Yeah, there's all sorts of outside ways of doing it, but not only is it an (or many) extra step, but it makes it harder to go in and quickly work with other's equations, such as would be necessary in a help thread.
Obviously it's not a critical launch thing. I just figure it'd add more actual functionality than asking for a thousand ways to make something bold.
LaTeX is the only one I'm familiar with, but if MathML or anything else lets me make sweet equations, that's great too.
Looking at the wiki, though, makes it seem really cumbersome though; the quadratic formula takes a single 38 character line in LaTeX, but takes around 30-45 lines in MathML, if I'm interpreting it correctly.
Edit:
Reading further, it seems like there might be some tools to convert back and forth between greatly simplified syntax and MathML, which would make it just as easy to work with from an end user standpoint.
BoomShake on
0
Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
What we really need is something like LaTeX for all the math-related threads in Help & Advice.
You could just use something like Texify and re-host the output on Photobucket or some other host.
If you want to get pretty equations into a browser, jsMath is probably going to be easier than that. Seems to work OK for the XKCD folks at least, though I don't think it has more detailed TeX support.
Vanilla is smart enough to scale them down, link the scaled image to the full sized image, and let you know what happened.
Hell, if it's that good, how long before we can just have it post "cocksdickslol" for us and call it a day.
Damn, give it a couple years and we might be able to automate the entire forums. Insert a link to a new game and watch it propagate threads, a little spam for spiceyness and hand out a couple of infractions for good measure.
I kid, I kid, that sounds badass.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
What're the odds of a [timg] tag that'll thumbnail an image and make it a link to it's big brother?
My bet is zero.
Use any imagehost that doesn't suck. It's not that much effort, and they can even download images from other websites for you.
It's not a matter of using an image service that sucks. It's the ease of being able to link table breaking images with a thumbnail preview.
But imagehosts do this already. Hell, there are even browser extensions that add "rehost" to the context menu when you right click an image.
Upload image, copy/paste the thumbnail preview forum code it spits out. Imageshack and Imgur both do this. Pretty much the only way this process could be made simpler is to integrate an imagehost widget into the forum itself, which seems like a lot of effort to remove a single copy/paste step.
Vanilla is smart enough to scale them down, link the scaled image to the full sized image, and let you know what happened.
Does it actually host a scaled down thumbnail version of the image or does it just use the CSS scale or width/height properties to make the image seem smaller? I'd expect the latter, but that means the full image will still be downloaded to show the thumbnail. Could be an issue for mobile users/people not realizing the thumbnail still weighs the same as the full image.
Re: private threads (what multi-user threaded PMs basically are), that's a pretty huge thing. I'm not worried about red ranger Prime Minister reunions (same rules still apply), but they might enable a more cliquish style of forum where some private chat/camwhore/personal threads of some users are constantly active, leaving the public threads somewhat starved of attention. They do have their legitimate uses so I'm curious how people will (ab)use them.
Vanilla is smart enough to scale them down, link the scaled image to the full sized image, and let you know what happened.
Does it actually host a scaled down thumbnail version of the image or does it just use the CSS scale or width/height properties to make the image seem smaller? I'd expect the latter, but that means the full image will still be downloaded to show the thumbnail. Could be an issue for mobile users/people not realizing the thumbnail still weighs the same as the full image.
Re: private threads (what multi-user threaded PMs basically are), that's a pretty huge thing. I'm not worried about red ranger Prime Minister reunions (same rules still apply), but they might enable a more cliquish style of forum where some private chat/camwhore/personal threads of some users are constantly active, leaving the public threads somewhat starved of attention. They do have their legitimate uses so I'm curious how people will (ab)use them.
We have multi-user PMs now, vanilla just makes the UI better. I'm not sure what the limit is, but vanilla caps the number of participants in a mult-user thread.
I'm not too worried if people want to form cliques, there are much better tools.
Yeah, it looks like it's taking vBB's email-style PM system and then applying gmail-style converstation view to it to me. Not really feasible for shadow communities
An interesting development! It looks like we might be switching to Rackspace. Functionally this doesn't change much for you guys, but it is an interesting technical note. I really should setup a regular blog where I discuss this stuff. I always feel bad spamming the circus with tech bits.
Älphämönkëy on
0
Just_Bri_ThanksSeething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPAregular
edited February 2011
Nah, I think lots of us prefer this.
[tiny]This comment not representative of the forums.[/tiny]
Just_Bri_Thanks on
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
An interesting development! It looks like we might be switching to Rackspace. Functionally this doesn't change much for you guys, but it is an interesting technical note. I really should setup a regular blog where I discuss this stuff. I always feel bad spamming the circus with tech bits.
That'd be cool.
I'm surprised you haven't, actually. That seems to be the 'in' thing.
An interesting development! It looks like we might be switching to Rackspace.
So they changed their mind and decided to play ball with us?
