Insert [quote] and [topic] in Post Summaries in Forum Activity Page... otherwise we look like we're crazy people talking to ourselves like Jon Arbuckle from Garfield-Minus-Garfield (comic included!) 😼

[Archer_en_Tilavine]

Before I begin, I’d like to establish a basis for comparison:

Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

In some unfortunate instances, these omissions make poor Jon Arbuckle look like he’s crazy. Examine the following ‘Minus’ comic, and then examine the original - see the difference the missing context makes? He’s not really (that) crazy after all!

Minus comic (ie. “missing context”):

Original comic (ie. “with context”):

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Now, why am I talking about Garfield-minus-Garfield? Because we have a similar “Minus” situation with the forums. I notice whenever I’m examining the forum activity pages of users, the displayed summary does not include or indicate the presence of quotes or linked threads, so the remaining summary can be completely out of context. By contrast, the presence of an image is indicated by [image] as per the screenshot below:

Here is an example where the summary appears out of context because two quotes (one from a different thread) are missing; however, if something like [quote] was included in place of quotes, then we would know to expand the summary in order to see the quoted context

Here is the relevant part of the expanded summary that includes the above content where you can see the missing quotes - I think in the summary we should insert the text [quote] in place of quotes in the summary so we know it’s there.

Obviously the summary won’t include the entire post (which might contain more quotes further down), but if we’re skimming along reviewing post summaries and we want to know that there exists a context to which the post is responding to, it helps to know the opening of the post is responding to one or more quotes. Otherwise we would have to expand each and every single summary to know whether or not there is missing context in the post summary, and this is a waste of time (and if we don’t do this, then the summary itself can be misleading and/or awkward with the missing context).

Likewise, I think if there is a link to another thread, it should be indicated with [topic] since presently it is missing. Here is an example summary missing a topic link or indication of a topic link:

After expansion:

I don’t want to be like Jon Arbuckle having weird conversations talking to myself, and I don’t think others want to be perceived the same way when their forum activity page post summaries are reviewed either.

It’s a simple feature request: insert [quote] and [topic] in place of quotes and thread links in the thread summary. Thank you!

@CCP_Aurora

[Echelon_Moussou]

[MB_ThePhotographer]

You of all people expect CCP to “work” on their own forums to which they will HARDLY ever respond on??? To what end? They might as well spend the time helping Reddit.

I see your point and it would make reading the forums easier to keep up on, but now your asking a lot.

[Archer_en_Tilavine]

What is it going to take to get rid of you? After your CSM vote, I mean…

Aurora liked one of my posts in the #technology-research:feedback category without me or anyone else tagging her in it. She said she had the web guys look into that post. As one of the more high-engagement CCP devs on the forums, I figure she’s the one to ping. This proposal is very straight forward, non-controversial, and easy to implement (syntactic parsing -> substitute quotes and topic links with text), so I hope it gets picked up. Besides, I added a comic strip? Who wouldn’t want to pounce on that ■■■■ !!?

Then again, red dots… still, I’d like to think the web devs and game devs are different. Maybe the web devs aren’t as red-dotty as the game devs are

[MB_ThePhotographer]

@Archer_en_Tilavine

Then again, red dots…

Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939- Ringing the bells

Don’t expect too much from CCP. All I want from you two years from now after serving on the CSM, to give your honest opinion as to you think the CSM is worth having besides the perks and PR.

[CCP_Aurora]

A solid suggestion - having to click into each comment to get context does make using the user profile view a bit slower to comprehend.

I’ll see what we can do as far as forum settings go, not sure if there’s an option for this available or if it would be more detailed coding work.

[Lunatic_Lover]

I have to ask, why you use Discourse engine instead of more functional ones (like XenForo or IPS)?

[Archer_en_Tilavine]

@MB_ThePhotographer per the above, here is another thorn for your cactus…

@MB_ThePhotographer

All I want from you two years from now after serving on the CSM, to give your honest opinion as to you think the CSM is worth having besides the perks and PR.

@Steve_Ronuken

Freeeeee!

[MB_ThePhotographer]

@Archer_en_Tilavine

Now I have to read the NDA very carefully.

[Archer_en_Tilavine]

@CCP_Aurora I haven’t actually checked but it is possible the same issue occurs in topic summaries displayed in post - can you check? And what did the web dev monkeys say about implementing this?

( do these in-post embeds show quotes and topic links???)

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@MB_ThePhotographer you really should ask Steve since he already went through the hoops for several years. Ask him if CCP pays for therapy.