Board Software Update - Update

[Starglider]

Darth Wong has recently been cleaning up the board's PHP code base. He just uploaded the cleaned up version, which is why the senority stars just disappeared (he didn't reapply that mod).

Once I've got an image of the code base I'll get to work on integrating and testing those mods I wrote for the board a few months back. Here's the list of stuff waiting to go in;

Code: Select all

* Enhanced Polls Mod
> Approval Polls
> Average Rating Polls
> Instant-Runoff Polls
> Condorcet Polls
> Retractable votes (if enabled by poll creator)
> Public Ballots / Voter List (if enabled by poll creator)
> Lockable Polls (by mods/admins, separately from thread locking)
> Board-global poll duration limit (for non-mods)
> Semi-proportional poll bars
* Minor BBcode enhancements
> Superscript/Subscript (for equations)
> Strikethrough (for visible edits and jokes)
* Click-to-reveal spoilers
> Block spoilers tag
> Inline spoilers tag
* Forum specific anti-necro limit.
* Configurable max. thread subject length.
* Quicklink button (copy dressed BBcode link to thread to clipboard)
* Assorted minor bugfixes.
* Fix auto-prune to sync postcounts as threads are flushed.

from this thread. There was a senate vote on the voting at least. If you want anything else done suggest it now.

As for the seniority stars, there are three possible upgrades.

1. Make gold/silver/bronze ones for 3 months/1 year/5 years. This avoids the situations of the stars taking up too much space, having to increase the time they represent constantly or just making them take a ridiculously long time to earn.

2. Make them themeable. Can be combined with the above. I can't recall who suggested this, someone in the Senate I think, but I implemented it;



Presumably there would be a few themes and users can pick one.

3. Replace them with an indication of posting activity over time. My initial idea looked like this;



which IMHO sucks ass. However I think this looks pretty good (though should probably shrink it slightly);



It'd be handy when browsing the archives to see if someone is still around, or if they suddenly start posting again to see when they were last active. Through the magic of caching there isn't any real performance cost to these.

Thoughts anyone?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Darth Wong has recently been cleaning up the board's PHP code base. He just uploaded the cleaned up version, which is why the senority stars just disappeared (he didn't reapply that mod).

Once I've got an image of the code base I'll get to work on integrating and testing those mods I wrote for the board a few months back. Here's the list of stuff waiting to go in;

Code: Select all

* Enhanced Polls Mod
> Approval Polls
> Average Rating Polls
> Instant-Runoff Polls
> Condorcet Polls
> Retractable votes (if enabled by poll creator)
> Public Ballots / Voter List (if enabled by poll creator)
> Lockable Polls (by mods/admins, separately from thread locking)
> Board-global poll duration limit (for non-mods)
> Semi-proportional poll bars
* Minor BBcode enhancements
> Superscript/Subscript (for equations)
> Strikethrough (for visible edits and jokes)
* Click-to-reveal spoilers
> Block spoilers tag
> Inline spoilers tag
* Forum specific anti-necro limit.
* Configurable max. thread subject length.
* Quicklink button (copy dressed BBcode link to thread to clipboard)
* Assorted minor bugfixes.
* Fix auto-prune to sync postcounts as threads are flushed.

from this thread. There was a senate vote on the voting at least. If you want anything else done suggest it now.

As for the seniority stars, there are three possible upgrades.

1. Make gold/silver/bronze ones for 3 months/1 year/5 years. This avoids the situations of the stars taking up too much space, having to increase the time they represent constantly or just making them take a ridiculously long time to earn.

2. Make them themeable. Can be combined with the above. I can't recall who suggested this, someone in the Senate I think, but I implemented it;



Presumably there would be a few themes and users can pick one.

3. Replace them with an indication of posting activity over time. My initial idea looked like this;



which IMHO sucks ass. However I think this looks pretty good (though should probably shrink it slightly);



It'd be handy when browsing the archives to see if someone is still around, or if they suddenly start posting again to see when they were last active. Through the magic of caching there isn't any real performance cost to these.

