Unfortunately the UBB software that JavaRanch uses was written in Perl and CGI. If we hack it, when we upgrade we lose the hacks. This has been discussed quite a few times before.
Since we are hoping to get an upgrade in the "not to distant future" (perhaps I am being optimistic), now would not be a great time to get into
alot of hacking effort.
Any donations to Paul Wheatons penny jar would be helpful (and keep Brenda from going after him with a frying pan if he uses the grocery money). The best way to do that would be to buy some books from amazon using links from the BunkHouse.