This thread is for testing ideas to encourage trimming quoted text.
Starting the user with [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] to force them to edit the quote is fairly easy to start with. This is a test.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

[TRIM_THIS_quote]This thread is for testing ideas to encourage trimming quoted text.
Starting the user with [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] to force them to edit the quote is fairly easy to start with. This is a test.
[/TRIM_THIS_quote]

And this is what it looks like if I don't edit the tags. Looks ugly.

What it really should do is remove the stuff entirely.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

[TRIM_THIS_quote][TRIM_THIS_quote]This thread is for testing ideas to encourage trimming quoted text.
Starting the user with [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] to force them to edit the quote is fairly easy to start with. This is a test.
[/TRIM_THIS_quote]

And this is what it looks like if I don't edit the tags. Looks ugly.

What it really should do is remove the stuff entirely.
[/TRIM_THIS_quote]

I just left the quotes alone, and they should all dissappear!

[edit]
Nope, didn't work.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

I'm about to test it without the extra tag in the middle. Does it work, or doesn't it?

MJ
____________
Hail, Poetry, thou heav'n-born maid!
Thou gildest e'en the pirate's trade.
Hail, flowing fount of sentiment!
Hail, all hail, divine emollient!

[TRIM_THIS_quote]I'm about to test it without the extra tag in the middle. Does it work, or doesn't it?

MJ[/TRIM_THIS_quote]
And replying without messing with the added tags give me....

Nothing different. Ah well, 'twas just a thought.

MJ
____________
Hail, Poetry, thou heav'n-born maid!
Thou gildest e'en the pirate's trade.
Hail, flowing fount of sentiment!
Hail, all hail, divine emollient!

I just left the quotes alone, and they should all dissappear!

[edit]
Nope, didn't work.


Another test.......
____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

And replying without messing with the added tags give me....

Nothing different. Ah well, 'twas just a thought.

MJ

[TRIM_THIS_quote]

And replying without messing with the added tags give me....

Nothing different. Ah well, 'twas just a thought.

MJ

[TRIM_THIS_quote][TRIM_THIS_quote]

And replying without messing with the added tags give me....

Nothing different. Ah well, 'twas just a thought.

MJ

This may be more annoying than the current quoting system. Oh well we will see.

And how about this?

Yup, now it works!

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Trimming in a different (more general) way.

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

I just left the quotes alone, and they should all dissappear!

[edit]
Nope, didn't work.

Okay, now modify starting tags but not ending. Everything should be removed... Yup, that worked.


____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Yup, now it works!

There are also those who just leave their quotes messed up no matter how they display.
____________

I like the text on the side. As soon as you introduce this quoting, you'll find people posting "how do I do this?" as they never read the side menu. ;)
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

There are also those who just leave their quotes messed up no matter how they display.

I like the text on the side. As soon as you introduce this quoting, you'll find people posting "how do I do this?" as they never read the side menu. ;)

Okay, we'll try this new quoting out for a bit and see if we need to tweak it.

There is one other thing to consider: nested quoting. We could either

1. Turn all nested [ quote ] tags into [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] tags (and closing)
so that they are removed by default, requiring the poster to restore each
level of quoting or it will be removed, or

2. Just present [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] tags around the quoted material, preserving
any nested quotes (this is how it works now).

Comments?

____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Okay, here's another idea for keeping down the number of overly quoted posts. I'm guessing that many people just hit "reply to post" even when they just want to add something to the thread. They don't bother to remove the quoted text and just add their comment. What they really wanted to do was "reply to thread", but that link is all the way at the bottom (or top) of the page.

So I've put a "reply to thread" link right next to the "reply to post" link.

Will this work, or will it just be too confusing to be presented with two options? I guess we'll see.


____________
-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Okay, here's another idea for keeping down the number of overly quoted posts. I'm guessing that many people just hit "reply to post" even when they just want to add something to the thread. They don't bother to remove the quoted text and just add their comment. What they really wanted to do was "reply to thread", but that link is all the way at the bottom (or top) of the page.

So I've put a "reply to thread" link right next to the "reply to post" link.

Will this work, or will it just be too confusing to be presented with two options? I guess we'll see.

There is one other thing to consider: nested quoting. We could either

1. Turn all nested [ quote ] tags into [ TRIM_THIS_quote ] tags (and closing)
so that they are removed by default, requiring the poster to restore each
level of quoting or it will be removed, or

Comments?

Other option would be to re-introduce the box quotes. But that needs html, doesn't it?

At one point in time when they were still inbetween HTML forums and BBCode, we had some blockquotes, followed by a whole box around the quotes, to the line at the side of the quotes.

With a box you can differentiate between the quotes. But I think it needed HTML options at the time. You ought to be able to ask Rob and Janus about that.
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

At one point in time when they were still inbetween HTML forums and BBCode, we had some blockquotes, followed by a whole box around the quotes, to the line at the side of the quotes.

With a box you can differentiate between the quotes. But I think it needed HTML options at the time. You ought to be able to ask Rob and Janus about that.

At one point in time when they were still inbetween HTML forums and BBCode, we had some blockquotes, followed by a whole box around the quotes, to the line at the side of the quotes.

Edit: so We can still all be easy and just removed the bit in the code

Now, that looks better. Thinking out of the box then, different background colours for the different nested quotes?
____________
Jord.

The BOINC FAQ Service.

I can almost guarantee that the "Reply to thread" and "Reply to this post" links will be confusing to some people. I run a board and half of them still can't understand the differences between a thread, a post and a topic after a year plus of posting.

Maybe "Post Reply" and "Quote" for the links within the individual posts in the thread? That somewhat better tells the computer illiterate that they will be replying with or without quoting. It may help reduce the number of people that just click on the "reply to this post" to respond to a thread.
____________

I can almost guarantee that the "Reply to thread" and "Reply to this post" links will be confusing to some people.

Some small progress.

Some small progress.

True. Now if someone could only figure out how to get the person's computer to do something like this to them when they overquote, we'd be set.

So here's an odd one for you.

When I open a thread now in Firefox, some of the [post to thread][reply to THIS post] links are butted right up against the red x for reporting a post, and others are to the far right where they usually are. If I refresh the page, they randomly change and some of the others will be by the x and the rest back out to the right.

Things that make you go hmmm!


EDIT - you can see a screenshot here of what I'm seeing.

But now I'm more interested in trimming long signature images. ;-)

In fact, it should now be the case that one cannot put an image tag in a signature.

IMHO, most newbs would miss the message about trimming quoted material, or not understand it.

It would only be once users became comfortable with the forums, and typing in BBCode tags that this would become useful.

The default behaviour amongst a bunch of newbs would lead to no quotes in posts.
____________
Free Tibet/ Tibet Libre Team Forum

The default behaviour amongst a bunch of newbs would lead to no quotes in posts.

kewl!
____________
Free Tibet/ Tibet Libre Team Forum

Actually, I think we could do that. If the quoted text is longer than a certain amount then substitute the [ img] link instead.

But now I'm more interested in trimming long signature images. ;-)

In fact, it should now be the case that one cannot put an image tag in a signature.

No computer pirate in my sig anymore? :-(


EDIT: Phew, it's still there. :-)

No computer pirate in my sig anymore? :-(

EDIT: Phew, it's still there. :-)

Yes, but if you edit your sig now you will have to choose between the two. The current policy is that only one image is allowed per signature.

Yes, but if you edit your sig now you will have to choose between the two. The current policy is that only one image is allowed per signature.