think tank forum

Hi. I own several forums, and none of them are TTF. I have considered them but in general don't go with TTF... actually I have yet to.

First off, let me say I have no major problems with its existence. It loads fast. It's easy to use. It has it's problems though.

First off, lowercase letters seem to be mandatory. I'm not talking about posts, I'm saying look around this forum, capitals are surprisingly non-existent unless I made them.

Second off, it's narrow. I am runing right now at 1280x960 resolution. How about at least 95% of the window being covered? Sure, make it compatible with 640x480 resolution, but it's just bizarre looking ad there's all this unused space > > >

Third, bbcode. If it hasn't changed since last time I tested this forum, it's not here. I mean, full bbcode, b, i, url, flash, youtube, quote, code, etc.

Fourth, a personal favor would sway me. I have been working on a mod for phpBB3, called ROBOT9000 after the IRC robot on #xkcd-signal and the Futaba script. I'm sidetracked by a few things, like a benefit site, a tractor club, and there only being 24 hours in a day.

If the TTF team were to make a mod for TTF that implements ROBOT9000 with all its features totally customizable, I will not only install it on www.clearlyagenius.com, but I would recommend it to all my upper-crusty webmaster friends.

Other things I don't care to elaborate on: Skinning, profile, update thread.php, hook mod system, other.

ROBOT9000 explained:

# Enforced originality! If someone repeats something that has been already
# said in channel, silence them. Silence time increasing geometrically.

That's a comment in the original perl script for IRC.

Essentially, every time someone posts, it scans the post and checks the database to see if anyone else posted that. If they have, then the post goes through, but the user is muted for an allocated portion of time. After the time is up, they can post again, but if they are unoriginal again, then they are re-muted for a longer period of time. Once the time reaches 24 hours, they are BANNED. :D

haha.. that kinda sounds awesome (robot9000, that is).

no comment on ttf dev team coding robot9000. :x

As I said, this is the only way to convert me. I have only seen one other site use TTF, so I'm guessing this would help you guys out alot.

Here's the ROBOT9000 deal explained:

http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and … e-in-chat/

and briefly: here at 4chan

/r9k/ is an imageboard where there are no reposts.
Rules/observations/etc:
1. If you attempt to post something unoriginal, it is not posted, and you are muted temporarily.
2. The time with which you are muted for doubles with each transgression.
3. Each mute time is 2^n (thanks, mathsfags) in seconds where n is the number of times you have transgressed. So, your mute time doubles each time you fuck up.
4. Quotes, eg >>1, are not viewed by R9K. So "lolwut" and ">>2 lolwut" are the same post, in the eyes on R9K. (This also applies to >quotes)
5. Gibberish at the end of a post to force originality is punished with the full force of the banhammer. Even testing R9K's parameters seems to draw the ire of the mods.
6. Images are included. Slight changes in exif data, etc, however, seem to circumvent this rule, but like with text if you break the filter the REAL LIVE MODS will banhammer you.
7. Your mute count never resets or goes backwards. (This will probably be changed eventually)
8. You cannot post a picture without text.
9. Unicode is blocked. Sorry, too many exploits (Cyrillic letters, etc)
10. The too low in content filter was broken for a while, resulting in a lot of crappy mutes. Sorry. Mods have twice reset the mute counts because of this.
11. Post sane, real content, well thought out replies, and mutes are unlikely.
12. The original algorithm was designed by XKCD:
http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and … kquote>

9. Unicode is blocked. Sorry, too many exploits (Cyrillic letters, etc)

Also, I will warn you that flat files are a horrible idea, I know you're thinking that you could store the post data on them, take my advice and don't (I've tried it).

Also, DannyP posted fast

I never really got what the big deal about unicode was... I see where it's useful, but I think a phpvar would suit nicely.

> I have only seen one other site use TTF, so I'm guessing this would help you guys out alot.

i'm not trying to conquer the world. i'm just trying to make forum software for my website (thinktankforums.com) as i see fit. and while i'm at it, i might as well bsdl it. :)

Ah I thought TTF was supposed to be distributed as yet another forum software and this forum was for TTF support.

nah, it's the other way around.

i appreciate the interest. i hope people will find some of the code useful. but, yeah, i'm not willing to spend much time getting others to use ttf software.

dp is promotions, anyway. :x

That's where the impression comes from. :)

from where? :o

DP

I don't think I communicated that this forum was for ttf support.

