Dave, Is your news.php program part of the vBulletin package, or did you pick that up elsewhere? I'm looking for something like it. Is it a free download? If so where can I get get it?
It's a custom script I wrote. Though, I'd be happy to give you a copy. The code is mainly a chimera of various vBulletin scripts, but it does add some useful abstractions. It's templated, so none of the HTML is hardcoded and you can fit it into your vB templating scheme easily.
Hmm, interesting. Well, thank you. Let me give that some thought. I've downloaded several scripts, but have been reluctant to load them on my site because I'm not certain that they fit my needs--some are too much and others are too little. I would like to try writing some php, but I don't have the enthusiasm for the task right now--I've been working on my taxes. Thank you for offering the share. Maybe you should place it in an FTP folder and use it for the purpose of drawing some hits. The script performs very well. Has it an admin page? Does it use MySQL to store its data? Just as a side note: HostRocket has performed very well in the short time since I opened my account. I'm pulling very little traffic now, and there isn't much pressure on the host from my site, but I'm still impressed with their service to date.
There's no admin page. You can manually edit the configuration variables (~2-3, just telling vB which forums to consider as "news" forums) within the script. The templates are done straight through the vB template system, which can be edited using the vB web control panel.