ubbdev.com, and the thousands who customize their boards with it, is proof that there are trillions of hacks and modifications you can put on your boards (and, im sure you've seen some sites that use all of them!)

but what are the hacks / mods that you think are best used to make a great community, content-wise? which really attract people to stay, and help conversations flow better?

in my opinion, the absolute best (and now, in newer versions of the ubb, its a standard) is the "who's online" mod.

it proves itself again and again as a great way to stimulate conversations.

when users are able to see that their friends or "debating enemies" are online, they are more apt to add to a specific conversation, in hopes of engaging in a discussion with the other person. -- excellent way to make your current members wanna stick around longer, and be more active in general.

No hacks are nessecary for a community to thrive.

Take Flare, for instance...

True, some do make a big difference in the site tho... WOL, "last reply by" in both forum summary and forums, private messages - these were all unnecessary "fluff" not so long ago to some purists, but are staples of most every forum software out there now... they may not be essential for community, but add so much, I miss them when they aren't there... and so do most judging by the clamor for them in the "suggestions" forum at IP.

The calendar is another that adds an additional "angle" to the community aspect of a site, especially with the birthday function activated, and is one of our most popular add-ons, thanks to the hard work by jordo and LK.

And don't let charles kid you, he used to have one of the more "hacked" sites out there... his community would thrive with or without them tho

Of course, most of my hacks made it into the UBB after a while...

I just add some basic ones. Most of the important ones are already added into the UBB but for lets say 6.2.1.2 I'd add Last Reply and Calendar. (These are the most esential IMO) Deisgn I think is alot more important.

another one that i think members find useful is the avatar (or personal icon) mod.

its a great way to make the boards a little more personal.

instead of really being identified by the screen name, users get used to seeing 'homer simpson' or 'batman' or ... well... me! i find that it adds a lot of personality to each post, as you get a better feel of what a person is like by the icon they chose (similar to a signature line or image)

things you have to keep in mind:
graphics need to load. so, if you're going to add the avatar mod, do your best to be in full control of what pictures can or can not be used. on my site, i created all the avatars, with the idea that they all had to be at, or under, 1k, to help minimize page load time (especially in an instance where there are 15 or so different members posting on one thread -- thats 15 extra images to load up, and if each were 'just' 3 or 4k, that could add an extra full minute to download time for an AOL user).

Good point on the avatars Rob

ooOOoooh... and i see they've become a 'standard', as well! (now included in the latest beta release!)