Thread: User Requested Modifications

I thought that I'd do Insanity a little favor and compile a list of user requests so far.

The following is a Profile Control Panel which includes various fixes and thus doesn't fit under one number so I add it up here instead
<blockquote>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1477 (This is a Profile Control Panel with a variety of functions. Friend and ignore list, Subscribed topics, Online/Offline/Hidden indicator, Hide picture (av, sig, pic in post))</blockquote>

1. Quick Reply Box
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/540 (with quote for last post)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/522 (Quick Reply)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/4784 (super quick reply)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/586 (advanced quick reply)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/4852 (Quick Post ES)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/3247 (Quick Post)</BLOCKQUOTE>
2. Don't view signature option
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1285</BLOCKQUOTE>
3. Custom User Titles
4. Show title of of last thread posted in on main page.

6. Report post
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/568 (by popup)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/4965 (to control panel)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/3643 (advanced. control panel or list)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1955 (basic. Text based link. By email.)</BLOCKQUOTE>I want to reiterate that I don't particularly agree with the need for suggestions 5 and 6. But they have both been requested by others so they're on the list.

7. Marking the threads one has posted in.
I can't seem to find a hack for this but have difficulty believing that one doesn't exist. This is a very common feature of practically every other forum I've ever seen. I find it hard to believe that phpbb doesn't have one as well.
8. Search for threads started by user (either in search or in profile. <BLOCKQUOTE>Preferably in profile in a similar manner to the Find Posts by User link.
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/3837 (It says it also shows number of threads started in viewtopic.php... kinda seems extraneous. Probably a way to shut that off?)</BLOCKQUOTE>

Plus, while going through those I found a few more that seemed interesting and useful:

Last User Visit:
<blockquote>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1811
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/237
(These show the last time the user has been online. Kinda snoopy, but nice to know if someone's been online since you've been gone.)</blockquote>

Online/offline/hidden:
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1291 (viewtopic and profile)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/561 (only in viewtopic...)
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/3320 (viewtopic)
(These show online or offline status of user, some in topic and some in profile.)</BLOCKQUOTE>

Link to own profile:
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/2962 (ezPortal?)
(Not sure what ezPortal is, but it would be nice to be able to find your own profile without looking for a post by yourself... Then again, I suppose you can see yourself on the list of users at the bottom.. Even if you're invisible?)</BLOCKQUOTE>

Popup BBcode:
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/4745
(This one's for Grazzhoppa.)</BLOCKQUOTE>

User Word Count:
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/2074
(I thought this one was interesting. Kinda fun.)
</BLOCKQUOTE>

User NOtes:
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/3155
(This one would be helpful for people on multiple machines. This way they could store notes in their profile and could access them from wherever they are. This could be done now by pm'ing yourself, but that's a bit of a hassle.)</BLOCKQUOTE>

Topic Posters:
<blockquote>http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=254810
Turns the number of replies for a topic / forum into a link, where you can view who posted in that topic / forum, and how many posts that user made. </blockquote>

Save posts as drafts:
<blockquote>http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=223319
Allow users to save their posts as drafts so they can begin a post and finish it later. Since it is a draft, others will not see it until it is done. </blockquote>


I think that's it. Not that many I guess but even so, I thought perhaps Insanity might have been getting backlogged. (Note: I don't agree with the need for suggestions 5 and 6.)

I'll try to keep up on this thread and keep it updated. So, if you have more requests, make them here. Sound like a plan?


And. While I'm here, I have a question as to the use of html tags. I've been trying to figure out how to approximate an [indent] from the vbulletin forum that I'm used to and having no success. I've found that <blockquote should do the trick. Constructing a table should also work. But very little html code actually seems to work. I've also tried using <sup and <sub but neither have worked. Is there a list of html tags that do work? Can more tags be enacted?

By the way, the strike html tag would be handy as well. That way I could cross out items that have been dealt with already.

(Christ. I hate how this post looks like a damned rainbow...)


Ennabled Requests:
5. Ignore User --Done--
<BLOCKQUOTE>http://phpbbhacks.com/download/789
http://phpbbhacks.com/download/1274 (Contact List. Includes buddy list, ignore list, disallow contact list)</BLOCKQUOTE>

And. While I'm here, I have a question as to the use of html tags. I've been trying to figure out how to approximate an [indent] from the vbulletin forum that I'm used to and having no success. I've found that <blockquote> should do the trick. Constructing a table should also work. But very little html code actually seems to work. I've also tried using <sup> and <sub> but neither have worked. Is there a list of html tags that do work? Can more tags be enacted?

