Repeating topic title in each post..

General discussion of development ideas and the approaches taken in the 3.x branch of phpBB. The current feature release of phpBB 3 is 3.3/Proteus.
Forum rules
Please do not post support questions regarding installing, updating, or upgrading phpBB 3.3.x. If you need support for phpBB 3.3.x please visit the 3.3.x Support Forum on phpbb.com.

If you have questions regarding writing extensions please post in Extension Writers Discussion to receive proper guidance from our staff and community.
Post Reply

Should the subject line be removed from post-replies?

Yes please. No need to enlarge the db with repeating text.
27
57%
No thanks, I prefer it the way it is now.
20
43%
 
Total votes: 47

User avatar
DavidIQ
Customisations Team Leader
Customisations Team Leader
Posts: 1903
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by DavidIQ »

How about we don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed, making it a #1234 link where the number is the post number, and show it if it is changed/different from the topic title?
Image

mrgtb
Registered User
Posts: 221
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:09 pm

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by mrgtb »

Not sure what you mean by "don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed"? If you mean leave the H3 tag empty with nothing in it, then not so sure that is a good idea, but not sure if that's what you mean. I don't see an issue off hand with listing "Post ID" their instead of thread title, because if you split posts to another thread no renaming of a post id title needs be done really, it can be left intact.

I'm not sure how to deal with it myself, as I think keeping the H3 post title tag is best for page semantics, but what putting their instead of thread title id is the question? Really it's best having something different in each post H3 tag displayed (avoid duplicate titles), while still be suitable for when it comes to merging or splitting posts into a new thread (no title renaming has to be done).

I guess, you could keep the "RE:", but instead of Re: Thread Title - Re: Post ID. Then every post title would be different using a number like "Re: 1245". But that's just an idea, not something I necessarily think is the correct solution.

User avatar
Dragosvr92
Registered User
Posts: 624
Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 12:08 pm
Location: Romania
Contact:

Post by Dragosvr92 »

I dont think there are any reasons to change the post subject. A topic has replies over the same subject. If you want to change that, start a new topic.
Im uncertain if having the H3 Tag there has any seo relevance, but imo subject area should be empty to make posts easier to read.
Nobody cares about the post id. We could add the post count-link in the right side, near the Report, Quote buttons.
But if it is to chose, i chose to have the post id there instead of the repeating title.
Previous user: TheKiller
Avatar on Memberlist 1.0.3

mrgtb
Registered User
Posts: 221
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:09 pm

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by mrgtb »

I don't disagree with you, as H3 gets used anyway for "Who's Online Title" title when viewing page source code (if you want to talk H tag "order" page semantics). I'm tending to agree with you, in that the H3 title tag in posts should be removed altogether to solve the problem proper.

Code: Select all

<h1 style="float:left;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;">Development Discussion Board</h1>

<h2 class="topic-title"><a href="./viewtopic.php?f=81&t=45797&start=30">Repeating topic title in each post..</a></h2>

<h2 class="quickreply-title">Quick Reply</h2>

<h3><a href="./viewonline.php">Who is online</a></h3>

User avatar
DavidIQ
Customisations Team Leader
Customisations Team Leader
Posts: 1903
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:29 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by DavidIQ »

mrgtb wrote:Not sure what you mean by "don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed"?
DavidIQ wrote:How about we don't show the topic title if the subject is not changed, making it a #1234 link where the number is the post number, and show it if it is changed/different from the topic title?
Although we already have a link to the post number anyways so not rendering the title at all might be the most obvious solution, without even the h3 tag since rendering out a number means absolutely nothing.
Image

User avatar
BioLogIn
Registered User
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:55 pm

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by BioLogIn »

On my forums I used a tiny mod to remove "Re: " part. I kept the title for each post though, for reasons DavidIQ mentioned - it helps moderators to keep track of merged posts and topic title changes. However, I'll be the first to admit that it is only useful to a tiny percent of users, and for all others it just occupies valuable space.

So +1 for removing is. A column 'post_subject' in phpbb_posts becomes obsolete this way, and should be dropped as well.

