webdiplomacy.net

One nifty feature of the new forum is that you can generate a URL that directs users to a particular post in a thread.

For example, the seedings of the 2018 World Cup:
http://webdiplomacy.net/contrib/phpBB3/ ... 309#p11309

This appears to be an incomplete feature, though. When I click on the "#251" hyperlink in that post, I just get a pop-up with a URL for the entire thread, not for that particular 251st post in the thread.

To get that find that specific URL for the seedings post I had to navigate to goldfinger0303's profile page on the new forum, and click on "Search user’s posts" to get here:
http://webdiplomacy.net/contrib/phpBB3/ ... 1&sr=posts

Then I had scroll down and find the particular post was interested in and then copy the URL of the provided hyperlinks for that post.

How hard would it be to get the "#251" sort of hyperlinks to work and generate the appropriate URL without going through the other cumbersome process?

I'm confused... Your link goes straight to the seeding bit, as does the link generated when I click on #251. It seems to be working well for me, which is great as I had no idea you could do that.

Octavious: You sure that you're getting the direct link from the #251? I've tried on three devices with three different browsers and just get the URL for the entire thread.

I also feel like it gives the correct link.

this link should take you to post #1091 in the mafia forum game.

I got that link by clicking on post "#1091" hyperlink. That's what you're describing, right, JECE?

If it helps, I'm using Chrome on a Macbook

JECE wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 22, 2018 3:09 am

Octavious: You sure that you're getting the direct link from the #251? I've tried on three devices with three different browsers and just get the URL for the entire thread.

Only tried it on my phone, but copying the link into different browsers produces the same result. Although looking more closely it briefly opens the thread at the start before moving down to the desired post. Very much blink and you miss it, though.

This works for me too. I don't know why it doesn't work for you.

Not sure what I was seeing either. I guess it does work if I hit enter twice.

It's interesting that the URL generated from the # hyperlinks doesn't include the "f=10&t=298&" part of the URL. Maybe that has something to do with it?

I think the only part that's needed is the anchor (#p120704), right?

I can replicate the problem.

The link provided in the OP will take you to the post in question. If you then click on the hyperlinked #251 in the subheading line:

Re: World Cup 2018 Signups!
#251 Unread post by goldfinger0303 » Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:27 pm

This will pop up a dialogue box saying:
webdiplomacy.net says:
Message #251
[text box with link in it:] http://webdiplomacy.net/contrib/phpBB3/ ... 309#p11309
[OK] [Cancel]

Both OK and cancel simply close the dialogue box.

This is reproducible on other messages too. If anyone wants me to dogfood it please message me on the social networks.

Goffy - that illustrates that JECE's problem is *not* reproducible, right?

I reproduced the problem.

Notice how these URL's end in "p=11309#p11309". When I was presented with the dialog box, I ignored the final part of the URL to copy and paste everything before "#p11309".

In the old forum you are often presented with a similar pattern. For instance, the "Last person to post wins." thread generates a URL that ends in "viewthread=1538359#1538359" when you hit the "Open" button, but this URL behaves identically to other URL's for the same thread that end in "threadID=1538359" or "viewthread=1538359".

With the new forum, that 'anchor' actually does something. To me this was unexpected, especially given the similar repetition of the same string of numbers on either side of a "#". The longer URL I found through goldfinger0303's profile actually has the same repetitive ending. I didn't notice anything amiss with that URL because the hyperlink directed me directly to where I wanted to go. The "#251" instead presents you with a dialog box.

If simplifying the new forum URL's is too difficult, I suggest that you all follow TheGoffy's implied advice and do away with the dialog box to avoid confusing other users.

bump

I don't see a problem here. Am I wrong in that if you click the post #, select all, and copy you end up with the correct link?

Now all these dialog boxes have even more elaborate URL's, with a giant "sid=" string in them. What is that about? I'm not sure if that makes the URL's more or less confusing.

jmo1121109: If you select all, yes, but that wasn't obvious to me, to the extent that I didn't even notice where I had gone wrong.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding, the only concern is how clear the feature is? If that is the case then it's really something I'd recommend posting on the phpbb support forums. But from everything I can see, it's working exactly as it's supposed too.

A_Tin_Can was following the conversation. Maybe A_Tin_Can has something to say?

jmo1121109: Well it's particularly unclear given how the old webDip Forum worked. I hardly think that they'd care about that.

There was really no intent to keep any of the style of the old forum aside from making sure this one can do all of the same things. This isn't an incomplete feature so I'm marking this thread as resolved. We can't change this without phpbb changing their format.

Do you realize that you're asking for a ton of dev work, something that's in very short supply and could be used on far more important things, to "fix" something that's not even broken? I personally would much rather have our devs working on something that improves the quality of gameplay than slightly change how URLs that the forum generates for you to link are composed.

Everything after the # specifies where on the page to look. This is standard across the internet. It was on the old forum too, it just wasn't straightforward to get a link for a specific post, so it usually defaulted to the OP, and there was some funkiness with which page you happened to be on. This is improved functionality.

I'm sorry the feature confuses you, but I'm not sure exactly what you want to happen here.

jmo1121109: Are you sure that you're following? That the "#" anchors in the old Forum do absolutely nothing is more of a useless quirk to my mind rather than a stylistic choice.

ghug: How hard would it be to follow TheGoffy's implied advice and do away with the dialog box entirely, replacing it with a direct link? The code for that already exists since it is implemented in the "Search user’s posts" feature on profile pages. And if it is phpBB3 that has to do the work . . .