We have control over what HTML tags work and what ones don't. I may enable blockquote if you like, tables I want to avoid as they can be abused making the forum look like crap. I don't want to enable any tags that could be used to alter the overall display of the rest of the post, making them too wide, etc.

Know what I'd like?

Some way to find all threads posted by User.

There is no way to pinpoint who wrote what without going through tons of posts.
Its cumbersome.

Too, the title of the thread last posted in should show up on the index page.
What better way to catch your attention than to find the title of the threads posted in on the index page?

Instead of seeing Invert Nexus on the index page for Site Feedback, I'd see "User Requested Modifications"

Or Invert Nexus's maternity or human genome thread (nice) instead of his name.

blockquote would be good. And <sup> and <sub> would also be helpful for maths and such. Much prettier than x² is much prettier than x^2 (I used ascii code to do that. But that only works with 1, 2, and 3 as far as I know...)

I could probably think up a few more helpful html tags if I put my mind to it, but those three would be great.

The only problem with blockquote is that supposedly in some browsers it indents the text. I'm not sure which browsers. I think that Mozilla and IE have a heavy lead in the market so the rest can go get screwed as long as it works in those two.

Abraxas,

Some way to find all threads posted by User.

Actually, you can do that in from the profile. It's hard to see though. Under their post per day count. Look and you'll see it.

Too, the title of the thread last posted in should show up on the index page.

That's on the list already. #4.

Or Invert Nexus's maternity or human genome thread (nice) instead of his name.

Thanky ma'am. I just wish there were some responses to it. Woe's me.

1. Quick Reply Box
2. Don't view signature option
3. Custom User Titles
4. Show title of of last thread posted in on main page.
5. Ignore User
6. Report post
7. Marking the threads one has posted in.

If anyone wants to search phpBBHacks and find some of these it would be appreciated.

#1 I've seen a patch for
#2 I've seen a patch for
#3 This we are still trying to decide on
#4 This I should be able to do, trying to fit it on the page may be a trcik.
#5 Not sure if I've seen a patch for this or not.
#6 Same as 5
#7 Same as 5 and 6.

The ones that don't have patches can be done, just will take me longer. My schedule is brutal at the moment.

Ok, I've enabled the tags requested. If they cause problems I'll have to disable the problem tags. I don't expect they will be an issue.

Vert:

Actually, you can do that in from the profile. It's hard to see though. Under their post per day count. Look and you'll see it.

No, dear.

Threads. Threads.
Here you have an option to find all posts by user.
In the other forum, you had the option of finding:
all posts by user
all threads by user.

I'd like to find all threads by user.
See?

Thanky ma'am. I just wish there were some responses to it. Woe's me.

Sabotage.

I've posted in your thread. The genome one is....must admit...impeccable.

all posts by user
all threads by user.

I'm pretty sure you can do this in the search.

Posts and Topics by user. Has anyone tried it?

Insanity Pepper,

Ok, I've enabled the tags requested. If they cause problems I'll have to disable the problem tags. I don't expect they will be an issue.

I can't see them being a problem either.
Let's see how they work.

E=MC²


<blockquote>They find themselves in a very strange place indeed. It looks like the seafront at Southend but the sea stays the same and the shoreline seems to wash up and down. In the background we hear, "2^240,000 to 1 against and falling." Arthur's left arm disappears and Ford turns into a penguin..... Arthur looses a leg and then his other arm!

The voice tells Arthur and Ford not to be alarmed and that everything will return to normality just as soon as they know what is normal anyway. (?) ......"We are now cruising at a level of 2 to the power of 25,000 to one against, and falling..."</blockquote>

<blockquote>11. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights advocates have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftist anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the word "primitive" by "nonliterate." They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)</blockquote>

Ahhh. Much better. Donkey smells.


Abraxas,

Threads. Threads.

Ahh.
Quite.
Added to the list.

I've posted in your thread.

Once! (Yes. This is a guilt trip. Anyway. Don't post. The thread's dead. I've lost all sense of excitement over the idea since the initial post, I'm afraid.

Should have saved it for Mother's Day. (Which reminds me. You didn't bash mothers this year?!)

The genome one is....must admit...impeccable.

I wish some of our genetic researchers were around. It was while researching for some threads at sciforums that the idea struck me. It's quite apparent once elucidated, isn't it?

I suppose all that's left to do is to polish it up and try to sell it...