Thoughts anyone?

[rhoenix]

I like the idea of showing one's posting activity over time, but only if it could be implemented in a manageable way that accounts for the multiple years the more senior members have been around, while still not making the newer members look like more than a single blip on the radar. However, I like this idea more than any sort of seniority figures, because it puts less weight on the length of one's stay here at the forums, and more weight on their posting history.

If this cannot be implemented in a manageable manner, then having the gold/silver/bronze icons to save space are a solid second choice for me. As for the specific icons used, to be honest, I don't care one way or another.

[General Zod]

Maybe it's just me but I actually kind of like the board without stars.

[Starglider]

Maybe it's just me but I actually kind of like the board without stars.

All very well but I suspect J...

My stars! My lovely twinkling stars! They're gone!!

...will do something horrible to you if they don't return.

but only if it could be implemented in a manageable way that accounts for the multiple years the more senior members have been around, while still not making the newer members look like more than a single blip on the radar.

I don't see why you can't just have one column for each current star (i.e. six months). Newbies are just blips on the rader.

[Netko]

Yay! I thought those improvements were just forgotten, very glad to hear they aren't. It would have been a shame that all your work was for nothing.

As for the stars/themed/activity indicator, maybe do a combined improved per your description stars and the (second version) activity indicator - that way both seniority and recent activity (the activity indicator should in my mind go back a year or two max) are shown at a glance.

[Uraniun235]

I am so hot for strikethrough.

[Darth Holbytlan]

Getting off the topic of seniority stars, one thing that's bugged me about the current board software is its handling of new post tracking. It has a number of behaviors that I find annoying:

1. Clicking on the "View Newest Post" icon takes you not to the first new post, but the first new post at the start of your BBS session. So if you read a thread, come back soon and click it to get a new post, you get the old one instead. This is extra annoying if the new post is on a new page because...

2. Reading any part of a thread marks all posts to that thread as read, rather than just up to the end of the page. This makes it easy to lose track of where the new posts start.

3. Visiting the forum anywhere, even if you don't read any thread, resets the new post setting. If you lose your session you'll also lose track of new posts. The next time you visit, you lose track of any new posts you didn't read during the last visit.

4. Because the software only tracks one global last read date, you can't skip some forums during some sessions if you want without losing the new post information in them. So reading forums with different frequencies doesn't work well.

5. Marking all topics or forums as read will mark new posts that came in since the last forum or forum index view as well. So it's easy to miss posts.

6. Considering that the last read state of individual threads is kept in a cookie, it should really be kept around longer than a single browser session. Personally, I'd like a week.

[Stark]

I think the themable icons look retarded: they're too small. If you're going to do that, maybe allow larger 'badges' under the av to represent extremely long-term membership. It's not like you need resolution on senority: nobody gives a shit about the difference between someone who signed up on day 1 and someone who signed up a week later.

I don't want SDN's relavtively clean look to get turned into the pile of shit many boards have around their avs. Post frequency should be accessable, since it's kinda neat, but not for every post. Put it in the profile, with the other post statistics, because it's only going to be relevant 0.01% of the time.

[Starglider]

assorted complaints about new posts tracking

Frankly the phpBB2 cookie-based new posts tracking is seriously flakey. Some of the things you mention might be fixable easily; I'll have to check. But doing it properly would probably require moving the data into the database, as in this mod.

I think the themable icons look retarded: they're too small. If you're going to do that, maybe allow larger 'badges' under the av to represent extremely long-term membership.

Yeah, in retrospect that was a bad idea, I was just trying to implement every suggestion I got. Really avatars and signatures are already enough customisation.

[Darth Wong]

Beware the "everything but the kitchen sink" temptation

[Stark]

Hey I just think a few different badges would be more interesting than endless reams of stars. The join date is already there, after all. Then again, badges for private forum membership might be interesting too.

