Captain Jordan

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Mahz, When you implement the notifications for the Mention system, I have noticed one thing which could possibly cause unwanted behaviour. You will need to make sure that @Mentions in Convos don't send notifications. It would be inconvenient to receive a notification for a thread which you can not access (since aside from notifying people, @Mentions are also good for linking to people). Just something to watch out for when developing. I'm not sure if you had thought of that already, but I thought I'd bring it up.

@BBeast

Same with boards someone doesn't have permission to view.

Mahz's Dev Journal

I implemented Visitor Messages today. Not a high priority feature, but I wanted to see if my notification system was general enough for it, and it forced me to make some improvements to my notification system implementation. I followed the vBulletin/Xenforo visitor-message implementation where visitor messages have one level of nested comments. You always get a notification when someone creates a visitor message on your wall, but any nested comments on a visitor message collapse into a single notification instead of spamming you. It's like the convo/PM system in that way. I also decided to *not* send notifications to you when someone replies to your VMs on other people's walls. Instead, I'd rather lean on the @mention system for that. (Of course, @mentions don't actually create notifications yet) Finally, each notification is cleared when you click its go-to link. With convos/PMs, I can clear the notification any time you view the convo. But I decided not to assume you've noticed new VMs or VM replies just because you've visited that page of your user profile. I'll finish the UI and roll it out when I wake up sometime.

@Mahz

I think notifications for replies to my VM on other people's wall would be useful. Most of the people replying would be the owner of the wall, and I'd like to know when the owner replies. What about implementing a sub/unsub system for VMs, and auto-sub everyone to their own VMs upon posting? They can then remove the notifications subscription if its bothering them. Also, with a notifications system, is it worth it to have a separate topics subscription feature? It might be more useful for the current topic subscriptions to act the same as other notifiable events in that it generates a new notification. The current subs page might be better served as a bookmarks area for keeping track of important topics, but not necessarily all the topics one is subscribed to. I know the current implementation is how the vBulletin system works, but considering how many topics some people create and/or post in, and want to get notified of replies in, the subs page can quickly expand and fill to its maximum. Splitting subscription topics between notifications and bookmarks might be a better implementation, and because one can actually review their past posts now via their profile, you can theoretically go back to any of your old topics already.

Mahz's Dev Journal

<Stuff about @Mentions>

@Mahz

I like these. I definitely like Quote and Reply as different buttons. In other forums, quote sometimes just injects the quoted post inside quote tags and pops it into the Quick Reply box. Meaning one can quote from multiple sources without doing a bunch of copy/paste jumps and trickery.

Also, I'm moving the userbit for each post from the left side to the top. _{Wasn't the guild like that before guildfall?}

@Mahz

http://nooooooooooooooo.com I prefer the left-aligned postbit. It makes it easy for me to keep track of which post belongs to who, and while it doesn't look as pretty, I think it's easier to read.

And, in other news, I'm playing with some much more readable typography, sizing, and spacing for the guild's posts. Helvetica (default font for the CSS framework I'm using) is just so hard to read. Captain Jordan pointed this out a year ago, but you can barely even see when posts are emboldened. _{← Did u notice?}

@Mahz

Better fonts are always a good thing. :D

Mahz's Dev Journal

If you do grant GMs the power over posts in their thread (something which could possibly be abused), then a system which puts the post in a large hider would be safest, for it allows the post to be hidden from view but still available to be read if need be. But a Report button to call a mod to a particular post would be a good idea too. How about give the mods the power to put posts in large hiders? Another tool in their toolbox.

@BBeast

Hiders are BBCode. Put the post in a hider, and I can just go in and edit my post to remove it. Take away my edit powers, you say? That also removes the right for someone to have control over their own posts, it's effectively deleted them (as you can find most deleted posts anyways through cached versions at Google or via the Wayback machine).

Mahz's Dev Journal

Nope. doesn't look like there's a limit. we just tested on the dev server. about 50 nestings worked there. EDIT: Make that 121 quotes nested. Not going to test further, as it is clear how it works. Granted, it stretches outside the posting field, so the forum isn't warped.

