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[Forum] formatting
There’s rumbling in the hills about forum formatting. This is my perspective on it…
I’ve been using forums as long as I’ve been using Txp (2004). Most used BBCode. I always hated it. To this day, when faced with a forum using it, I have to look at the help to remember how to form a quote or link (whether to use quote marks or not on names and urls).
Consider it on a character count alone:
- A quote: Textile=3 chars ; BBCode=15 chars minimum
- A link: Textile=“3 chars+URL ; BBCode=11 chars + URL
Etc. Etc.
I don’t want to type that extra stuff, frankly. I’d rather just type HTML at that point.
As for Textile’s popularity, “millions” (according to Jason Fried of 37Signals, who rakes in millions of dollars every year so he’s probably right) of projects are managed on Basecamp, which uses Textile. Google+ uses very basic elements of Textile, like bold and emphasis. Point is, it’s not some obscure syntax that only disciples of Dean are savvy of. It’s pretty universal.
Textile is a feature of the CMS. If the forum is consistent in that respect, it’s only that much better for CMS understanding. Nothing wrong with that.
I’d even go so far to say that we need less concentration of activity in the forum, not more. External resources like documentation, plugins repo, themes site, etc. should be augmented and fortified with clear, concise, usable information that people need so they don’t have to come here and wade through mile-long threads, etc. etc. Scaring people away isn’t really an aim, but neither should be going backwards.
Character count, though, that’s what it’s about for me.
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Re: [Forum] formatting
GitHub also supports Textile and Markdown in a limited feature set.
Anyway, all this could be appeased by integrating something along the idea of Gocom’s rah_textile_bar into the forum message write panels. Then those that are familiar with Textile can continue as normal, those without Textile knowledge can use the GUI to create Textile formatting. Problem solved (if there even is a problem).
Last edited by philwareham (2012-11-02 13:49:46)
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Re: [Forum] formatting
A technical side note: Our forum software does not provide us with the opportunity to have optional multiple text filters. There can be only one.
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#4 2012-11-02 18:11:38
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: [Forum] formatting
philwareham wrote:
(if there even is a problem).
Right. There is no problem. Suppose a new user posts here that he finds working with Textpattern not so easy, do we immediately declare that a Textpattern problem?
wet wrote:
Our forum software does not provide us with the opportunity to have optional multiple text filters. There can be only one.
Just keep Textile. If an unknown markup syntax scares a new user that much, how comfortable would he be with Textpattern?
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#6 2012-11-03 17:05:57
- moon blake
- Member
- From: near Hannover, Germany
- Registered: 2009-07-16
- Posts: 76
Re: [Forum] formatting
philwareham schrieb:
Anyway, all this could be appeased by integrating something along the idea of Gocom’s rah_textile_bar into the forum message write panels. Then those that are familiar with Textile can continue as normal, those without Textile knowledge can use the GUI to create Textile formatting. Problem solved (if there even is a problem).
+1 for this proposal! Easy and effective solution, should be enough help for everyone (who could be interested in this forum) to come to terms with it.
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