EIT - Just don't let people choose their long-term badge, it'd go nuts.

[General Zod]

Hey I just think a few different badges would be more interesting than endless reams of stars. The join date is already there, after all. Then again, badges for private forum membership might be interesting too.

EIT - Just don't let people choose their long-term badge, it'd go nuts.

Wouldn't private forum badges be problematic for forums that are specifically hidden and people might not want to advertise their membership of?

[Starglider]

Hey I just think a few different badges would be more interesting than endless reams of stars. The join date is already there, after all.

I like the post-activity-over-time pips (shrunk a little). There are plenty of iconbars and badges in signatures already.

Then again, badges for private forum membership might be interesting too.

AFAIK the board code already has this; that's where the 'senator', 'governer' etc images come from. I suppose there could be little icons representing HAB, Cybertron, BOTM etc membership in that otherwise unused space just to the right of the avatar image.

Wouldn't private forum badges be problematic for forums that are specifically hidden and people might not want to advertise their membership of?

Membership is currently public even for hidden forums - go to 'Usergroups', select the relevant group and click 'view information'. This is because usergroups aren't the same thing as forums - usergroups are for access control and are always public, it's just that there are many groups that exist expressly for permitting viewing and posting in a single otherwise-hidden forum.

[General Zod]

Membership is currently public even for hidden forums - go to 'Usergroups', select the relevant group and click 'view information'. This is because usergroups aren't the same thing as forums - usergroups are for access control and are always public, it's just that there are many groups that exist expressly for permitting viewing and posting in a single otherwise-hidden forum.

I was thinking groups like GALE.

[Stark]

You seriously want to put a bar graph on every post? Are you serious?

[Starglider]

Membership is currently public even for hidden forums

I was thinking groups like GALE.

Sorry, my mistake. Back when I was looking at the code I obviously didn't notice that there's a GROUP_HIDDEN setting as well as GROUP_OPEN and GROUP_CLOSED.

But that's ok. Those groups just wouldn't have an icon defined.

You seriously want to put a bar graph on every post? Are you serious?

Looks ok to me;



Though maybe those usergroup icons would be better off in that unused space to the right of the footer bar (the one with the web/email/IM buttons on the left). Less distracting, more room.

[Stark]

It looks way too busy to me. Is there a compelling reason to put it there and not in profile? It's a good idea, but outside research or necro instances, it's irrelevant.

Like the membership layout, though. I ain't no monkey-member, though.

[Starglider]

It looks way too busy to me.

NO WAIT I HAVE A BETTER IDEA - THE 'PIPS' CAN BE BLINKING LEDS RENDERED VIA ANIMATED GIFS!!!

For optimum ADHD value they can all blink at slightly different frequencies.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I am so hot for strikethrough.

I want to marry spoiler tags.

[Stark]

NO WAIT I HAVE A BETTER IDEA - THE 'PIPS' CAN BE BLINKING LEDS RENDERED VIA ANIMATED GIFS!!!

For optimum ADHD value they can all blink at slightly different frequencies.

It needs to be customisable too, so you can use tiny custom anigifs for each dot. Also, add a 'rewind' function, so you can pan back and forth along their posting history in realtime.

What problems could any of this possibly cause?

[Havok]

I know this is lame, but I always find myself wanting more emoticons.

[Stark]

I know it's lame, but I want them to remove the fucking giant cannon one.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I am so hot for strikethrough.

I want to marry spoiler tags.

I wish to have unholy union with strikedthrough'd text that has been spoilered.

[Darth Wong]

One objection that occurs to me about the activity chart is that I kind of doubt anyone really cares how consistent another person's posting has been. It's a neat widget, and we all know how tempting neat widgets are, but there doesn't seem to be any particular demand for it. I think most people would prefer simply having a slightly improved stars system.