[RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Discuss requests for comments/changes posted in the Issue Tracker for the development of phpBB. Current releases are 3.2/Rhea and 3.3/Proteus.
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neufke
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by neufke »

What a great discussion on again a great idea. And like many many ideas over the past years a ticket was created 4 years ago (!) and 23 pages, at least 3 good solutions and code implementation ideas the discussion has again ended.

I've read a lot of threads the last few days, been away for quite some time and i must say, there are a lot of these threads with quite a few great ideas. A new theme (2014) for example... which took a considerable amount of time i bet before it got 'abandoned'... or wasn't it? I am not even sure.

I will stay with PHPBB, been there since the very first version, will write my own extensions and my own style on my own board. Because of the nature of my board i value the choices made by the team. My wish would sometimes be that things like this @mention didn't take 4 years to get into the core... or definately thrown out so that an extension developer can get his or her hands on it...

Keep up the good work, i really loved 3.1, and like where 3.2 is going!

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DavidIQ
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by DavidIQ »

Well there are quite a few users complaining that there is no WYSIWYG editor in phpBB. So that means that if we were to implement this feature before the WYSIWYG editor is implemented then we would have to redo this proposed "@mention" feature because it would need to properly integrate with the editor. At the same time, while we continue waiting for that to be completed, we have other users complaining that this feature is "missing" from phpBB. Where are we supposed to go from here? Darned if we do, darned if we don't...
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neufke
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by neufke »

DavidIQ wrote: Thu May 12, 2016 12:58 pm Darned if we do, darned if we don't...
You made me laugh in one of the posts a few days ago. One of "those" users was abandoning phpBB and you were so kind to warn him not to let the door hit him in the behind...

But that is basically it David. The "example @mention" ticket in my previous post is sitting on jira for 4 years now and off and on it is there "just waiting". From time to time people jump in, no-one reads a thread of 23 pages long but "just starts yelling" because "everyone else is having it, even facebook" (as if that is the world standard these days...)

I understand why it is there and my message was more in the line of: just decide and be clear. "In version 3.2/3.3/4.0" is an answer, "never" is an answer and "we can start that after the new WYSIWYG editor is implemented" is also an answer. I get the idea that a lot of frustration from the users comes from not knowing what the status is and frustration of developers comes from the annoyance from users that are, well, let's call them "not so friendly".

While writing this i was thinking of a way to letting these ideas not go to waste... maybe a closed forum where these things are described with a link to the ticket and the discussion? It wouldn't be the perfect solution but it would solve the endless debates i guess...

Just my 2 cents though and as said... i will keep writing my own extensions. I know how the frustration (hence, the adandoning of my old nick and extensions few years ago...) can get to you. Thanks for your honest answer!

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by CHItA »

IMO this could be implemented independently from the WYSIWYG, i guess just nobody got the time yet to do it. I would also note, that extension editors who do not implement something, because it is planned to be part of the core later, just could pick up any feature and implement it as part of the core and just send a PR in which case the only difference really is that the PR will be validated and not the extension.

On tickets being in the tracker for 4 years, in this case it could be because it is planned to implement this feature, and that is enough. In general, I think there is nobody that knows what is in the tracker at this point (and it would take a lot of time to clean it up, which would mean that other things wouldn't get done).

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neufke
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by neufke »

I know what you mean... well, was just an idea... ;)

Rhino.Freak
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by Rhino.Freak »

I really wonder how challenging/difficult it is to add this to the core. Or write an extension. I mean if you guys are not sold on this being a core feature, can't the phpbb team try to create the extension?
Same can be done with the WYSIWYG editor.

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david63
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by david63 »

Rhino.Freak wrote: Sat May 14, 2016 3:37 pm I really wonder how challenging/difficult it is to add this to the core. Or write an extension.
Apparantly it is quite difficult. An extension was started but was abandoned.

From what I can recall of the extension the main problem was that the way the data that is needed for this is stored in phpBB it ends up creating a massive load on the server and slows everything down.
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neufke
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by neufke »

There seems to be a commercial extension. I was made aware of it by PM few days ago just after my initial reply...

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by Rhino.Freak »

david63 wrote: Sat May 14, 2016 8:37 pm
Rhino.Freak wrote: Sat May 14, 2016 3:37 pm I really wonder how challenging/difficult it is to add this to the core. Or write an extension.
Apparantly it is quite difficult. An extension was started but was abandoned.

From what I can recall of the extension the main problem was that the way the data that is needed for this is stored in phpBB it ends up creating a massive load on the server and slows everything down.
That is kinda funny considering how even free forum services based on phpbb (forumotion) have added this system in since a long time. MyBB is also confirmed to implement this feature in their 2.0 version.
If it is to be implemented shouldn't phpbb team try to continue the extension themselves? Considering so many many requests of that. They already have a good starting point thanks to the extension.
Also was it decided to not implement this because it's tough, because no one wants to, or its still not yet decided? I don't wanna read all these pages so yeah.
Just my 2 cents.

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by 3Di »

https://tracker.phpbb.com/browse/PHPBB3-13713

Stated to be for the 3.3.0 serie.

The extensions door is always open though. ;)
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