[williamsji]

I have a request for the site admins to consider:

Some forums give posters a mechanism to collapse parts of ther posts to a banner line (where all the details can reside hidden unless the banner line is clicked on to expand it). Similar to how this forum autotruncates quoted posts, with the ability to expand them on demand. This allows a detailed post to be presented in two parts transparently to the forum audience: The summary cliff notes, and the details in the collapsed banner lines that those who want more info can expand them and see the information.

This request is an outcome from the lastest meta-discussion rant about people making long posts pissing off other members who want to only see soundbites... over in the gen5 Oil Dilution Thread.

The forum already partially collapses quoted posts.. and in effect my request is equivalent to this... but via an actual feature to enclose sections of text with a collpased banner line view. This would allow long discussion of details within shorter summary statements for those that simply rail on details and want brevity above all else. It also has the side benefit of making more room for more posts in a thread on the accessed page when it is brought up on a members web browser.

A good example of the mechanism is how it is used for hiding "spoilers" content on gaming forums. Here is an example of this in action: https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=973048 Note: all the text is hidden by default.. and any forum member that wishes to read what is hidden, simply clicks the "Show" button and instantly the hidden text is expanded. Different forums do it a bit differently... but the concept is widely used across the internet in forums.. and I really think the addition of this feature could eliminate the frustration between those that only want the summary and those that want details.. as it puts control in the hands of the forum member(s). A second benefit.. less load on the moderators as they do not have to get the hose out when forum members start meta-ranting at each other.

Thanks for considering this request.

 

[Carbuff2]

Fixed the title for you. ?

When I receive notifications via email, only the first few lines of the post are communicated.

Here was yours:

I have a request for the site admins to consider: Some forums give posters a mechanism to collapse parts of ther posts to a banner line (where all the details can reside hidden unless the banner line is clicked on to expand it). Similar to how this forum autotruncates quoted posts, with the...

Is that what you want?

 

[williamsji]

Fixed the title for you. ?

When I receive notifications via email, only the first few lines of the post are communicated.

Here was yours:


Is that what you want?

Thanks!

Since some members of the forum seem unable to simply skim past posted content that does not interest them, or that they disagree with.. and instead just want people like me to shut up and please their particular whims... adding this sort of feature would be an excellent solution to the conflict.

The reason I showed an example from another forum, a gaming forum, was to give a clear example of how well it works. The reasons in the linked example are different.. and actually more valid (not showing spoilers about story lines other members have not yet experienced)... it would also be a benefit here. It would allow details as to why, how, etc.. behind a summary statement to be kept compactly hidden unless the reader really wants to see the details and clicks to unhide the content behind the banner.

I'm not sure this solves all the alleged issues though.. because frankly.. some of the people complaining about my posts.. pretend it is word count.. but actually.. they don't like the viewpoints I present becasue they do not fit their narrative. But it does take away the pretense that word count is the actual issue.

Anyway.. hopefully the forum admins can look into adding a feature like this in the future. I would certainly embrace it and make use of it, and encourage other forum members to do the same.

If the forum ownership decides not to add this feature.. just let me know and I will take a different approach (creating a separate blog where I deposit the details and then linking to them). There are a number of ways to deal with this.. but adding a collapsable banner would serve all members here and save them the extra step that I can take and am prepared to take.

 

[kloker]

Thanks!

Since some members of the forum seem unable to simply skim past posted content that does not interest them, or that they disagree with.. and instead just want people like me to shut up and please their particular whims... adding this sort of feature would be an excellent solution to the conflict.

The reason I showed an example from another forum, a gaming forum, was to give a clear example of how well it works. The reasons in the linked example are different.. and actually more valid (not showing spoilers about story lines other members have not yet experienced)... it would also be a benefit here. It would allow details as to why, how, etc.. behind a summary statement to be kept compactly hidden unless the reader really wants to see the details and clicks to unhide the content behind the banner.

I'm not sure this solves all the alleged issues though.. because frankly.. some of the people complaining about my posts.. pretend it is word count.. but actually.. they don't like the viewpoints I present becasue they do not fit their narrative. But it does take away the pretense that word count is the actual issue.

Anyway.. hopefully the forum admins can look into adding a feature like this in the future. I would certainly embrace it and make use of it, and encourage other forum members to do the same.

If the forum ownership decides not to add this feature.. just let me know and I will take a different approach (creating a separate blog where I deposit the details and then linking to them). There are a number of ways to deal with this.. but adding a collapsable banner would serve all members here and save them the extra step that I can take and am prepared to take.

I get exactly what you mean. And I'm all for it, but only if it can be switched off. That said, you can't please everyone, and I say Jimmy crack corn. Someone who chooses to be displeased or offended will find a way and a reason, and these days there are a lot of people who act like that should matter. These people offend me, in a highly amusing way. I say go ahead, post what you want to say, unabbreviated. Then let them decide for themselves to choose to either read or not read any and all content, just like the rest of us. Simple, and effective when used properly.

I would not mean to offend anyone by that, but if I did, I would offer the offended party a quarter if I could. I've always made sure to have some in my pocket for that purpose when in person. But now that pay phones are a thing of the past, I'd like to request an emoji of one, for internet and cell phone use. Hopefully anyone I'd give it to could figure out what to do with it.

 

[AdminSupport]

Hello,

I just want to understand the way this would work. Would posts you've already read be automatically truncated to not fill up the page as much? Or are you looking to have it automatically do this for all posts? Would you be ok with this being a setting you choose to enable/disable, like the expansion for signatures? Are looking to see this mimic spoilers, or can you use this function to suit your needs as well?

It sounds like you're roughly looking for us to populate a "tl;dr" function for longer posts, but that is something that can not be automatically generated, and needs to be made by the poster of the information.

-Gerrit

 

[williamsji]

Hello,

I just want to understand the way this would work. Would posts you've already read be automatically truncated to not fill up the page as much? Or are you looking to have it automatically do this for all posts? Would you be ok with this being a setting you choose to enable/disable, like the expansion for signatures? Are looking to see this mimic spoilers, or can you use this function to suit your needs as well?

It sounds like you're roughly looking for us to populate a "tl;dr" function for longer posts, but that is something that can not be automatically generated, and needs to be made by the poster of the information.

-Gerrit

Hi Gerrit.

It is a common feature of many forums on the internet, and I included a link to an example to illustrate it.

If you take a look at the linked example I included, I think it will be clearer for you how the methodology works. You will see where a poster has a "spoiler" banner in place (where content some viewers would consider spoiling a story line is hidden unless a reader chooses to press the unhide button to see it). Same principle here.. though not for hiding spoilers, but rather hiding detailed explanations in support of summary comments... something that seems to get some members here really bent out of shape and demand censoring the person posting summary + details. In this forums context.. such a banner would carry some more approriate default name... like "details"

The method allows the person posting to enclose any selected block of text with a "hide" feature, and other readers can see a banner that shows there is hidden text.. and can choose to click an "unhide" button on the banner if they wish to see the text hidden. And as a selectable function (similar to a quote feature actually) it can be applied multiple times in a post.. once for each block of text to be hidden by default.

Taking this approach allows users to present concise posts at a summary level, with supporting details hidden by the posters choice in such a banner. This can address some complaints directed specifically at me for being "too long winded" on some of my posts... and accordingly would benefit other posters as well.

It also has the added benefit of keeping pages of posts in a thread more compact when first brought up by viewers, and allow viewers who only want to see soundbites to completely ignore more detailed comments unless they want to see them. This would benefit mobile users in particular.