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Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #27128]

Sat, 27 August 2005 21:28

Astoria

Messages: 227
Registered: April 2004

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Senior Member

All of the posters on my forum came from a place which was set up so that, in addition to holding conversations via PM, users could also let each other know about threads they might be interested in, or hold a conversation on a thread, by creating a flag at post time that other posters would see at their "self search" link. A "self search" displayed a paged list of links to all of the users' posts, mixed together with links to posts that were in direct reply to their posts and "flags", where another poster had entered their name (or an entire list of usernames) to call attention to a post or thread. This list showed the names of the posters who created the posts.

They very much miss this functionality, and so I want to implement this in my FUDforum installation. However, there are some differences in the way I want to implement on FUDforum. I will separate the "self search" into "View my posts" (which already pretty much exists) and "View my replies and flags". Here is the high-level list I've come up with for what I will need to do to implement this functionality:

Functionality will be optional, enabled per on/off admin toggle
Flagging in the create post process will be handled the same as sending a PM to multiple recipients.
General replies to the thread would not generate flags; explicit flags and replies to specific posts on the thread would generate flags.
New tab in User CP: "Replies and Flags"
Recipient can delete replies and flags from the list (like PMs)
set a maximum storage limit (# of flags); if it's reached older flags will be deleted. Limit will be configurable via admin settings.
"saved" area for permanent storage of certain flags (as for PMs).

If you might be interested in picking up this functionality, I will attempt to tightly integrate it with your code. If not, I will try to keep it more separate so that I can still pick up your upgrades.

Thanks

addendum: I also want to integrate a "Flag" permission into the permissions list, so that posters who abuse it can be disabled without having to ban them.

[Updated on: Sat, 27 August 2005 23:19]

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #27143 is a reply to message #27128]

Sun, 28 August 2005 16:59

Astoria

Messages: 227
Registered: April 2004

Karma: 0

Senior Member

High-level spec for flagging/self-search (draft):

Flagging
1. Functionality will be optional to the forum, enabled per on/off admin toggle
2. Add a "Flag" permission to the permissions list which appears in the "Group(s) Manager"
3. Flagging in the create post process will be handled the same as sending a PM to multiple recipients.
4. General replies to the thread would not generate flags; explicit flags and replies to specific posts on the thread would generate flags.
5. Don't allow people on my ignore list to flag me
6. Give the option of choosing flag recipients from buddy list or entering them manually
View My Posts
1. display a list of user's posts
2. integrate as a User CP tab
View Replies & Flags
1. New tab in User CP: "Replies & Flags"
2. display a list of flags and direct replies to the user's posts
3. Recipient can delete records from the list
4. bulk selection should be allowed
5. Provide "saved" area for permanent storage of certain flags
6. Set a maximum storage limit (# of flags); if it's reached older flags will be deleted.
7. Storage limit will be configurable via admin settings. (as for PMs).

[Updated on: Sun, 28 August 2005 18:51]

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #27163 is a reply to message #27143]

Mon, 29 August 2005 13:47

Ilia

Messages: 13241
Registered: January 2002

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Administrator
Core Developer

An interesting proposal, but at least for now I have no plans to add anything similar to the forum.

FUDforum Core Developer

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #30005 is a reply to message #27128]

Sun, 29 January 2006 17:53

Astoria

Messages: 227
Registered: April 2004

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Senior Member

Update/fyi: I've pared this design down to what I think will be manageable for me to keep in synch with future FUDforum updates but will still give the flag ability to my users:

- add Flag button to post display
- clicking the button will bring up a form that is identical to PM form, but with a link to the post where the button was clicked pre-loaded, and a special "flag" message icon that only appears in this case (possibly will use the exclamation icon with a different colored background).
- submitting the form will generate PMs to everyone listed just as the current PM functionality does, and will also create a new post on the thread with the recipient list displayed as text in the post.

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #31109 is a reply to message #27128]

Sun, 02 April 2006 04:34

Astoria

Messages: 227
Registered: April 2004

Karma: 0

Senior Member

Hi Ilia,
I have continued to study and decided that the "pared down" idea is unworkable. I have determined what I believe are the table changes needed to implement the full idea, and am working on determining affected and new modules.

I have made some changes from my original idea:

1.A-B Probably won't implement for now

1 (general)
- There will be no special "flag" button.
- The post form brought up from Reply or Quote will have a to_list, as the pmsg form does now, with the same processing for adding names from buddy list, and the same valididation of a (non-blank) to_list.
- The postcheck for adding a reply will allow a blank to_list, unlike the check for pmsg.
- The add_reply function will make a record in the (new) flag table (fields: id, from_id, to_id, msg_id -- all int(11) ) for each user name on the to_list.
- If there are no names on the to_list, no flag records will be created.
- to_list will be part of the msg object and be stored in fud26_msg table.

On display of messages, if the to_list is non blank, it (first 200 characters) will be displayed above the post in a separate "To:" row. If to_list is blank, there will be no "To:" row.

2: You have already implemented -- thank you very much!

3.A
"Replies and Flags" is changed to only "Flags".

3.B
If someone replied to my post but took my name off the to_list, I will not see an entry in "Flags".

3.E-G removed.

3 (general)
Each row of the "Flags" display should have
-checkbox to mark for deletion
-direct link to the message with the message subject as the text (similar to subscription notification links)
-sender name (possibly displayed as a link to their profile)
-timestamp

"Flags" display should incorporate "Select All" and "Delete" buttons.

Could use # of messages to display as paging value

It might be interesting to add a "pruning" admin feature to remove all flags older than "x" date at some point.

Would you be interested in creating a branch for your CVS where I could attempt to develop this feature? I am a novice at using CVS and web programming, but I do have a 10+ year background of programming, mostly on mainframe and database applications.

Thanks,
A

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #31192 is a reply to message #31109]

Fri, 07 April 2006 00:43

Ilia

Messages: 13241
Registered: January 2002

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Senior Member
Administrator
Core Developer

I'm afraid making a separate branch inside our CVS is not an option at this time, since we cannot limit user access on a per-branch level and we have some private branches in the system.

However, if you have a patch or series of patches I'd be more then happy to review them or provide assistance during development.

FUDforum Core Developer

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Re: Flagging other users to posts on the forum [message #31198 is a reply to message #31192]

Fri, 07 April 2006 16:27

Astoria

Messages: 227
Registered: April 2004

Karma: 0

Senior Member

OK; thanks. I will look into setting up my own CVS for this.

There are some fixes you've done since the last release that I would like to have in my baseline, but I don't want to try applying them individually since there is too much opportunity for me to mess things up. Any idea when you will be doing another release?

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