We have a few forumers who are "Rackers." The real advantage of rackspace is hardware load balancing and pro-rating instance charges per minute. The end result is that we can grow and shrink with much finer granularity.
An interesting development! It looks like we might be switching to Rackspace.
So they changed their mind and decided to play ball with us?
We have a few forumers who are "Rackers."
That isn't surprising considering the forum's size. You were also talking to some Rackspace guy on Twitter back when you were looking into the OS switch for the forums.
I was referring to this, and assumed that you had already exhausted your options with regards to using them as a host.
Barrakketh on
Rollers are red, chargers are blue....omae wa mou shindeiru
Sooner than I thought. For some reason I'm used to "new update announced! Look for it in 8-10 months!" so hearing 'next week' at a latest is refreshing. And with PAX just around the corner, too.
Sooner than I thought. For some reason I'm used to "new update announced! Look for it in 8-10 months!" so hearing 'next week' at a latest is refreshing. And with PAX just around the corner, too.
I'm going to revise my statement. As much as I would love to have a public beta before PAX East, I'm only giving it a 40% chance. The more likely scenario is that I will open it up to moderators to poke around first. Opening to the public really depends on how confident we are in the new forums and how smooth of a tech setup we have at PAX East.
In a worst case scenario, we are still looking at a public beta sometime in the next two weeks.
Posts
You could just use something like Texify and re-host the output on Photobucket or some other host.
Obviously it's not a critical launch thing. I just figure it'd add more actual functionality than asking for a thousand ways to make something bold.
Looking at the wiki, though, makes it seem really cumbersome though; the quadratic formula takes a single 38 character line in LaTeX, but takes around 30-45 lines in MathML, if I'm interpreting it correctly.
Edit:
Reading further, it seems like there might be some tools to convert back and forth between greatly simplified syntax and MathML, which would make it just as easy to work with from an end user standpoint.
If you want to get pretty equations into a browser, jsMath is probably going to be easier than that. Seems to work OK for the XKCD folks at least, though I don't think it has more detailed TeX support.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Use any imagehost that doesn't suck. It's not that much effort, and they can even download images from other websites for you.
It's not a matter of using an image service that sucks. It's the ease of being able to link table breaking images with a thumbnail preview.
Hell, if it's that good, how long before we can just have it post "cocksdickslol" for us and call it a day.
Damn, give it a couple years and we might be able to automate the entire forums. Insert a link to a new game and watch it propagate threads, a little spam for spiceyness and hand out a couple of infractions for good measure.
I kid, I kid, that sounds badass.
youtube or vimeo link? auto-embeds it
that would be pretty cool.
edit: I know it already works for youtube, but having it available for other video site/services would be nice too
But imagehosts do this already. Hell, there are even browser extensions that add "rehost" to the context menu when you right click an image.
Upload image, copy/paste the thumbnail preview forum code it spits out. Imageshack and Imgur both do this. Pretty much the only way this process could be made simpler is to integrate an imagehost widget into the forum itself, which seems like a lot of effort to remove a single copy/paste step.
Rather than 1:1 things, they're private threads where parties to whatever event or thing you're working on can be added.
http://i.imgur.com/8O1TN.png
Does it actually host a scaled down thumbnail version of the image or does it just use the CSS scale or width/height properties to make the image seem smaller? I'd expect the latter, but that means the full image will still be downloaded to show the thumbnail. Could be an issue for mobile users/people not realizing the thumbnail still weighs the same as the full image.
Re: private threads (what multi-user threaded PMs basically are), that's a pretty huge thing. I'm not worried about red ranger Prime Minister reunions (same rules still apply), but they might enable a more cliquish style of forum where some private chat/camwhore/personal threads of some users are constantly active, leaving the public threads somewhat starved of attention. They do have their legitimate uses so I'm curious how people will (ab)use them.
We have multi-user PMs now, vanilla just makes the UI better. I'm not sure what the limit is, but vanilla caps the number of participants in a mult-user thread.
I'm not too worried if people want to form cliques, there are much better tools.
[tiny]This comment not representative of the forums.[/tiny]
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
That'd be cool.
I'm surprised you haven't, actually. That seems to be the 'in' thing.
We have a few forumers who are "Rackers." The real advantage of rackspace is hardware load balancing and pro-rating instance charges per minute. The end result is that we can grow and shrink with much finer granularity.
I was referring to this, and assumed that you had already exhausted your options with regards to using them as a host.
My guess would be late this week / early next week. It's a busy time!
oh sweet man, good stuff!
make sure to code in a Random Hat Generator for your avatar
Rackspace is the host.
yesss
awesome!
It'll be an adventure.
have faith
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I'm going to revise my statement. As much as I would love to have a public beta before PAX East, I'm only giving it a 40% chance. The more likely scenario is that I will open it up to moderators to poke around first. Opening to the public really depends on how confident we are in the new forums and how smooth of a tech setup we have at PAX East.
In a worst case scenario, we are still looking at a public beta sometime in the next two weeks.