[wp-forums] Thread layout borked

[Francisco de Azevedo]

Hi Esmi,
Thanks for your great response. It is indeed, like the British would put
it, "quite a pickle".
Here's what I'm thinking could be done, and only if there's enough
consensus about this being a problem and whether or not it should be
addressed:
*1.* Increase the amount of code lines to a number that would be big enough
for people to explain their issues and for contributors and mods to post
solutions to problems (for instance, I find myself having to use Pastebin
pretty frequently when I'm actually trying to help someone with an issue)
but not as big so as to allow people to past entire files;
*2.* Keep a tight list of allowed html tags that would prevent posts
containing any other tags to get published;
*3. *Make code boxes collapsable (closed by default) so as to keep threads
neat and readable; for this, you can use jQuery UI, which I know ships with
WP but I don't know if it does with BB Press
*4.* For code which exceeds the limit, either leave it as is (manual paste
on Pastebin) or look into the Pastebin's API.
 Of course, you can count with my help to implement and or beta-try any of
these features.
How feasible do you think this is?

Oh, those of you who have certain webpages blocked at work, have you tried
connecting through a proxy server using Tor or any other proxy
server/software?

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 7:38 AM, esmi at quirm dot net <esmi at quirm.net>wrote:

> on 05/04/2012 11:02 Francisco de Azevedo said the following:
>
>  What are the reasons behind the "no more than 10 lines of code" rule?
>> *a.* Security (i.e., to discourage code injection tactics, etc.);
>> *b.* Resource limitations (code takes space and therefore increases thread
>> size);
>> *c.* Thread readability;
>> *d.* None of the above or another reason.
>>
>
> All of the above, I think.
>
> a) Don't know how many times I've removed hack code (ie code that has been
> injected into hacked sites) that was setting off AV software from topics.
>
> b) Pasted code can get into thousands of lines. Whole style.css files or
> plugin files. i think the most I've seen was a little over 4,000 lines. We
> did have a problem where, around the 2,500 lines of code line, you could
> not edit the post. You just got a blank textarea. Re-assembling the
> non-code part of the post manually was *real* fun. Not seen that in a
> while, so Otto may have been able to fix it.
>
> c) Obvious one really. Plus, I've noticed that posts with great chunks of
> code have a significantly reduced change of being answered (presumably
> because people don't want to read through screen after screen of badly
> formatted code). Using a pastebin really could increase the response rate.
>
> d) I've seen code totally wreck the back end of the forums too - which
> just makes life more difficult for mods.
>
> The specific "10 lines of code" was never initially intended. When the
> Forum Welcome was put together, I recall that we originally said something
> like "a reasonable amount of code" (or words to that effect) - which meant
> that mods could use their own judgement. But posters complained that they
> needed the code limits clearly defined, so someone chose 10 lines and, lo,
> it became the law. I think posters really stabbed themselves in the foot
> with that one, personally.
>
> Regarding the problem of pastebin.com being blocked by some work
> networks, does this kind of ban extend to all pastebin sites? There's a
> whole list of pastebins at <
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_pastebins>. Perhaps we could
> pick a few and incorporate them into the Forum Welcome to help circumvent
> bans?
>
> Mel
> --
> http://quirm.net
> http://blackwidows.co.uk
>
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