@Ellri

Try 65,535 quotes. :P

Mahz's Dev Journal

It might be far easier to have a separate field from the post field that is titled something like "Characters involved". Initially, that could merely be a text field, but later it might be linked up to more complex features. A theoretical bonus from such might be for both/all post authors to be credited for collab posts.

@Ellri

The only problem I see with that is that it feels virtually synonymous with the character tab. From my view, the ability to switch between characters would be incredibly advantageous for many RPs.

@LegendBegins

Well, yes and no. The character tab shows the actual character sheets. The little box we described earlier here would simply be a text field where characters are named. In several RPs we've been involved with in the past, we've had bolded headers on the collab posts specifying who was involved and with what characters. Of course, such a field could be used for other purposes too, like in an RP where time is a core factor more than it is in most. Then one could specify when each post starts/ends.

@Ellri

I think it should be available to put anything you want in that slot. But it is quite advantageous.

@LegendBegins

I like this idea, although Mahz, if you do implement it, can you please make it's appearance conditional on the existence of text in that field? As a side note, I'm actually curious how far we can nest posts. Anyone care to give it a try?

Mahz's Dev Journal

<snip>

@Shienvien

Report buttons: Absolutely agreed. Mods are humans, too: Yep, and similarly I've seen mods who will favor the disruptive player over the GM. But all this would be petty semantics if the post were "hidden" but still accessible by expanding/clicking on a link. Best of both worlds, IMHO.

Mahz's Dev Journal

This idea is wonderful. Absolutely momentusly wonderful. Being able to switch between characters within one account, and having the ability to post as all of them would be beneficial to so many roleplays. And the character status would make everything much more concise.

@LegendBegins

Any system that uses the site to track and manage one's characters shouldn't mess with "switching" characters. Rather, one should simply select them at post time (and this is where linking a specific character to a specific RP would undoubtedly come in handy, to reduce the list of characters for those with massive casts). You may have meant this by your notion to switch between characters, but I've seen systems (and used them myself) where the implementation actually leads to linked forum accounts that are physically switched between (the forum logs you out of the master account and into the character account) at the click of a button. And it's messy. Keeping them separate from forum accounts would preserve sanity on all fronts.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Well, I tried to offer up some ideas. Maybe they would work better as mod powers (and really, thread-level banning should be a potential mod ability). So many GMs do thing in so many different ways. At the very least, a Co-GM would be useful for the sake of having someone else able to update the OP posts on all the tabs. That should be the very, very basic role of the Co-GM. That is, if one is employed by a RP at all. The one I ran in the past could have used it for sure, and I know several I participated in that had Co-GMs in name, just ones that were powerless and could have used the OP editing ability.

Mahz's Dev Journal

Hide or remove the posts of non-playing players (for players that have left/been removed from the RP, the ability to remove (or just hide if you want to reserve deletion power to mods) posts that disturb the RP's flow would be useful.

Also no. I am *very* against anything that means that any of my posts could disappear randomly just because someone decided they don't like me anymore. If someone is causing actual trouble and insulting people, only then should mods be called and removal be applied - and personally I do prefer hiding just to avoid and solve later disputes. Both players who ask to go over the situation *and* unjust mods will happen on site of any noteworthy size.

@Shienvien

I respect that view. I also know there are players who join an RP, create an elaborate set of plots, and then disappear just as their character becomes critical. It's jarring to the casual reader and to other players. I'm not sure what the best solution is, some GMs are very hands on and careful about the story flow, while others just let players do whatever. This kind of thing would cater to the former, but as you indicated, could be easily abused. On the other hand, having no recourse means that a troublemaker can easily enter an RP, post something nonsensical, and then even after their removal the GM would be powerless to hide or remove their distracting post. Is this something where a mod would be needed? If so, then you have the other consequence of taking the decision out of the GM's hands (and the GM runs the RP, not the mods). If the mods are simply there to carry out the GM's wishes, then what's the point of not allowing the GM to perform that action in the first place? Who has the power here? The GM? The Player? The Mods? Nobody? So either in the case of a disappearing player whose absence creates an awkward void in the story, or for a troublemaking player who is intentionally disruptive, I can see a need for this kind of ability. I also understand your concern. What if posts were hidden in ways that left a placemarker in the thread, allowing anyone to view the true post if they so chose, but letting casual readers and players to skip by unnecessary posts?