Thread: Major Forum Changes Ahead

Yah, I'm talking about the pop-up notifications for likes, PMs, and mentions. I wasn't thinking about e-mail notifications for that stuff.

So you're saying you'd like me to prioritize features best for users who rarely come here?

I have no real valuable input. I am just happy to be along for the ride.

Update

I got all of the BBC VIDEO tags working that I am aware of (all of them YouTube video types). See 4 posts above for examples of all known linking styles working.
If you come across a VIDEO tag that doesn't seem to work, or that links to a video other than one hosted on YouTube, please let me know and I will get it working.

Now that I have a hang of making custom BBC code parsers, I will get the MENTION tag working next.

Edit: Apparently YouTube's embedding technique requires JavaScript to work properly. I wasn't planning on using more than a tiny bit of JS on this site, and certainly wasn't planning on making users run JS from other sources, but such is life. I apologize for that, and those who want to avoid it, you're welcome to install any of the many good JS-blocking plugins for your browser of choice.
If people are really concerned, I could add a per-user option (modifiable in the user profile section) for people to turn off video embedding, and link to the videos instead.

Update

Existing use of the MENTION tag works now. This does not mean that mentions work, or that a user will be notified if you manually create a new mention tag. Those are two parts of the system that I will get working later.
I took a little bit of time today to get the existing MENTION tags working. Technically you can manually create new ones (like below) but they won't notify the user like they used to. That is coming later. Sorry for the trouble.

Example code of an old-style mention (using legacy user IDs):

[MENTION=159]BenFenner[/MENTION]

Example in action: @BenFenner



Example code of a new-style mention (using current user IDs):

[MENTION=!1]BenFenner[/MENTION]

Example in action: @BenFenner








Example code showing what is really important:

[MENTION=!1]This part is actually ignored. This way the linked name updates if someone ever changes their username.[/MENTION]

Example in action: @BenFenner

I'm going to be working on the QUOTE tags again now that I have custom BBC stuff figured out. Specifically, the most common type of quote should be giving a clickable link back to the post where the quote comes from. That small feature is missing right now. I'm reposting some example quotes so I can work off of them for now.




This is a real, new-style quote from this thread, showing that things are more broken than I thought. The username has a space in it, which really messes things up:


This is an older-style quote from a different thread. This needs to work too:

Actually a better way to think of it is, it actually brings people in when they get an email notification, otherwise they forget about the place altogether .

I can't be on the forum 24/7, I make a post and subscribe to a topic, close the window and continue working. When I receive an email telling me there were replies to the topic, I click on direct link and see the replies, etc. This becomes even a bigger deal when we are talking about old tech threads that I never check unless I get an email reply to it.

That is a good way of thinking about it.

I will say this, it's almost certain thread subscriptions will be added before search, but after likes/mentions/PM-notifications (which are next up on my list).

Woohoo, appreciate you taking the time to listen to a new perspective

Update

I've finished getting all of the QUOTE tags working properly now. That's basically it for the BBC stuff*. I can't think of any more that need work right now. If you notice something wrong with a BBC tag, or notice one that doesn't parse anymore, let me know.

To explain more, we now have old quote tags (that use legacy post IDs) working and linking to their proper thread and post. New quote tags are created with the new post IDs, and those link properly too. Some users have spaces in their names, so they need quotation marks around them to work properly, and those are now added automatically when quoting a user with spaces in their name. So yah, it's all working now.

I believe I got the correct icon we used to have to link from a quote to the post it came from:

See 4 posts above (#185) for many styles of quotes working (and especially linking) properly now.


*Edit: Actually, I forgot the SPOILER tags. I'll get them working some time soonish. Oh, and ordered list don't work yet (unordered lists do work).

Update

I've hacked the chat a bit to allow for users to be in chat from multiple machines at once. Now you'll no longer have to log off of the forum on your desktop to get into chat on your phone, and vice versa.

I accomplished this by tacking on a random 3-digit number to usernames in the chat, which should rarely overlap. This means chat won't freak out, as you'll have different names for each device you're logged into chat with. I have a plan to maybe make this even better by hiding that stuff, but for now it's working well enough so I'm announcing it.

You'll have to log off of the forum and then log back in if you want to join the improved chat, so give that a try and I'll see you in there.