PPK Bonus Features v. 0.2345678
So I did some thinking and the ignore function isn't worth keeping if it means I can't share what I've made with other people. In this version, I've taken it out. I'm splitting off the ignore feature back into it's own script, which is coming later.
Without the ignore function, this version is a little lean. In fact, it's only a moderator flag. BUT that moderator flag is now bigger and in color! Behold!
Get PPK Bonus Features here: http://dreamofwaking.com/ppkscript/ppkbonus.user.js
Get Greasemonkey here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
As always, post bugs and suggestions here!
Addressing some PPK Bonus Features concerns
I've been asked a couple times why I made a script for ignoring people. The short answer is that it is a starting point for better things to come. Here's the long answer.
The PPK forums run on a forum software called PunBB. PunBB does a lot of things well and some things crap. As soon as I started visiting the PPK forums I saw that there was room for improvement. Obviously, I, being a typical user, cannot change the forum software. So I'd have to implement improvements and fixes from an outsider's perspective. Inspired by the Something Awful Last Read extension, I immediately went straight for a full blown Firefox extension. I quickly realized that that sort of thing is way over my head, especially without a basis of knowledge in javascript and DOM and nothing to base my work off of. So it got shelved. That was a long time ago.
Recently I decided to give it another go, with a more realistic perspective of my own abilities. Greasemonkey is well known for implementing small changes on the user side that can build up to sweeping changes. I still don't have much of a handle on javascript or DOM but I have google.
So I searched userscripts.org for "punbb". Lo, and behold, a couple of scripts but they were all of the same function: ignore users. That's not the kind of improvement I was looking for, but it's a start. It gives me something to work with. Something I can tinker with and change and observe the results without the painful process of starting the whole thing from scratch and tossing it after an hour's worth of effort.
Now that I had something to work with I started to implement one of the features that I actually did want, moderator flags. Nowhere on the PPK is there a list of moderators. You can stumble upon them by pulling up the user list and sorting by "Administrators" and you'll get most of them. Looking at the index you'd only see VeganMegan as a moderator and that's because she moderates ONE subforum. I'm sure she gets all kinds of insane non-Playground questions because she appears as the first visible authority figure around!
So to me, as someone who frequents other internet forums but has never been a part of the in crowd, knowing who the moderators are is rather important! They're the people who can fix things when they get out of hand and answer questions! It also gives common folk more confidence in the words of people who speak with an air of authority to know that they are actually a person of authority. People are more likely to post when they know who it is that they shouldn't actually piss off.
So let's get to more about the ignore function. Ignored users are ignored locally. The list of ignored users is stored on that person's login cookie. The ignore function is not phoning home and I am not compiling a list of ignored users. I'm not interested in knowing who is being ignored by whom. When you ignore someone, it is a personal decision. No one else knows or needs to know who is being ignored by whom. Personally I won't ignore anyone for any reason. I would even remove the ignore function but that's removing functionality that someone may find useful and I'm not in the business of removing functionality. I will probably even improve upon the ignore function so that it when a post is hidden or a user ignored, the "Show Post" link has a username attached so you at least know who's post is being ignored.
Also, no one is paying me and no one asked for this. I didn't do this to appease anyone but myself. If no one else uses it, I'll be the only one then. I'll keep working on it until I get bored or stuck or run out of things to implement. I've been told by one person, who is a moderator, who happens to be my wife, that I'm personally not allowed to make a post on the PPK about this, no matter how useful it is. If you use this and like it now or in the future, please post about it! I'd love to get more feedback! If you're a moderator and you like this and you're willing to tell Katie to piss off, let me know! I'll be glad to post about this myself.
If you've gotten this far, you deserve a gold star. And a wrap up.
I'm trying to improve things, not cause drama. Help me help you.
OH! And I've put PPK Bonus Features on GitHub! If you're willing to help out, please clone and have at it! Right now the master branch is also the newer-than-new build but once I release a new version, master will freeze and development will continue on a new branch.
PPK Bonus Features (previously known as PPK Ignore Script) version 0.2222222
Here it is, the new version of the PPK Bonus Features, previously known by the most short-sighted name ever, PPK Ignore Script. This one does more than ignore people! Here's the shortlist of features!
- Allows you to selectively ignore users or specific posts
- Forbids your ignoring moderators
- Flags moderators as such
Get the script here: http://dreamofwaking.com/ppkscript/ppkbonus.user.js
Get Greasemonkey here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
NOTE: You need to uninstall the old PPK Ignore Script if you're going to use PPK Bonus Features! If you don't, you'll end up ignoring moderators and with two sets of ignore options! You only need to do this once though. Once you're on PPK Bonus Features, when a new version is released you can just install over it.
As always, post bugs or improvement suggestions below! I'm not happy with how the moderator flag looks so I plan on doing something about making it more obvious. I'm primarily pushing out this new release to establish the new name before too many people are hung up on the PPK Ignore Script.
PPK Ignore Script (version 0.1111111) for Greasemonkey.
There's a lot of things PunBB (the software that runs the PPK forums) does right and there are some thing it can improve on. In an effort to improve things by plagiarism, I searched userscripts.org for PunBB scripts. Unfortunately there's not much else than an ignore script. Oh well, it's a start.
Once you install this script it will add two links under people's identity block in posts; Hide Post and Ignore. Hide Post does just that, it makes that post disappear under a link to show it again. Ignore hides every post that user makes. You will still see the threads they've started in the index but when you view the thread, their posts will be hidden. To un-ignore someone, just click the Show Post link and click on ***IGNORED*** and they will be un-ignored. I guess this can be a struggle if you've ignored a lot of users as you'd be unhiding post after post to find one by the user you're trying to un-ignore. Hey, now I have something I can improve on it with!
I haven't done a lot of testing beyond making sure that it works as advertised. It does work. You probably shouldn't use this to ignore moderators. I guess making that impossible would be another improvement.
Get Greasemonkey here first (if you don't already have it): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
Get the script here: http://dreamofwaking.com/ppkscript/ppkignore.user.js
Katie won't let me make a thread in the PPK for this. She's afraid it'll make people sad because they'll think everyone has them on ignore. I guess what I'm saying is most PPKers are adults and if one adult wants to selectively ignore other adults and those adults are incapable of coping with the possibility that they're being ignored, maybe they don't need to know that it's possible they can be ignored to begin with. Or maybe they should grow the fuck up.
Post bugs here. Post improvements here. Think small, I'm not a genius at javascript or DOM, I barely know how this script works to begin with.
Things I'm looking into:
- Adding username to the Show Post link
- Blocking moderators from being ignored
- Making moderators more noticeable
- User notes? (maybe too much for me)