Slash

Hi all.  Not an install question but I don't want to bother the dev list 
with this, hopefully some here can help out.

Quick background;  I've run a few low volume discussion forums over the 
years using various software including WebCrossing free tier license, 
and currently Backtalk.  Recently we've decided that we want a 
moderation system due to ever increasing flame wars.  Most forum 
software has moderation in the form of moderators modifying or deleting 
posts, but the ranking system used by Slash is a much better system IMO, 
so I thought I'd play with it for a while.

Now Slashdot is a great site I read every day, but the people using my 
site are just not so tech savvy that they appreciate the complexity that 
is Slash.  Basically all the forum software I've hosted have been 
"linear" and fairly simple to use.  Yes, Slash has the ability to view 
articles in flat mode, but it still introduces a lot more complexity 
than I need for the users and volume of use I deal with.  So I figure, 
hey its open source, I'm not a programmer but I've installed enough 
scripted applications that I'm not afraid to poke at things, maybe I can 
make this software easier to use by forcing it to be linear only.

So, I started with the obvious.  I removed the "reply to this" and 
"parent" links from the comments templates.  That pretty much forces it 
to be linear - not elegant but effective.  No problem there.  Then I 
decided that with all the posts inline, there is no need for a subject 
line on each post.  The easiest route here was to just allow people to 
use the subject box if they like, but not require it.  So I figured if I 
delete the lameness filters that check the subject line, all would be 
good. 

Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Seems that trying to post without 
a subject line still triggers a "Cat got your toungue....." NO BODY 
error from the error template.  I was perplexed, but not deterred.  So I 
had a read through comments.pl, and I found where this was being 
generated, and tried commenting out those lines;

       unless ($$comm && $$subj) {
       $$error_message = getError('no body');
               return;
       }

Voila.  Now I can post comments with no subject in the box and no 
errors.  The only problem is now the preview function does not work :-)  
I click preview and get no errors, but I don't get a preview either.  
Just the same comment box again.  If I do put in a subject line, the 
preview works fine, so clearly preview does not work if $$subj is empty.

Now I am definitely out of my depth here.  I could use it as is, but I'd 
like to have the preview function work since there is no editing 
possible afterward.  I could just continue to require a subject, even 
though its unnnecesary.  Or I could put it back the way it was "from the 
factory" easy enough, but I hate giving up once I get an idea in my head 
(and feel free to comment on why you think its a stupid idea too, I'd 
like to hear about any possible downsides).  But OTOH maybe there are 
some people here who are a lot more familiar with Perl than I that can 
point out some simple fixes.  So we'll give it a try.  Can I remove the 
requirement for a subject line in comments.pl, or am I likely to create 
a cascade of other problems?

Thanking you in advance for your thoughts.

Blair

Can you change the comment form template to include the subject as a
hidden field, and give it the existing subject's value (or just make up
a subject based on the story)?  That way you've provided a value for the
form field and the user didn't have to see it, and the rest of the
software will see a value and not complain.  (I didn't look at any code
to see if this makes sense, but it is a different approach to consider.)

	Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: slashcode-general-admin@...
[mailto:slashcode-general-admin@...] On Behalf Of
Blair Steenerson
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 7:55 AM
To: slashcode-general@...
Subject: [Slashcode-general] Moding for linear discussions

Hi all.  Not an install question but I don't want to bother the dev list
with this, hopefully some here can help out.

Quick background;  I've run a few low volume discussion forums over the
years using various software including WebCrossing free tier license,
and currently Backtalk.  Recently we've decided that we want a
moderation system due to ever increasing flame wars.  Most forum
software has moderation in the form of moderators modifying or deleting
posts, but the ranking system used by Slash is a much better system IMO,
so I thought I'd play with it for a while.

Now Slashdot is a great site I read every day, but the people using my
site are just not so tech savvy that they appreciate the complexity that
is Slash.  Basically all the forum software I've hosted have been
"linear" and fairly simple to use.  Yes, Slash has the ability to view
articles in flat mode, but it still introduces a lot more complexity
than I need for the users and volume of use I deal with.  So I figure,
hey its open source, I'm not a programmer but I've installed enough
scripted applications that I'm not afraid to poke at things, maybe I can
make this software easier to use by forcing it to be linear only.

So, I started with the obvious.  I removed the "reply to this" and
"parent" links from the comments templates.  That pretty much forces it
to be linear - not elegant but effective.  No problem there.  Then I
decided that with all the posts inline, there is no need for a subject
line on each post.  The easiest route here was to just allow people to
use the subject box if they like, but not require it.  So I figured if I
delete the lameness filters that check the subject line, all would be
good.=20

Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Seems that trying to post without
a subject line still triggers a "Cat got your toungue....." NO BODY
error from the error template.  I was perplexed, but not deterred.  So I
had a read through comments.pl, and I found where this was being
generated, and tried commenting out those lines;

       unless ($$comm && $$subj) {
       $$error_message =3D getError('no body');
               return;
       }

Voila.  Now I can post comments with no subject in the box and no
errors.  The only problem is now the preview function does not work :-)
I click preview and get no errors, but I don't get a preview either. =20
Just the same comment box again.  If I do put in a subject line, the
preview works fine, so clearly preview does not work if $$subj is empty.

Now I am definitely out of my depth here.  I could use it as is, but I'd
like to have the preview function work since there is no editing
possible afterward.  I could just continue to require a subject, even
though its unnnecesary.  Or I could put it back the way it was "from the
factory" easy enough, but I hate giving up once I get an idea in my head
(and feel free to comment on why you think its a stupid idea too, I'd
like to hear about any possible downsides).  But OTOH maybe there are
some people here who are a lot more familiar with Perl than I that can
point out some simple fixes.  So we'll give it a try.  Can I remove the
requirement for a subject line in comments.pl, or am I likely to create
a cascade of other problems?

Thanking you in advance for your thoughts.

Blair








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