Thread Category & Prefix System

[Michael Morris]

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]

Can they be moved to after the thread title?

 

[Greylock]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

1. Sortable
2. Required
3. 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.