User avatar
Dragosvr92
Registered User
Posts: 624
Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 12:08 pm
Location: Romania
Contact:

Post by Dragosvr92 »

This is how i removed the post titles...

viewtopic_body.html
Find:

Code: Select all

<h3 <!-- IF postrow.S_FIRST_ROW -->class="first"<!-- ENDIF -->><!-- IF postrow.POST_ICON_IMG --><img src="{T_ICONS_PATH}{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG}" width="{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG_WIDTH}" height="{postrow.POST_ICON_IMG_HEIGHT}" alt="" /> <!-- ENDIF --><a href="#p{postrow.POST_ID}">{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</a></h3>
Remove:

Code: Select all

<a href="#p{postrow.POST_ID}">{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</a>

posting.php
Find:

Code: Select all

$post_data['post_subject'] = ((strpos($post_data['post_subject'], 'Re: ') !== 0) ? 'Re: ' : '') . censor_text($post_data['post_subject']);  
Replace with:

Code: Select all

$post_data['post_subject'] = '';

quickreply_editor.html
Find and remove:

Code: Select all

						<dl style="clear: left;">
							<dt><label for="subject">{L_SUBJECT}:</label></dt>
							<dd><input type="text" name="subject" id="subject-ns" size="45" maxlength="64" tabindex="2" value="{SUBJECT}" class="inputbox autowidth" /></dd>
						</dl>


And there is this... But i dont know what IF statement to put around it so it shows the subject only when creating/editing the topic title.


posting_editor.html

Code: Select all

	<dl style="clear: left;">
		<dt><label for="subject">{L_SUBJECT}:</label></dt>
		<dd><input type="text" name="subject" id="subject" size="45" maxlength="<!-- IF S_NEW_MESSAGE -->60<!-- ELSE -->64<!-- ENDIF -->" tabindex="2" value="{SUBJECT}{DRAFT_SUBJECT}" class="inputbox autowidth" /></dd>
	</dl>
There is also the issue with removing the 'post_subject' row from the phpbb_posts table, as BioLogIn said. But i'd rather not touch that yet.
Previous user: TheKiller
Avatar on Memberlist 1.0.3

User avatar
Master_Cylinder
Registered User
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by Master_Cylinder »

NeilUK wrote:It's also bad for SEO, would be classed as duplicate titles in Google Webmaster Tools, I got error messages back when I included a Forum in my sitemap
phpbb.com doesn't seem to have a problem with SEO over that...
mrgtb wrote:
Master_Cylinder wrote:It's been that way for decades.
And why it probably needs a rethink now in 3.1. Things change for the better.
If only this WAS better. To me it's not. ;)
Dragosvr92 wrote:I dont think there are any reasons to change the post subject.
THIS I agree with but I still wouldn't remove the replied subject(s) so, if that is done, I hope it's optional so I don't need an Extension to put it back.
These kids today...
Buy them books, send them to school and what do they do?

They eat the paste. :lol:

Octopus2
Registered User
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 5:58 pm

Re: Repeating topic title in each post..

Post by Octopus2 »

For me it´s god to have the topic-title in each post. When i go through my forum i open "unread posts" an from there open each post in a new tab.
And when you go then to one of these tabs it´s really helpful that you have the topictitle above each post...

User avatar
Dragosvr92
Registered User
Posts: 624
Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 12:08 pm
Location: Romania
Contact:

Post by Dragosvr92 »

Master_Cylinder wrote: THIS I agree with but I still wouldn't remove the replied subject(s) so, if that is done, I hope it's optional so I don't need an Extension to put it back.
But why would you keep the same thing repeating over and over again for simply no point. It uses bandwidth, disk space and loading time in vain. Of course its not much but it does.

You agree that there is no point in changing the post title as the topic subject will always be the same. Then maybe, We could simply remove the 'post_subject' database column and add an option in the ACP to display the topic subject in each reply in that topic..... Does that sound good?

Adding it back would only need a one-line edit, so you could either do it manually or give a few clicks to install it as an extension.
Octopus2 wrote:For me it´s god to have the topic-title in each post. When i go through my forum i open "unread posts" an from there open each post in a new tab. And when you go then to one of these tabs it´s really helpful that you have the topictitle above each post...
Octopus, you just need the link functionality, not the text there. You can do the same thing you are asying by clicking this little icon =>Image
Previous user: TheKiller
Avatar on Memberlist 1.0.3

Post Reply