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Started by barry1947, January 02, 2018, 03:10:44 PM

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barry1947

Hi everyone and a Happy New Year to you all.
Does anyone know of a way to put comments into a post that are only viewed in edit mode.
Many thanks in advance,
Barry

Arantor

I'm curious, what's the use case? I have a few ideas and what I suggest depends on how you intend to use it.

barry1947

Hi Arantor,
Happy New Year to you and thank you for picking this up.
I have made a mod to the post screen to allow a drop down box full of the members music for them to choose from and automatically insert the link into their post. I want to be able to tell them while they are editing their post that the strange code that they are looking at is the link to their music so that they do not worry about it and do not remove it unless they do not want the link any longer, and hopefully keep the members a bit more informed.
Best regards
Barry

Arantor

I really wouldn't do this. Putting it into each post has major consequences like cluttering up your database, making search work less well (because the comment text shows up as well)

Honestly, my experience is that when people press the dropdown and see some code appear, they'll realise they're connected - or if not, they'll ask and you can tell them. Trying to fix something like this with a workaround will probably confuse them more. At least that's my experience.

barry1947

Hi Arantor,
Many thanks for your advice, here is a bit more info for you.
Many of my members are seniors and they are frightened of using computers anyhow so sometimes you just have to go that extra mile.
It only gets inserted into new topics not all posts.
The forum and the data is quite small with just over 100,000 posts so size and speed of the search is not an issue.
It is not a fix or a workaround for anything as it is not broken, just a way of giving information to people that need a little help on the education side.
Best regards
Barry

Arantor

I don't mean size or speed. I mean whatever words you put into that comment will all be searchable. And if you use a common word like 'music' in there, every single time someone uses this, that word will come up in the search results.

I get what you're trying to do, but there isn't actually a particularly good way to do it.

SaltedWeb

You know reading what you are wanting to accomplish might be better accomplished by using whats built in and/or having new members sent to a particular post when joining or easier just edit the welcoming notices to include your concerns when they join.  As far as old members perhaps do a short informative newsletter, this would make the issues you are addressing not task specific but educational in nature and could be used in the future........ seems once members know how you communicate thoughts, concerns etc, they may be more likely to read notices in newsletters. Lastly instead of a news letter you could PM members info but I personally find that approach intrusive and waste of resources.
Just a couple thoughts..
Knowing your limitations makes you human, exceeding these limitations makes you worthy of being human.

barry1947

Hi Arantor,
Many thanks once again. I didn't think that there would be an easy answer so I guess I will have to code a solution. Maybe a pop up of some kind. Many thanks again anyhow.

Hi SaltedWeb,
Many thanks for your input too. The idea of using built in resources is normally a good one. However some of my members have retention issues and I can throw as many pieces of paper at them as you like and they wille not get it until it has been a common thing for some while. This is why I am thinking of something at the point of impact Because that is where they need it. But many thanks for your input once again.
Best regards
Barry

Arantor

I suppose some kind of popup when actually selecting something in the dropdown but honestly, that's likely to confuse people more than it is to help them, at least if my experience of older users is anything to go by...

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

I'm not sure if I'm trying to approach this in an overly simple manner, but perhaps you could just add visible text to the post page explaining that the dropdown will add code to the post?

I have a similar thing I did to remind my users about whether they are posting in a public board or a members only board. :D
That line of text just says " Do note that currently you are posting in an area that is not visible to guests"
If that was on a public board, it would say " Do note that currently you are posting in an area that is publicly visible"
Slava
Ukraini!


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barry1947

Hi Arantor,
I do agree with you. A popup will be more intrusive to them so thank you once again for your valuable input.
All of the answers here have merit so my thanks to everyone that has contributed.

Hi Lex,
Many thanks for your contribution here also.
I think that I will probably go with this thought for now. I already have a text area in mind to do this so thank you very much for your thought.

Once again, Happy New Year to everyone and a hearty thank you as well.
Best regards from me.
Barry

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

Quote from: barry1947 on January 02, 2018, 06:00:23 PM
Hi Arantor,
I do agree with you. A popup will be more intrusive to them so thank you once again for your valuable input.
All of the answers here have merit so my thanks to everyone that has contributed.

Hi Lex,
Many thanks for your contribution here also.
I think that I will probably go with this thought for now. I already have a text area in mind to do this so thank you very much for your thought.

Once again, Happy New Year to everyone and a hearty thank you as well.
Best regards from me.
Barry
You are welcome, and a happy new year to you as well :)
Slava
Ukraini!


"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

How you can help SMF

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