Second off, it's narrow. I am runing right now at 1280x960 resolution. How about at least 95% of the window being covered? Sure, make it compatible with 640x480 resolution, but it's just bizarre looking ad there's all this unused space > > >

I hope nobody minds that I pipe in. I'm just a user, please don't associate my opinions directly with the ttf dev team (unless they agree :P ). In the graphic design field—when typography is concerned—line length is very important. The rule of thumb is 1.5 to 2 alphabets long of characters per line. Basically 39 to 52 characters per line is a good area to aim for. Any given line really shouldn't exceed 72 characters long.

To put it as kindly as possible, 99.9% of web designers have no typographic print background and thus have put tons crap out there that destroys legibility and makes it tiresome to read any article of length.

I am very glad that ttf has a set width that is pretty close to complying with this standard that has been around for just over a century before web sites were even an idea.

When line length is too long, it quickly tires the eye, and makes it very difficult to find the start of the next line. It's very obnoxious to read wikipedia on a high resolution monitor. I must resize my browser to make it anywhere close to an acceptable line length.

You think reading a correct width forum at 1280x960 is bad? If it were to take up my entire browser window on my monitor that is running 1920x1200. It would be ridiculously worse. My entire post would most likely fit on only one line! By the end my eyes would be bleeding.

It may sound like I am blowing this completely out of the water, but web typography NEEDS to be important to ensure successful communication. As a competent designer and someone who has a strong vested interest in the continuation of good typographic practice I feel there is a strong need to help inform people of this issue.

This is just my .02 and part of my much larger web typography rant. :P

To be honest, I have no major design gripes with this site. I feel the design has been well thought-out to aid it's primary purpose: to communicate. There could be a little additional leading, but that can be dealt with another time. :)

P.S. That unused space your talking about, that's called whitespace. Trust me, it's very important. I hate linking wikipedia for design issues, but their whitespace section is pretty close to what i'd say in a nutshell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_space_(visual_arts )

rectangular is right, a while ago I made a website for someone, and I did a lot of research on how to make the best accessible and usable website.
A line lenght of about 30-35em max. is highly recommended, for the reasons rectangular already outlined.

Note that there are some technical problems here, there are a few bugs with IE and setting width, it breaks floats and some other stuff.
The best way would be using max-width and min-width, but IE doesn't support this at all ... :(
I haven't been able to find any good workaround.

Are you talking about ie6 or ie7?

I have completely given up making sure sites work 100% in ie6. It takes tons of time and is a pain in the ass. Ie7 is better... but still no cakewalk.

Anyone heard of the acid tests? Safari 3.1 is the highest scorer that I know of at 75. Ie7 gets a measly 6 :P

http://acid3.acidtests.org/

Actually, I am starting a new project and lo and beholde, this software is perfect for me. Wow.

Also, the amount of space this column of text takes is about 2/5ths of my 2048x1536 resolution UHR CRT 20 incher (NE! [Just kidding, new to me, 1998 produced!]).

though I still say implement ROBOT9000 because it's coolio. I'll let you know if it's better than the other candidate, Punbb

I am using it on www.sendai-systems.com I used to use it on a UT forum site. it's easily hackable and nillerz i like a lot of your ideas. I might be willing to help you implement some of them.

I'll post any major changes I make to the forums here.

Robot 9000 sounds awesome as shit and I think ttf would benefit from at list a minimal bb code set.... but I know most of ttf disagrees... and I understand I think why, and their concerns are totally legitimate. Also as it's lucas' code... he can do whatever he damned well please =P.

That's just my two cents.

i am still working towards making the code more usable. hopefully nny appreciates some of the new features.

i'm really sorry that development is so slow, but as usual, there are other things that i am prioritizing.

i hope you can appreciate it, nillerz. and i hope that you'll find future progress to be beneficial to you.

I love this forum software =P

I dig TTF non-monitoring but even if I thought there was a need for screening posts I don't see how some kind of ROBOT9000 would provide a better solution than just appointing someone as postmaster general. Make dp or nny or some other regular Zar if if you need a censor, but I still don't see the need. When ttf reaches china and the government demands revolutionary posts be removed and the posters (postees?) be banned, then it might be necessary to start thinking about such measures...

ME!?! are you mad!?!

the good thing about r9k is that its memory is better than that of human beings. and it's unbiased

ttf scale at present doesn't warrant r9k enforcement :D

will it in the future!?