Thread Category & Prefix System

Michael Morris · 24th February 2005, 10:39 AM

Well, after a 4 hour install, ENWorld's newest major feature is up and running - Thread Categories.

At a glance this is like the post icons no one used except they aren't pictures. They are also REQUIRED on all posts.

If you look at the bottom of a forum display you will see a select box with every category for that forum. You can select a category and view only threads that have that category. Community Supporters can go a step further and search for threads with a given category regardless of which forum they belong to.

The purpose of this hack is to help folks find topics that interest them quickly, especially in the busier forums like General. While it is possible to assign a thread to the general prefix, please do not do so unless no other prefix is appropriate.

Using incorrect thread prefixes will be frowned on just as posting in the wrong forum is frowned upon.

In the coming days the moderation team will be tinkering with the thread prefixes. Each forum can have it's own set, up to 30 (and that limit can be raised if necessary). Finally, You are encouraged to go back over your recent threads and add a category. After all, the more threads that have a thread prefix, the more useful the category based search becomes.

Hand of Evil · 24th February 2005, 01:15 PM

Can they be moved to after the thread title?

Greylock · 24th February 2005, 02:00 PM

This'll take getting used to. Good idea, although I wonder how useful it will be.

Not sure if the titles should go after the thread title. Seems like some of the longer post titles might be shortened, though. Kinda scrunches things up as they are.

Berandor · 24th February 2005, 02:04 PM

Cool thing!

But if they're mandatory, you should probably make an announcement everywhere, or better don't allow a thread to be opened without using a prefix.

Otherwise, it'll be posticons all over again

**Darkness** · 24th February 2005, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berandor

don't allow a thread to be opened without using a prefix.

Right, that's what he meant by 'Required.'

You can't start a thread without choosing a category.

**Darkness** · 24th February 2005, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greylock

Seems like some of the longer post titles might be shortened, though. Kinda scrunches things up as they are.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that as well. I'll see if I can shorten the longer ones. Not sure if all can be shortened easily, though.

**Piratecat** · 24th February 2005, 02:28 PM

We may turn this off temporarily while we test and fine tune it. Don't be surprised if it disappears for a little while.

Berandor · 24th February 2005, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkness

Right, that's what he meant by 'Required.'

You can't start a thread without choosing a category.

I wanted to start a new thread, but had nothing to say. *shrug*

Thanks for the heads-up!

**Darkness** · 24th February 2005, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berandor

I wanted to start a new thread, but had nothing to say. *shrug*

Thanks for the heads-up!

It worked when I tested it in Meta, at least.

Gez · 24th February 2005, 03:43 PM

OK. The three differences with posticons is that they are:

Sortable
Required
Ugly

Right? Can't they just become posticons again, except sortable and required? That way, they'll be pretty and have a uniform size. Right now, they mess with the column size something bad.

I remember Mike made lots of pretty posticons, I suppose some of them could be salvaged and used for the categories. After all, all it requires is replacing the "General" category by the "<img src='path/general.png' alt='General' title='General'/>" category.

**Piratecat** · 24th February 2005, 03:47 PM

We can do whatever formatting we want, Gez, but there's no point in doing so until we have finalized what the prefixes say. We're open for suggestions on how to improve utility.

MonsterMash · 24th February 2005, 03:53 PM

I can see the value in most fora, especially general, but not so much in off-topic. Main concern is size and legibility - they need to be distinctive if you want to look for posts on a particular topic.

For general we could use things like - plot, campaign, poll, rant or should that be RANT!, conventions, help, and edition (OD&D, BD&D, 1e, 2e, 3e).

As I think of more I'll come back and edit the post.
MM

Len · 24th February 2005, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gez

OK. The three differences with posticons is that they are:

Sortable
Required
Ugly

4. You can't hide them with "Don't show Post Icons".

**Darkness** · 24th February 2005, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Len

4. You can't hide them with "Don't show Post Icons".

Yeah, might be good if you could, mandatory for threads or not.

**IronWolf** · 24th February 2005, 10:19 PM

I don't know, looks a little cluttered to me. But maybe I will get used to it. ::shrug:: It might be nice if we could hide the category column if someone doesn't get used to it over time.

omokage · 24th February 2005, 10:25 PM

I'd just like to say that as an avid user of the New Posts search, I've always been a fan of post icons, and I think that the categories do it just a bit better.

Post icons were a little easier to skim visually, but the image loading can be taxing on the server. The text-only is nice. Keep up the good work.

Michael Morris · 24th February 2005, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Len

4. You can't hide them with "Don't show Post Icons".

Not to crack down and be "All or nothing" here, but for this to be effective, it must be mandated. Let it run for a month or so then go back and do searches based on the categories, or sort threads in a forum based on them. Then the advantage should become clear.