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I was wondering if it would be possible to add a BBcode tag that allows us to parse html?
I'm a frequent template creator, intermittent learner of code, and... doing some things within the bounds of div bbcode is annoying when straight up using HTML/CSS would be faster, the code would be easier to read, edit, and therefore less of a headache, etc.
If it's a no, that's absolutely okay! I'm content to continue making templates either way because it's a creative outlet for me, but this would be nice to have. <3
My two cents (not that anybody cares) is that one of the big reasons I love this community is it’s not gaudy and awful like all the Jcink ones are. But all the template use is pushing it that way (not attacking anybodies template in particular just saying it’s an aspect of the site I find unique that is changing) and if we get HTML people will literally be able to copy code from all the code resource sites and then boom suddenly it’s everywhere.
There are already so many posts that cannot be read on a mobile device because the template doesn’t fit. It makes keeping up with big fast threads hard because I can’t read the posts until I’m at a decent screen size and by then the thread has so many replies.
Maybe if there was a way to do it in the bio only forum then that wouldn’t be too bad.
Again just my thoughts since this is a nice community that lets us share those. I know it’s a fun feature people like to play with and I am very much not in the majority on this.
That is a good idea, but I have one concern.
My dumbass can understand BBCode but not HTML, I guess even most people don't understand BBCode and go blind while editing codes.. So it might make a mess, I don't know, I don't use HTML
I tend to agree that the mobile-unfriendliness and security aspects of pure HTML pose enough of a concern for me to not want this here. It's not that people do it on purpose, it's just that general knowledge of HTML has faded from popularity (bring back MySpace profiles?) and you can edit things into breaking the site layout or making mobile a pain.
My two cents (not that anybody cares) is that one of the big reasons I love this community is it’s not gaudy and awful like all the Jcink ones are. But all the template use is pushing it that way (not attacking anybodies template in particular just saying it’s an aspect of the site I find unique that is changing) and if we get HTML people will literally be able to copy code from all the code resource sites and then boom suddenly it’s everywhere.
There are already so many posts that cannot be read on a mobile device because the template doesn’t fit. It makes keeping up with big fast threads hard because I can’t read the posts until I’m at a decent screen size and by then the thread has so many replies.
Maybe if there was a way to do it in the bio only forum then that wouldn’t be too bad.
Again just my thoughts since this is a nice community that lets us share those. I know it’s a fun feature people like to play with and I am very much not in the majority on this.
Here is my code thread. All of the templates are mobile friendly. I know that for a fact, because I checked them on my phone while writing them to make sure. Having templates stretch outside of the display box is a pain to read. I don't like seeing it either.
It's not difficult to make templates mobile friendly. Where the bulk of the problem lies is people using width which sets an unchangeable width, rather than max-width, which sets a limit that can scale to the device the template is viewed with. Everything within the template conforms to the limitations set by those base layers and other elements within the template.
I encourage everyone to check their templates on mobile before putting them into use and adjust accordingly. The site saves what you write while you're writing it, so it's easy to just go to your template testing thread on your phone to preview your template before posting it in said testing thread, and adjust your template accordingly, if needed. Then save it to your editor templates.
Also, it's become apparent to me recently that some users don't even know this option exists, and have been copying and pasting their templates every time from... idk... gdocs? Just save your templates to your template editor page; there's a clipboard icon in your post editor where you can access your saved templates when you go to post.
Add the template, write your post, and post - simple as.
As for people using snippets of code from code resource sites... well, it's one thing to look at a snippet of code; it's another to understand what you're seeing, how to read it, and to know how to use it. That's what drove me to start actually learning code in the first place, lol. I found I knew a slowly growing amount of HTML/CSS from building templates already and looking up what various properties do (everything in the [DIV] is CSS properties!), but not enough to do what I wanted to do.
I tend to agree that the mobile-unfriendliness and security aspects of pure HTML pose enough of a concern for me to not want this here. It's not that people do it on purpose, it's just that general knowledge of HTML has faded from popularity (bring back MySpace profiles?) and you can edit things into breaking the site layout or making mobile a pain.
BBCode is a lightweight markup language. A middleman, so to speak, a simplified way of using HTML/CSS. You format/style your posts with the site's BBCode, and the site translates that into HTML/CSS. Using solely HTML or HTML and CSS in the post editor won't break the site layout. You'd essentially be removing the middleman if you use HTML/CSS.
The template in the opening post of my code thread was originally written in HTML/CSS on another forum. I eventually changed the template on that forum to a mix of HTML/CSS and BBCode for the sake of tagging someone if I wanted to... but anyway, I translated that over to [DIV] here on Chaos. It looks exactly the same, behaves the same way, and is mobile friendly in either case. The image in that template isn't edited from the original - It's coded to display that way and will display smaller and centred on the subject on mobile. Click it to see the full image. I did this because I wanted to be able to use such code across templates, and with different images, without the added work of image editing every time I go to build a template.
What I'm saying is... you can take any [DIV] Template on this site and turn it into HTML/CSS, and vice-versa. For [DIV=] [/DIV] the direct syntax would be <div style=> </div> and every other property within the div remains the same. This is a simplification, there's a tiny bit more code to set this all out (Though I would write the code differently since sticking everything in div is annoying to read), but yeah, pretty much one-for-one you can do that with the [DIV] portion.
Using Javascript (JS), however, is likely to mess with things. That's where your security issues would be. That <script> tag Frea Sheplin
mentioned? That allows for using JS within your HTML code. DON'T DO IT... it will do bad/wonky/not cool things to the page your template is contained in. The unlikely (see below) possibility of people using <script> is the only concern as far as I see it in allowing the ability to parse HTML.
re: Editing templates/code:
From what I've observed, the vast majority of roleplaying forum users won't edit/try to build templates with code they don't understand. The majority uses templates that are already built, or asks someone who knows their way around the [DIV] code to build something for them either out of wariness around code, disinterest in learning, or lack of time. So, any issues with viewing templates on mobile tend to be squarely with the original builder of the template - and there are only so many of us doing that.
Aside from this, there's a very small section of template users that are interested in learning how to manipulate parts of their templates, and they tend to ask about it, presumably because they don't want to deal with messing up their code entirely. If they do edit their code willy-nilly and encounter problems, they often ask for help. Like my best friend who these days also builds templates herself - she learned from asking me for help. All her templates are also mobile friendly.
Mobile-unfriendly templates exist and persist regardless of whether they're written with HTML/CSS, or BBcode. It has everything to do with how the code is written. Maybe some of us could do more to give users with such templates a gentle nudge.
