Better Magic URLs

[Master_Cylinder]

Better Magic URLs

I was on another board (it might have been vB) and the way magic URLS worked there was...better.

1) Linking a forum post URL wouldn't display the link, it would display the topic's subject.
2) Linking an outside URL wouldn't display the URL, but it would show the title of the web page instead.

I don't know if there's a MOD that does that for phpBB but it seems to make more sense than the way it works now (and it looked much better) so maybe that would be something to consider.


Discuss...

[Danielx64]

There was a mod that did that, there one issue though - What if someone posted a link that someone in a different group can't access? Ok user get message that he can't see the topic but hey you just given away the topic title.

[Master_Cylinder]

There was a mod that did that, there one issue though - What if someone posted a link that someone in a different group can't access? Ok user get message that he can't see the topic but hey you just given away the topic title.

I didn't think about that (good catch) but I'm not sure the topic title would give much away. In the other forum that I saw it working they had hidden/VIP type member forums too but nobody seemed to care. Perhaps there would be a way to code it so it only converts internal links to subject if the forum isn't hidden to some users? That sounds much more complicated so maybe just an ACP "option" to have magic URLs convert to topic/title? I'd risk topic name exposure for better looking display of links but that might just be me.

Or even better, separate options for internal and external links?

[DavidIQ]

Well..."pretty" URLs that have been proposed would sort of give away the topic title anyways and nobody really had a problem with it. In fact many users are almost begging for that to be part of the core.

This definitely sounds like an interesting idea though.

[Pony99CA]

Another feature (that I'm not sure that I like) was on a vBulletin system that I helped administer. if you posted a YouTube link, the video automatically got embedded in the page.

As for magic URLs displaying the topic title, if the titles were resolved at page display time, you could handle topics in a forum that the user couldn't access by displaying a "Title Not Shown Due To Insufficient Permissions" message instead of the real title. (You could also change the link to just that text so that the user couldn't even click it.)

Of course, if more people did what I do and stopped posting "naked" URLs, using the more friendly text option and pasting the topic or post title in, people would still see the "hidden" titles anyway. At least this proposal would keep those ugly naked URLs from displaying.

Steve

[Mess]

Another feature (that I'm not sure that I like) was on a vBulletin system that I helped administer. if you posted a YouTube link, the video automatically got embedded in the page.

+1
Having videos/images embedded automatically, and shown naked url when using [url] would be very nice addition to the core. Would mean a few less custom modifications for me on the forums I install.

As for magic URLs displaying the topic title, if the titles were resolved at page display time, you could handle topics in a forum that the user couldn't access by displaying a "Title Not Shown Due To Insufficient Permissions" message instead of the real title. (You could also change the link to just that text so that the user couldn't even click it.)

+1

[Un1matr1x]

Well..."pretty" URLs that have been proposed would sort of give away the topic title anyways and nobody really had a problem with it. In fact many users are almost begging for that to be part of the core.

This definitely sounds like an interesting idea though.

+1 and just add the Option to not change the "nacked link" into names, like "Do not automatically parse URLs"

Another feature (that I'm not sure that I like) was on a vBulletin system that I helped administer. if you posted a YouTube link, the video automatically got embedded in the page.

+1
Having videos/images embedded automatically, and shown naked url when using [url] would be very nice addition to the core. Would mean a few less custom modifications for me on the forums I install.

-1, or at least with an option and default off
In some countries it's a copyright infringement to embedded foreign content, especially images. I know cases where lawyers hunting for food-images and then sue you (as side owner) for copyright theft. I know it's also possible now via [img]-tag, but so the change is even higher to do it unintentionally

[DavidIQ]

Another feature (that I'm not sure that I like) was on a vBulletin system that I helped administer. if you posted a YouTube link, the video automatically got embedded in the page.

+1
Having videos/images embedded automatically, and shown naked url when using [url] would be very nice addition to the core. Would mean a few less custom modifications for me on the forums I install.

-1, or at least with an option and default off
In some countries it's a copyright infringement to embedded foreign content, especially images. I know cases where lawyers hunting for food-images and then sue you (as side owner) for copyright theft. I know it's also possible now via [img]-tag, but so the change is even higher to do it unintentionally

This is a very Facebook-like feature that happens on their site whenever you paste a site link (site "thumbnail" gets generated) or video link into your post (I believe Twitter does something similar as well). I don't like it either and it doesn't seem to work consistently. Depending on what device you're posting from it may also fail even harder.

[Master_Cylinder]

I definitely think it should be optional for cases where an admin wouldn't want it but...
[RFC] Better Magic URLs
certainly looks better than:
viewtopic.php?f=108&t=44891

I don't need/want website thumbnails embedded and the youtube BBcode thing isn't really what I had in mind here but that could be optional too.

[EXreaction]

Displaying the topic title for internal links would be a major improvement