware....

Stating the obvious, only vbulletin uses vbcode.

Right --- VB Code is not as easy or as hard as HTML. So, why reinvent HTML? At least in my case, it adds confusion.

jmcneese

and UBB uses UBBcode, and phpBB uses BBcode, etc etc etc.

dotwebbie

Very true jmcneese. 🙂 It's really not all that different except when you get under the hood and see how each BB handles the parsing of the codes and what codes are implemented. Pretty much all (if not all) BB's use

for quotes and for bold and so on. It's just the implementation that is different. And bbcode really is just html. It is parsed in to <b> or <a href . . .> or whatever. It is just a way to keep idiots from trying to do harm to your computer/server. How would you feel if the <embed> tag was allowed? Well, there goes your registry. Or the <script> tag? Ooh, that opens your server up to php that can do whatever. (For those who don't know, <script language="php"> is a way of using php . . .) Okay, I'm done. :p