Originally Posted by Insanity

I'm pretty sure you can do this in the search.

Posts and Topics by user. Has anyone tried it?

Hmm. No. It would be nice to have a link in their profile though. Again. We're trying to duplicate our lost home...
I'll try right after this post.


Edit: Just tried. It doesn't work. You can search for topics they've posted in but not the ones they've started themselves.

What's with the delete? I just noticed that my last post in Religion has a Delete button, but not the rest. I had wanted to delete one of them but had to edit it instead as a compromise.

Yeah. I came across that delete issue myself a while back. It seems that the way the board is set up, you can only delete your post if there have been no posts after your post in the thread. I imagine it'd be an easy setting to change, but not sure if Insanity would care to.

It'd probably be a good idea. A lot of times people post while drinking and decide later that maybe they shouldn't have said what they said. But, it's kinda cheating, isn't it? Take good old An>roid from the other place. He went through how many incarnations? And each one would go for a while and then he'd get pissy and come back and delete all his posts and change his name. After awhile, it became necessary to always quote him so as to ensure that it was plain after his deletions who you were talking to. I don't suppose he felt it was any big deal, but he ruined the flow of a lot of threads that way.

So. Be careful what you post...

Originally Posted by invert_nexus

So. Be careful what you post...

That would be a first for us sciforumers...to be careful about what we post.

Originally Posted by invert_nexus

A lot of times people post while drinking and decide later that maybe they shouldn't have said what they said. But, it's kinda cheating, isn't it?

I don't see it as cheating. I see it more as an extension to editing that goes beyond the confines of a virtual reality -- to delete one's input is to also edit one's presence. No? But I guess that person at Sciforums, Android, took it a bit off the edge. Ah -- the dilemma for change: to go all the way, or to conserve the impassive for the sake of continuance.

Figured I'd bump this back up to the top.
It seems that only one of the requests on the list has been enacted.
#5. Ignore user.
The rest are still pending.
Mach shnell, Herr (In)Sanity!!

Just pretend I'm the US government

So. I should write my congressman?

I'm not really getting in your face with this stuff, but just thought that perhaps you'd forgotten this thread so figured I'd give a gentle reminder. Plus, I hadn't kept up my end of the bargain by crossing off the ennabled requests... (Tough job, so far...)

Originally Posted by invert_nexus

So. I should write my congressman?

I'm not really getting in your face with this stuff, but just thought that perhaps you'd forgotten this thread so figured I'd give a gentle reminder. Plus, I hadn't kept up my end of the bargain by crossing off the ennabled requests... (Tough job, so far...)

Ha, <- as in too funny.

I actually did look in to most of these. I then got side tracked on the rating system (not asked for) and then added in the Watched Topics and well kind of forgot about everything else. I'll get back in to adding these as soon as I can. It's hard to balance making money with having fun adding stuff to the forum. It'll get done, exactly when..hmm.

Edit test: This is a test edit.

I notice that there is still problems with edit notices. I edited a post in In the News at least a half an hour ater posting it, and it shows no sign of editing.

This may seem to be just an inconvenience, but there are people who might take advantage of this to edit their posts to make themselves appear to 'win' arguments.

It's true that we're just talking about posts in a forum, but still, there should be some type of accountability involved.

What's the deal with this?
Have you updated the forum software like you said you were going to? Is that maybe part of the problem?

Oh. And, the 'finish my sentence' and similar threads have been started in the trashcan. Is there an easy way to make posts in the Trashcan not count to the total? I don't think it's fair that such posts should add to post count. I sure as hell don't feel comfortable making posts like that knowing that they add to post count anyway.

Mod Edit test: This is a test edit. (IS)

I'll look in to the edit post issue.

As to the post count, the trash can will end up being indexed by Google as well, so why not count the posts? It's a post count, I could make it say any number I wish. The post count reflects the activity of the forum, even if it's trash. I guess I would want to see how others feel about this as well.

Sorry Invert, I just don't understand your concerns on this one.

Edit test: This is an edit.

I posted the question on the phpbb site about the post editied flag not being set. I'll see if they have a fix. Otherwise I'll find it myself.

Edit:
Another edit test

Meh.
I don't know about the post count thing. It just seems to me that people shouldn't garner post count from such frivolous posts.
Your call though.
But, I can say that it will mean that I won't post in those threads much. Didn't over at the other place either, but when I did I felt no guilt over it because it didn't rack up post count any.

Your call though.

