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TheMinusWorld / forum-improvements

Organize suggestions and other details related to improving the phpBB iteration of the Minus World
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Imported: Markdown #76

Open wtl420 opened 8 years ago

wtl420 commented 8 years ago

Tue Dec 09, 2014 01:37 AM suggestion by Xgoff:

deprecate bbcode and replace it with markdown (specifically markdown extra)

bbcode is for babby's who can't into formatting

Tue Dec 09, 2014 07:06 AM Re: suggestion by World'sTallestLadder:

It's definitely better overall. Perhaps for compatibility issues with older posts / issues with some tags we have that don't have markdown equivalents / etc, we could have both? I'm in favor of replacing it outright but this aging forum software and aging forum attitudes about how forums should work probably means that's not going to happen

Tue Dec 09, 2014 07:21 AM Re: suggestion by Draku:

I'm not sure there are any simple implementations of this for phpBB after a quick look.

I'm also not sure why it'd really be necessary, though as a side option to BBcode I couldn't see that much harm being done.

Tue Dec 09, 2014 05:18 PM Re: suggestion by McKnackus I:

World'sTallestLadder:

It's definitely better overall. Perhaps for compatibility issues with older posts / issues with some tags we have that don't have markdown equivalents / etc, we could have both? I'm in favor of replacing it outright but this aging forum software and aging forum attitudes about how forums should work probably means that's not going to happen

Even then, a fresh coat of paint and a new system won't really change the mood of the forum to something resembling active. Even the Secret Santa participation is waning.

Tue Dec 09, 2014 07:13 PM Re: suggestion by World'sTallestLadder:

for the purposes of this thread I'm not concerned with the overall mood of the forum. I'm referring to the constant threat of baby duck syndrome preventing progress with human-computer interactions

Draku:

I'm not sure there are any simple implementations of this for phpBB after a quick look.

I'm also not sure why it'd really be necessary, though as a side option to BBcode I couldn't see that much harm being done.

Fortunately Markdown Extra's original implementation is in PHP, so all we'd really need to do is call that when rendering posts. Things can get more complicated to if we decide we want a checkbox to enable/disable it with each post too though. Not as easy as a few simple clicks to get something up and running but I don't think it'd be much more than a tiny project

wtl420 commented 8 years ago

Another thread:

Wed Dec 09, 2015 07:01 PM Support Markdown by Spritey:

I could've sworn this was suggested before, but it's crazy important now.

BBCode is cumbersome and illegible, Markdown is fast and makes sense even without being parsed. Seems like a pretty clear-cut choice to me.

If this isn't possible with the current software, we need to move to newer software.

Wed Dec 09, 2015 08:58 PM Re: Support Markdown by Draku:

i have no idea how to do it on the current software or if it's possible period

Spritey:

we need to move to newer software.

while this was presented as an option with the mw anniversary updates, i'm not really sure it's feasible either considering the amount feature-wise we'd lose by doing it without a lot of effort in ways no one currently on staff is actually familiar with. i'm sure people would be fine with losing a couple of things we have around here but skins and all that are important to people. i'm not sure it's worth it to get rid of what honestly seems like an overblown issue.

Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:43 PM Re: Support Markdown by World'sTallestLadder:

i think i suggested this before,

a cursory search suggests there's not really anything out there though you could probably find a browser plugin that'd convert markdown on your end to bbcode. i found a thread on the phpbb forums where nobody likes markdown so its unlikely itll be here; phpbb seems to be stuck in like 2005 (which is funny cuz 3.1 came out last year)

Thu Dec 10, 2015 06:07 AM Re: Support Markdown by Bitteh:

if the skins are the most important thing keeping mw from upgrading, open an empty forum with the new software like test.theminusworld.net, provide all the skin packages as downloads, and see if people in the community are willing to make all the skins work with it. (hire people who say they're willing to help as admins on test.theminusworld.net)

Thu Dec 10, 2015 03:28 PM Re: Support Markdown by Spritey:

If we do switch to new software, we should have a poll to choose between several options. I want to get it right so we can settle in with whatever we choose.

I'm gonna be honest, most of our skins are mediocre at best, and I only use them because they make me feel like it's still 2008 whenever I'm here.

Let's maybe port the top 2 or 3 most used skins to go along with a new default.

Thu Dec 10, 2015 06:20 PM Re: Support Markdown by Bitteh:

I agree on making a poll. Additionally, the OP of the poll should list the pros and cons of each type of software. But if any of the cons involve losing important features such as badges*, we'd need to be sure to include information about addons-that-fill-gaps-of-missing-features for that particular software -- or add them to the OP if anyone finds a link to an addon and posts it in the thread. I don't think it's bad to use addons on the new software as long as we're concise about it and the new boards don't end up being Stu Pickles forums held together with glue and paperclips like the current forum. :doubtful:

Also, I have a little modification of my suggestion of "promote people to admins in the test boards." How about just make it so the default member position is admin but to register you need email verification? So if Spritey, for example, registered on test.theminusworld.net and they saw TestMW's Spritey had the same IP address as the main forum's Spritey, they would verify his registration. (Just using you as an example Spritey; I have no idea if you'd be willing to help.) I don't know if {default admins with email verification on the test board} would be less of a hassle than {letting anyone join the test board and promoting people to admin on a case-by-case basis}, but to me the former seems like it would indeed be easier. :doubtful:

This should\ go without saying, but the test boards needn't bother importing all the old members and having all the same boards as Minus World. Once we port all the skins over, we can update the software here and import the old userbase. (It SHOULD go without saying but CERTAIN PEOPLE scaled image always make ridiculously wild assumptions whenever I leave any sort of minor gaps of information in my suggestions in these sorts of threads. If something I say sounds like it wouldn't work when I make suggestions about the board, ASK FOR CLARIFICATION INSTEAD OF JUMPING TO ASININE CONCLUSIONS!!!** scaled image)

*Speaking of badges, if importing the users from this forum wouldn't import badges, the new boards will need Badge Admins. I don't think it's fair to put that kind of burden on Draku and Elyk alone. T_T;

Also this is random, but in addition to porting all the old skins over (I disagree with only porting the top 3 skins, but maybe we can skip porting skins with zero users), I fully volunteer to make a skin based on taloncrossing/penguinia MFGG. scaled image I have a lot of those skin resources downloaded... it would just be a matter of changing the MFGG logo to MW or Minus World and fixing everything up so it fits with the new software. All we would need is permission from the creator of that skin. Thunder Dragon?