3 replies to this topic

[sambul61]

Another suggestion to improve forum posts readability: adding tags [MORE]text[/MORE]. Basically, anything included between these tags will be replaced by a few initial words of the quote, followed by a [?]. When you hover [?] with mouse, a JS window will popup showing hidden content. Content in that window remains selectable, and links are alive, including the link to open the whole post in a separate Tab.

Tags MORE were specifically developed and are widely used for about 10 years on some very popular forums with massive user base. They are mostly intended for lengthy auxiliary & code & test result quotes that enrich or complement the primary text in a post. Good example of very pure readability screaming for tags MORE is this post among others. Tags MORE are usually mandatory to use for long quotes in the interests of all forum participants.

Are they supported by currently used forum engine? Can be added to it? I can give a few forum links where implementation ideas can be found.

[Brito]

Instead of adding a new feature, couldn't the example you mention use a "codebox" tag to keep it short?

[sambul61]

Do you mean that codebox tag is optionally expendable from "partially hidden" to "full content visible" size? I didn't see examples here - may be you can give a link?

Tags MORE were actually introduced on some large software oriented forums to make code and test results partially hidden for better readability. I've also seen a different implementation of the same idea on official Opera forum (though they update engine periodically), where content withing tags CODE was made expendable on demand. But it was restricted only to the CODE tag, which is less suitable for other content.

Many developers on these forums don't provide support, unless a user complies with MORE rule. It benefits everyone. As an example, there are some packages that require frequent log postings to update, like a very popular Universal Share Downloader that fully automates multi-part archive downloads without an account from pesky file exchangers like Rapidshare and many similar. Its discussed on a huge multi-facet public forum, where tags MORE are very popular throughout the forum. The same engine or its variation also allows selective quotes.

[Brito]

codebox is used to create a box with scroll bars to keep the content inside the box tidy instead of making the overall post too long.

It was available on IPB 2.3.x but some odd reason is not present here.. Mikorist, do you have any idea why?