Edit:

Last edited by (In)Sanity on Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

Looks like this is one of the forums that the edit flag does work in this forum. THere must be some setting out of whack because it works in some forums and not in others.

Well the guys on phpbb kind of looked at me like I was stupid. Turns out the Edit flag only shows up if their is a post below your post. Also it appears the mod edits don't show up with that flag at all (this I don't like). Try to edit some of your posts that have posts below them and see if this is in fact the case. If it is it would keep someone from making changes to "win an argument".

Couldn't care less about my post count. Do you get a prize or something when you get to say, 1000 posts? Huh? Didn't think so. I like the trash can type things from time to time, especially when the forums are slow. I tend to find them entertaining. Stimulating. Good brain food.

Insanity,

Ah.
Ok. That makes sense.
And, it is kinda annoying when your post gets tagged as edited when no one has posted after you.

And. Yeah. That mod edits don't show. I don't like that either. In that case, it must be made a point to always mark mod edits manually.

Edit: Yup. Just tested in the thread I was talking about earlier.
It works.

Cottontop,

Well. Consider someone who has a 1000 post count, with over half of them in threads like "Three word story" or "A to Z" or any of the other throwaway threads.

Like it or not, people (especially newbies) do attribute some kind of prestige to post count.

How about someone who has a 'forum bachelor degree' for posting one liners?

Meh.
Like I said, Insanity's call. But this is a science site, not a 'trashcan' site.

Like I said, Insanity's call. But this is a science site, not a 'trashcan' site.

I thought you were referring to the post count for the entire site. Ya I kind of agree with you about the post count for the users and the trash. I'll have to see if I can fix that.

Originally Posted by (In)Sanity

I thought you were referring to the post count for the entire site. Ya I kind of agree with you about the post count for the users and the trash. I'll have to see if I can fix that.

Oh okay. There goes my post count!! :P

Hey, there is also a little problem I don't know if you know about. When you are writing a message or replying to one, and you have written a lot, and you are looking over your message before posting it, and you want to go back, say, to the middle of it and put in a smiley somewhere, you can't. When you try to, the smiley always ends up at the very end of the message. Can this be fixed, easily? If not, don't worry about it. Thanks.

The best way is to simply type the code for the smiley itself, keeping at least one space between it and other characters, particularly parentheses. 8 ) = 8) and also = : cool : (remove the spaces between the colons and the "cool").

Hover your mouse over the smiley and it should display the code for it.

Thanks Skinwalker. That's a good idea. Let me try it. Yep, got it.

firstly, I think you should make the margins between categories (say, natural science and people) a tad darker.

suggestions for new organization of categories:
--combine math a physics, on a science site they will be related most of the time.

--eliminate military tech and electronics. just make general tech, that worked well for sciforums.

god damn its hard to organize this shit, I will be back to post more on this later, it is 2am and this shit is hard.

so what's the code for sans serif and right alignment? the html doesn't seem to hold -- and besides, the default for html is off -- meaning that most people wouldn't change the setting, hence anything that is tagged as html wouldn't be viewable?

HTML is on by default, at least it appears to be the default.

^Up _Down

Code:

<sup>Up</sup>  <sub>Down</sub>

I thought this was the tag for sans serif.

and over here on the right?

[align="right"]edit[/align]


<font face="sans serif">sans serif</font>

I don't think you can change fonts in phpbb unless a hack is installed. That appears to be one of the html tags that are disabled (my guess... I don't know for sure). If so, then it might be because an open tag could reek havoc on the fonts on the rest of the page if not properly closed.

<blockquote>As a side note, are html tags enabled on some subforums and not others.... I couldn't get blockquote to work once in the Religion subforum. </blockquote>

Edit: I turned HTML on for this post. IS

Make sure HTML is enabled when you do your post. If you use it often make sure it's enabled in your profile. Get me a list of HTML tags that you want and I'll consider each one by one.

You should make a page that lists the html tags are enabled.

And, by the way, I've never had to enable html. It's always worked by default.

You know. While we're on the subject of tags. You know what's annoying? Having to put quotes around the name of the person being quoted. That's two keystrokes (four if you consider reaching for the shift key) too many. Phpbb is weeeeird. (Just saw Wonka tonight. Wonka is weeeeird.)

I'm still a big advocate of adding a slight splash of color. I like the overall color scheme, but I think that a few very minor changes could improve the overall look and feel of the site.

Here's a photoshop markup of what I was thinking of. I also made a slight addition to the Welcome banner, just to try it out. I don't know if phpbb can add a background graphic and still keep the text for search engines.