Suggested forum modifications

[Plotinus]

In this thread we will propose changes to the board system and discuss forum bugs we encounter.

BBCode changes:

• Marquees are annoying (anything that moves is annoying) and should be removed.
• As Sami noted elsewhere, the like feature doesn't work yet.
• Spoiler boxes: A way to hide longer text or large images inside a box. It would display as a button that shows the hidden stuff beneath it when pressed. The bbcode could look like this:

Code: [Select]

[spoiler=a screenshot] hidden stuff here [/spoiler]

Bug:

• Intermittently when browsing the forum I get a HTTP 408 error. Refreshing fixes it. The timeout thing is weird because it happens immediately on clicking the link without waiting anytime for the page to load. There is a screenshot behind the spoiler.
  
  
  Spoiler: show

  
  [/li][/list]
  
  

Mentions:

• Mentions send an email, and there should be some way to choose whether to be emailed or not.

Forum sign up process:

• When you sign up for the forum, you don't have to validate your email address to prove that you are the owner of your email address. This should be some link with a token that you click so it knows it's really you.

edit: crossed out the changes already implemented.

[Erkka]

When you sign up for the forum, you don't have to validate your email address to prove that you are the owner of your email address.

I found a setting for that, and changed it to require e-mail verification. I hope someone who registers after this change can confirm this works now.

EDIT:

Marquees are annoying (anything that moves is annoying) and should be removed.

Found that, too. It is now disabled, along with 'flash'.

EDIT2:

Spoiler boxes

Hmmm, so let's see!

Spoiler: show

I installed a mod for it, now I have SP-button in the bb-code toolbar, and here I'm testing if it does what we would like it to do!

EDIT3:

As Sami noted elsewhere, the like feature doesn't work yet.

... aaand that seems to be fixed, too. Feel free to test around, everybody!

[Plotinus]

Thanks Erkka! This is great! I'll edit my post to hide that big screenshot!

[Brygun]

The default color looks okay.

I'm sure people will want to have the option to change. For instance I like greens. However color blindness for red-green is a thing so its not good for default.

Should be suggested sections to have on the forums? If we trusted few start some chatter it will help us test things by doing things.

I might suggest sections for the following (name changes understood)

Real Life History
For links and discussion on real life history

Real Life Survival
For links and discussion on real life survival stories or advice. We are a game not a survival school.

Your Adventures
Tell us about the adventures of your characters in the Unreal World

[Brygun]

I have mixed good-bad feelings on the Saami picture in the background. As it currently displays it looks like Saami is peeking his eyes out over top of the blue text box. I get it that Saami ought to be visible. Its the combo of photo size vs board display. It may change for some users? For me I'm wondering if Saami is sneaking a look.

[Aislinn]

I found a setting for that, and changed it to require e-mail verification. I hope someone who registers after this change can confirm this works now.

Confirmed  Hello, and wow this place echoes it's so new and squeaky clean 

[toxoide]

I have mixed good-bad feelings on the Saami picture in the background. As it currently displays it looks like Saami is peeking his eyes out over top of the blue text box. I get it that Saami ought to be visible. Its the combo of photo size vs board display. It may change for some users? For me I'm wondering if Saami is sneaking a look.

just browse in private mode so you can have the little detective watching over you, and preventing information picks from that all-seeing eye

[Phantasm]

The forum doesn't enforce https (encrypted connection) when registering or logging in. That can cause the user/pass to leak under various conditions (such as using open wifi). This happens with the http://unrealworld.fi/forums link on the email about new forums. Account activation email did contain https links though.

I would suggest using https everywhere as long as the server can handle it. Currently users can manually change to https and the site works with it, though images are still transferred without encryption.

Edit2: https://urw.fi/ shows invalid security sertificate error. https://www.unrealworld.fi/ works fine.

Edit: As second thing, at least quick reply moves back to board (https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?board=1.0) instead of staying on the thread where posting happened. It would be better to remain on the thread.
Edit3: Found that one can change it from Profile -> Modify Profile: Look and Layout -> "Return to topics after posting by default.".

[Phantasm]

The forum is missing favicon. The main site uses https://www.unrealworld.fi/urwicon.png as such.

[Privateer]

File link/upload/download seems working properly 

[Erkka]

Mentions send an email, and there should be some way to choose whether to be emailed or not.

I checked the database, and it has column "email_mentions" per member, so let's see if it does what I think it will do.
If I now mention @Plotinus , the mention should be displayed only on forum UI but not emailed,
but mentioning @Mati256 should send the email.
Right?

I've been browsing through the source codes, but can't find anything which would even try to connect that database column with anything in visual UI present to users. Maybe that functionality isn't yet implemented? I mean, mentions aren't a part of SMF core, but an additional module we installed to test.

What do you people think, would mentions be a good feature or not? If not, we can just unistall the module, as an e-mail per mention might become spammy if you are not given an option to toggle off the mails. But, if you think mentions would be a good way to organize and personalize forum discussions, then I will invest some more time in fixing it. (Generally speaking, SMF source codes seem pleasant to read, I'd guess adding a simple checkbox in the account settings wouldn't be a big problem)

[Phantasm]

What do you people think, would mentions be a good feature or not? If not, we can just unistall the module, as an e-mail per mention might become spammy if you are not given an option to toggle off the mails. But, if you think mentions would be a good way to organize and personalize forum discussions, then I will invest some more time in fixing it. (Generally speaking, SMF source codes seem pleasant to read, I'd guess adding a simple checkbox in the account settings wouldn't be a big problem)

It would probably be enough to show mentions on the forum and never email them. Sure some users might want email from such, but at least it shouldn't be on by default. And some kind of anti-spam is needed into such. It could be to send at most 1 email a day where it could collect mentions after first to be sent at later time (unless the user visited the forum to clear them). Not sure how much coding would that need. In any case, it is inevitable that at some point someone(s) will try to cause flood of dozens of posts if they know it'll spam them.

[Mati256]

Hello. Just to confirm I have indeed received an email notification. 

[Erkka]

It would probably be enough to show mentions on the forum and never email them. Sure some users might want email from such, but at least it shouldn't be on by default.

I think this makes sense, so I turned off the e-mail notifications for every member, and the default for new members is 'no email'. If it then so happens that someone really would like to have an e-mail of a forum notification, then I can either manually alter the database, or find a way to add this into forum UI so that every member can configure it as they wish.

I also added the standard urw icon as favicon for the forums.

[Draco18s]

Uh, test post to see if the setting I changed is in fact the setting I'm looking for so I don't have to click "back" a whole bunch of times after making sequential posts in order to return to the forum index.
I was going to complain about that setting before realizing that this is SMF which has it as a per-use thing (there just aren't enough threads yet for me to have anything meaningful to say, I already posted...)

Edit:
Nope,  it didn't work. "Return to topics after posting by default." defaults to off (and not what I wanted) and turning it on changed nothing.