[expand] tags. Any chance of getting them added?

[Kobold-Bard]

Disclaimer: I have no idea how much effort goes into changes to the forum, this could be an apocalyptically big change & I sound like a complete ****.

The expand tag seems much more useful than the default spoiler tag, but GitP lacks it's function. Any chance of getting it activated/added if it's not actually a vB feature that's just not been activated? Same goes for [youtube] tags, any chance we can get them?

Thanks,
H-S

[Maxios]

If I remember correctly, a mod once said there's no youtube tags because it take's up too much bandwith.

[The Dark Fiddler]

...mind explaining to those of use not in the know what exactly [expand] would do?

[Kobold-Bard]

...mind explaining to those of use not in the know what exactly [expand] would do?

They give you a bit more versatility in your spoilerific needs:

I am really, really awesome

The = lets you give the spoiler a title.

[arguskos]

They give you a bit more versatility in your spoilerific needs:

I am really, really awesome

The = lets you give the spoiler a title.
What's wrong with doing this:


<title in normal text>

subject matter here


:smallconfused:

[Kobold-Bard]

What's wrong with doing this:

...

Nothing at all.

[InaVegt]

If I remember correctly, a mod once said there's no youtube tags because it take's up too much bandwith.

It... shouldn't take up any bandwidth, so I doubt that's the reason.

Now, I can think up a billion reasons not to allow youtube tags, but I'm sure the GitP administration has their own reasonings, so I'm sure they'll be able to explain why, rather than me taking guesses.

[Douglas]

Bandwidth is a total non-issue for youtube tags - the bandwidth for them would be coming from youtube, not giantitp.

Rawhide answered that issue a little while back here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10992215#post10992215).

[Trixie]

What's wrong with doing this:

:smallconfused:

Only that it becomes impossible to quote now? :smallconfused:

[The Dark Fiddler]

Only that it becomes impossible to quote now? :smallconfused:

You don't put it in quotes when you want to actually use it, so more like this:

<Title here>
Snape kills Dumbledore

[Zherog]

They give you a bit more versatility in your spoilerific needs:

I am really, really awesome

The = lets you give the spoiler a title.

You don't need a whole new tag for this. For example, back when WotC was using this same forum software, they had a custom tag called SBLOCK. If you did:

ZOMG! Darth Vader is Luke's father!

It would function exactly like the spoiler tag here. But you could also do:

HA! HA! Made you look!

And it would do exactly what you're describing here. So, really, what we're talking about is modifying an existing tag rather than installing a whole new tag.

Speaking as a programmer - though not for this software product - nothing is easy, though some things are less hard than others. You have to write the code; you have to install the code into the test system; you have to do a full regression test - not just testing that your change works, but making sure it didn't break something else; you have to document the change (both in the code and - ideally - in a set of documents that define the system); you have to schedule the promotion to the live system, which might include the need for downtime.

Could it be done? Sure, absolutely. Will it get done? Since this has come up in the past, I'd wager it's on the list of potential future changes, but won't be done until an opportunity presents itself. But that's just my guess.

[leafman]

Speaking as a programmer - though not for this software product - nothing is easy, though some things are less hard than others. You have to write the code; you have to install the code into the test system; you have to do a full regression test - not just testing that your change works, but making sure it didn't break something else; you have to document the change (both in the code and - ideally - in a set of documents that define the system); you have to schedule the promotion to the live system, which might include the need for downtime.

Would all of that really be needed? I mean assuming this board uses an object oriented language, all it would take is to create a new class/object that inherits the "Spoiler" class and adds a title or whatever other cosmetic changes you wanted to make. Test it make sure it works as intended and publish it to live.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Would all of that really be needed? I mean assuming this board uses an object oriented language, all it would take is to create a new class/object that inherits the "Spoiler" class and adds a title or whatever other cosmetic changes you wanted to make. Test it make sure it works as intended and publish it to live.

"All it would take is a new class"? Someone isn't a software developer. :smallamused:

Would [font] tags around a spoiler change the spoiler title font, and would other formatting tags like [center] affect the title text? Would the text replace the "Spoiler" already on the spoiler blocks or be above it? There are plenty of decisions to be made when implementing a new feature, and even if you do just arbitrarily answer all the questions you can think of, you still need to (A) come up with that list of questions, (B) decide on answers to those questions, (C) ensure those answers are compatible with everything else in the forum code, and so forth.

[Zherog]

In addition to everything Pair said - which is spot on - I'm fairly certain that vb is not object oriented. And even though it's a script language, the code itself is (I'm guessing based on my knowledge of other forum software) fairly straight forward. It might very well be the easiest part of the process I listed earlier. That doesn't mean it's an easy change - documentation is an important step that often gets neglected (not here, from what I can tell), and testing something like this isn't as simple as making a few test posts with the new and improved tag. That's why I specifically said it required a full regression test - when you go in and verify the rest of your system works as intended.

And even then, even if it would only take a few hours (I hear Rawhide and Smee laughing already), that still doesn't mean it would get done. That would be based on the existing priority list, what's already being worked on by various tech staff (aka Rawhide), and so forth. And that doesn't even take into account the whole "do we want this" decision from the staff.

Can it be done? Yep, no question. Will it get done? I dunno. I'm not a psychic. But there's plenty of stuff involved that would make Rawhide lean towards saying, "not at this this time." Don't discount the complexity.