Forum software upgrade (for real now)

[Lex]

All we have to do is replace that loveheart with a small cookie monster and it'll feel like home.

that and sigs

it's entirely possible this software is incapable of sigs

 

[Tetsujin]

I have sigs disabled anyway

Although I'm missing that postbit thing

 

[Lex]

OK I think I'm done fiddling for today or I'll be up all night. It's seriously interesting though, we can make this the new TLS for sure.

Things we need to do:

- Skin Moar (avatar shape and size, cookie monster like instead of loveheart, layout)
- Figure out user customisation (particularly user permissions)
- Post migration
- various other things

People need to log on and poke around and shit.

 

[Cthulhu]

https://meta.discourse.org/t/automated-signatures/1127/25 is a discussion on signatures . I'm sure we can make them work, as well as a postbit for example (if we want to stick to that, instead of what discourse offers by default, clicking on a user's feisu to show more info)

 

[Flintlock]

I'll need to find a way to give certain permissions to certain users i.e. might want to let people (say Flint) have access to the CSS customisation options

Also: Signatures are a pointless waste of space IMO.

Also also: If we really want to make it a Cookie Monster, may I suggest this as a replacement for the heart?

 

[Cthulhu]

Also glad you guys dig it . I do think we'll end up investing a lot of time to tweak shit, but still.

 

[Lex]

Well we'll have to to make it TLS-like

We don't need a postbit with join-date and shit like that IMO, but some people may want some more info. I know that visually it's a nice way to tell who's posting rather than a small avatar icon. This is a good opportunity for us to cut down on the clutter.

I'm not in favour of removing sigs completely, but I'm definitely on board with limiting what can be in there and the size. Mine here is fairly obscene, for example. But size-wise it's built specifically so that my avatar and sig go well together vertical-height-wise even when I post relatively little.

 

[Tetsujin]

I just got this:

You've reached the maximum number of replies a new user can create on their first day. Please wait 22 hours before trying again.

 

[Lex]

I'll remove that limitation immediately, can't be having that

EDIT: Done. It's a "trust level" feature thing that we can customise.

 

[Octo]

OOOH

What if, we used that as some sort of penalty? Like one rung up from a suspension?

I dunno, I feel like it would really fuck off a troll if they could only make 1 poast a day/week.

*giggling*

I'm into punishment not rehabilitation

 

[ForceStealer]

Thanks for messing around with it today Lex. It already looks loads better than when we started. I definitely agree about the like heart being something TLS-y. I still rather like sigs, but it won't be a huge deal to me if we lose them.

And yeah a little bit of postbit would be nice, even if it not as extensive as this one.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Gotta admit I'm part of the "use sig to identify who the last post was by" crowd. It'll be weird not having them.

*says goodby to part of online identity*

All that said, Discourse seems to be a heavy believer in the "minimalism at all costs" design theory which simply makes my inner artist cringe.

One possible sig Add-On: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-signatures/42263/1

The only problem I can see with it is that sigs cannot be seen by anyone who visits the forums, but only the members of the forums who toggle it on. And from the looks of it, that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

[Tennyo]

O_O

No more sigs...?

 

[Ghost X]

Do I use my TLS account, or do I have to register again to use this discourse thing? Have you solved the issue of pretending to be other people?

 

[Fangu]

I've actually been checking the Discourse site more than the regular forums

When are we migrating

@Ghost, for the test site, pretends might happen. But when we migrate (assuming we will - in my eyes it's a must), live data will be used instead, users included.

 

[Cthulhu]

I'll install that signature hack, maybe I can figure out how to auto-enable it by default.

Other plugins we may want to look at:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-feature-voting/40121 although I guess thanks / likes, etc might work just as well

https://meta.discourse.org/t/advert...our-discourse-forum-official-endorsed/33734/3 beacause I don't mind softening the pain of the monthly bill. I'll have to investigate whether I can disable them for donators.

On that note: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discou...iate-code-amazon-automatically-to-links/19585 - adds affiliate codes to e.g. links to Amazon automagically. But, there's not really much links like that on TLS atm. I think I'd rather see the TLS store reinstated.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/retort-a-reaction-style-plugin-for-discourse/35903 like Facebook's new like-with-specificity or Slack's reactions - basically add a smiley under a poast. Might make the page look too busy though, idk.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/cakeday-celebrating-birthdays-and-anniversaries/38447 making automatic poasts for birthdays. A bit lame I think, I'd prefer it to just show an icon or some other ways of identifying birthday and having members themselves create a thread. https://meta.discourse.org/t/you-say-its-your-birthday/24594/15 is a similar discussion, but aimed at 'cake day', which is the anniversary of your joining.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-who-is-writing-a-reply/48420 - see if someone's writing a reply. Might get uncomfortable though, maybe better suited for a chat system than forums.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/facebook-onebox-embed/48996 - Faecbook poast embedding

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-sitemap-plugin/40348 - Sitemaps. idk. Actually I don't know how well Discourse is google indexable.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/content-lock-bbcode/48293 - Locked Content, basically public posts with certain content only available for registered users. I don't really see a use case for that currently, but, I guess it's something to keep in mind.

Edit: I do have to say, I'm not exactly... impressed with the plugins. There's not that much of them, and a lot feel like they were just a POC and considered done. I'm also not terribly impressed with the default look and feel or styling, it feels rather chaotic and shit. Made by and for developers I guess . but maybe that's just me.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

(I understood a lot more about your installing pains than I would've imagined, Yop - thanks to running a bunch of local environments for my job now ).

Started to poke around at things now. Will do moar tomorrow. It's very interesting poking at things in a mobile format, though. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the web version.

Also, it doesn't like using blank Enters for formatting space between things (which I do constantly), which is probably to prevent obnoxious trollish poasts, but it'd be nice if we could change that to more closely reflect what's in the editor before saving.




X

 

[Carlie]

I only have to highlight text to quote, I feel like I'm in the future.

 

[Lex]

That is a tremendous feature that I appreciate tbh. It contributes to the "live" feeling.

 

[Cthulhu]

I haven't found anything about the multiple returns, so idk if we can actually fix it. There is an option about all-caps posts / titles though, oddly enough

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I haven't found anything about the multiple returns, so idk if we can actually fix it. There is an option about all-caps posts / titles though, oddly enough

You can make it recognize it by just using something like

<p>&nbsp;</p>

But using that makes it seem like there shouldn't be any good reason it doesn't work with just using return alone. Either way, there IS a way to do it as a user, so long as we keep the HTML formatting enabled on poasts. (Note: It does the same thing when putting in multiple spaces).

Speaking of poasts & such, is there anyone here what might be able to see why we've got certain colours that it doesn't seem that we can change, who might be able to poke at them through the CSS and some other shit? I'm mildly ok at it, but by no means an expert of any sorts.




X

 

[Cthulhu]

Right-click -> inspect element is your friend. Become an expert instantly

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Right-click -> inspect element is your friend. Become an expert instantly

I absolutely could do that, but was wondering if there's anyone who's already more well-versed what'd want to jump in and assist me in assing about with it via trial & error.

Here's the thrad if anyone wants to/can halp me: https://discourse.thelifestream.net/t/theme-editing-an-shit/65




X

 

[Lex]

I'm not more well-versed for the record, I just fucked about with the options already there and randomly pasted TLS's CSS into the CSS box

The colour tab is to the left of that I'm sure.

 

[Claymore]

Just got that summary email about posts made since I was last on the forums.

... I feel loved.