How do they do that?

[Skep]

I'm always discovering new features among the bajillion features liv and vm have provided for our posting pleasure but sometimes I can't figure out how it's done. Like this little trick I've seen in two of liv's posts this morning:

http://img112.exs.cx/img112/3433/clipboard016hy.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)


How do dey do dat? :scratch:

[livius drusus]

Why thank you for asking. We've been trying to figure out a "tip of the day" feature which is both obvious enough to be noticeable but subtle enough to not annoy. Needless to say, I love the idea of this thread, Skep.

The answer to your question is the fieldset code (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode#fieldset). One of our additions to the standard vB code list.

[Crumb]

I have wondered this too. I think the admins are holding out on us. :chucks:

...Oh Ahem...nevermind. Thanks Liv. :D

[Skep]

Thanks, liv. :)

I looked through that list of vB code tags but I didn't know what I was looking for and I missed it. :doh: Nifty.

[ceptimus]

* Where does it explain how to do this sort of thing, but properly, (without using color tags)?

[Crumb]

/me wonders if ceptimus is asking about "/me"

:wink:

[ceptimus]

Yes, that must be it. Is there an explanation of how to use it in the FAQ or elsewhere?

[livius drusus]

Crumb's got it. That's the "/me hack", designed by Christian Forums owner and operator Erwin Loh to duplicate the IRC command for expressing action. We picked the color and font formatting because the two dozen other ones we tried before looked weird one way or another.

[ceptimus]

That's all very well, but I still don't know how to use it. :glare:

(And I bet I'm not the only one) :P

[Crumb]

Just type "/me" followed by some other crap.

/me demonstrates.

I will turn the "/me" into "* ceptimus " + whatever crap follows.

[livius drusus]

At the beginning of a line, type /me followed by whatever action you are performing. Because the slash has to be the first character in the line, you can't put the whole thing between any other vB codes. You can add tags to anything after /me.

"/me types." without the quotation marks becomes

/me types.

[livius drusus]

Yes, that must be it. Is there an explanation of how to use it in the FAQ or elsewhere?

There is now (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/faq.php?faq=faq_freethoughtforum#faq__me_hack). Thanks for the idea, cep. :yup:

[Skep]

/me wonders why there isn't a trailing asterisk.

Because I usually see something like this:

*Skeptoid flees flying brick*

[livius drusus]

I've seen that when people are writing it by hand in posts, but in the chat environment it's intended to duplicate I've only ever seen the initial asterisk and formatting change.

[Skep]

Oh, okay. I'm not that familiar with the chat environment except that I know it's much less formal than forums or email. In fact, I had my first-ever chat right here last night. :) It was fun. http://skeptech.net/emotipad/cache/Excited.gif

[ceptimus]

Yes, that must be it. Is there an explanation of how to use it in the FAQ or elsewhere?

There is now (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/faq.php?faq=faq_freethoughtforum#faq__me_hack). Thanks for the idea, cep. :yup:
/me tries out the new (for him) tehnique.
:woohoo:

Thanks liv and Crumb. :) I remember reading about it in some other thread, but I didn't think I'd ever seen any instructions on how to use it. Normally, it's possible to learn new posting techniques by quoting the messages of others (to see how they did them) but that doesn't work with the "/me hack".

[pescifish]

edited because, oops, ceptimus already gave the "quote" suggestion.

Now I've got a spare post to use up...
What shall I do?
:magic:

[livius drusus]

Unfortunately "/me" looks to the poster to see which name to pick. It can't figure out that quote tags mean someone else originally invoked it. The fix for that problem requires that the translation of /me is what gets put between quote tags.

Ugh. vm will explain it better.

[viscousmemories]

Ugh. vm will explain it better.
Oh sure, no pressure. :hide:

I think what liv's trying to say is that "/me" is converted before the post is stored in the database, whereas other vbcodes are stored as written and converted when the post is displayed. This is as designed, so that when a person quotes someone who used the "/me" code, the name of the original poster is substituted for "/me" instead of the name of the new poster.

For example, if a person posts:

I want to go to the store

That's exactly what is stored in the database. So when you quote their post to view the source code, you can easily see that the original poster used the bold tags. However, when ceptimus (for example) posts: "/me wants to go to the store", then "* ceptimus wants to go to the store" is what gets stored in the database, and consequently what you see when you quote the post.

This way, if ceptimus posts "/me wants to go to the store" and I quote his post when I reply, then "* ceptimus wants to go to the store" shows up in the quote box instead of "* viscousmemories wants to go to the store".

Is that any clearer?

[Ensign Steve]

http://img112.exs.cx/img112/3433/clipboard016hy.gif (http://www.imageshack.us)


Is this the one we're supposed to use when we want our post to consist of nothing more than a quote, and it says that we can't post an empty post or some junk because it recognizes that the shit between the quote tags is not our own... or something?

Crumb's got it. That's the "/me hack", designed by Christian Forums owner and operator Erwin Loh to duplicate the IRC command for expressing action. We picked the color and font formatting because the two dozen other ones we tried before looked weird one way or another.

Y'all should make a ; or : hack, too, because that's how we mudders emoted before they invented that newfangled IRC. ":laughs" or even ":laugh" minus the quotes came out as "Ensign Steve laughs." Good shit.

Is that any clearer?

Crystal clear, m'dear.

[JoeP]

/me is pleased to see the continued spread of knowledge of forum hacks