DT Update Log and TODO

[matt3o]

not sure I feel comfortable at making it mandatory. we could make it a requirement if you post in the market. that would be nice, but not for registering. one could lie anyway, so...

[Muirium]

Well, after Kbdfr’s previous campaigning it *was* made mandatory before and we enjoyed a nice few years of freedom from mundane “where are you located?” posts as a result. It was a good design choice.

If you want to allow a nag-free, non-invasive default, I’d suggest doing it by emoji flags and using our friend for “not specified.”

The truth is, if people aren’t prompted to set it, they won’t. And we all suffer by not knowing where any given poster is and whether it’s worth responding to their WTB etc. or even GB at all. Asking people over and over is no business for human posters on a forum.

And I’m still just missing the flags…

[purdobol]

not sure I feel comfortable at making it mandatory. we could make it a requirement if you post in the market. that would be nice, but not for registering. one could lie anyway, so...

Mandatory "item is shipped from xxx country" in sale/buy trade is a good alternative. But I would add to that thread title tags for ease of browsing. Either general ones like [USA][EU][ASIA] or country specific.

[matt3o]

Mandatory "item is shipped from xxx country" in sale/buy trade is a good alternative. But I would add to that thread title tags for ease of browsing. Either general ones like [USA][EU][ASIA] or country specific.

yeah I would prefer that to a forced country on registration, but that would also require a constant moderation

[Muirium]

Indeed. Putting off mandatory location just shifts the problem to either mods (as just said) or to all of us (having to ask and ask and ask and ask…) It’s a problem that’s far better solved upstream.

[purdobol]

yeah I would prefer that to a forced country on registration, but that would also require a constant moderation

That's why I suggested thread title tags, which can be made mandatory with thread creation form (required field) for Marketplace subforum.

[matt3o]

I've put the country in the registration with a note about the marketplace. It's not mandatory but at least it is shown right away.

I noticed that the timezone is automatically filled, so technically we could find a way to autofill the location

[purdobol]

I noticed that the timezone is automatically filled, so technically we could find a way to autofill the location

This can be problematic for people traveling around, or the ones that have dedicated warehouse full of items in different location
There's no real fool proof solution for this to be honest, but considering we're pretty small community it should be manageable. Both for users and staff.

[matt3o]

let me check if I can add mandatory tags in the marketplace, I don't think it is possible, phpbb is rather basic

[Muirium]

This also comes up in the workshop, general keyboard discussions, everywhere really. It’s a user metadata thing, not a thread thing. Man up and tackle the bug where it lies!

[matt3o]

I understand that nobody gives a shit about privacy anymore, but I still do

[Muirium]

Unless we have users from Monaco, a nation ain’t exactly pinning down their coordinates enough for creeping.

But as our shared interest is physical stuff that forever needs shipping, nation matters a lot. Far too often to leave it to public nags.

[matt3o]

you don't decide what is privacy for another person. you start from anonymity and each of us decides what they want to share. I already said that I agree that if you want to enter the marketplace you need a location.

[matt3o]

I made a quick research.

With vanilla phpbb it is NOT possible:

- to access the user profile fields from the post-submission page (to restrict posting to only those who have the location filled)
- to restrict access to a category based on a profile field
- to automatically put users in a special group based on a profile field
- to access the user profile fields before the "new topic button" is printed on the page

Given the above the only way to implement what we need is by coding an extension.

[purdobol]

Check if its possible to add a required field (even better a listfield) to topic creation form (new topic button/post a new topic) just under "Subject:" field on specific subforum. That way not only it'll be mandatory but also can be setup to automatically format the way threads are displayed. For example location variable:title variable ([GB] Selling kishaver massive price drop only 2 pounds!). Don't know if it's possible but i doubt phpbb is so primitive to not let you edit and add basic forms like that. But then again I'm so rusty and out of touch in this topic... nowadays that it can be pure bs

Just checked and it looks like this functionality is only available through addons.
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/qte
No comments

[matt3o]

Just checked and it looks like this functionality is only available through addons.
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/qte
No comments

phpbb is incredibly basic and coded into monolithic single files. For example the code for posting a message is a single 1977 lines wall of code. While one could say it's simple to follow... it is also hard to maintain.

[JP!]

I would love to see forum software based on .Net Core, C#, HTML 5, and SQL Server but sadly the demand for forum software is not what it used to be.

[ramnes]

I'm here on mobile for the first time, and I gotta say that it's really really good!

[elecplus]

Matt3o, you are doing a super job! On my cell phone, tablet, any of 4 browsers, it works great

[elecplus]

I would love to see forum software based on .Net Core, C#, HTML 5, and SQL Server but sadly the demand for forum software is not what it used to be.

Tied to Microsoft? No way!

[matt3o]

thank you guys, really appreciated it.

[JP!]

I would love to see forum software based on .Net Core, C#, HTML 5, and SQL Server but sadly the demand for forum software is not what it used to be.

Tied to Microsoft? No way!

Sorry if I drank the Microsoft Kool-Aid years ago At least they are starting to embrace open source these days.
C# is a solid choice for backend web application development with a huge community + top notch development tools such as VS Code and Visual Studio. and .NET Core is an open-source, general-purpose development platform maintained by Microsoft and the .NET community which enables applications to run on Linux or Windows servers. SQL Server because it's not Oracle, can run on Linux, it's what I am familiar with and overall is pretty darn good. The downside is it is not free by any means and of course .Net supports many other database platforms.

A tad overkill for a forum but an interesting read about performance:
https://www.ageofascent.com/2019/02/04/ ... er-second/

[Muirium]

Ah, back in the good old days when software choice holy wars were about open and closed, Gates and Stallman.

These days it’s more like Matteo said: there’s almost zero remaining interest in forum development, so everything smells funny. Even when it’s all open.

To borrow someone else’s quote: Microsoft didn’t have to win for us to lose.

[purdobol]

Sorry if I drank the Microsoft Kool-Aid years ago At least they are starting to embrace open source these days.

For now. One have to wonder though. What will happen when some nutjob takes the leadership role at Microsoft, and stops all the funding for open source projects?
Not exactly sure how to feel about them being more and more dependent on Microsoft money...

[Muirium]

Embrace. Extend. Extinguish. Now there’s a thought.

[kbdfr]

Ah, back in the good old days when software choice holy wars were about open and closed, Gates and Stallman. […]

Nowadays we have switch choice holy wars

[depletedvespene]

Ah, back in the good old days when software choice holy wars were about open and closed, Gates and Stallman. […]

Nowadays we have switch choice holy wars

Wait until I start publishing slightly modified 75% layouts and let hell loose on that.

[elecplus]

It does not take much to get this group off-topic

[elecplus]

One feature I really like in the new design is the "back to top" icon on the thread pages. Is there any way to have this on the spy page also?

[JP!]

One feature I really like in the new design is the "back to top" icon on the thread pages. Is there any way to have this on the spy page also?

I like this as well.