# FOAD SDMB post-upgrade post parser (totally weak) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 1, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793 "2004-04-01T21:13:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/1 "2004-04-01T21:13:51Z")
Shit. The “I will remove everything unnecessary from your post” monster ruins smileys and pseudo coding. Pretending my HTML markup is vBcode, you used to be able to do this to force the proper smiley: So yeah and um (blah blah blah :rolleyes:\\) Because if you failed to put the empty code in, you’d get: So yeah and um (blah blah blah :rolleyes:) Which is now exactly what you get even with the empty code. Damn it, I put empty code in because I want to! Don’t take it out! Smiley priority sucks. But now the board takes out empty vb code. So now my old trick doesn’t work. What really sucks is you could demonstrate _exactly_ what vBcode was by using that trick like (the fakeout tag is bolded, and was actual vBcode instead of the HTML I put it in as): [i\*\*<i></i>\*\*]Use this to italicize[/i\*\*\\\*\*] Used to be a great way to explain tags because you could make it display exactly as it should be typed. Well no more, because who the fuck would ever want to make a concise post about using vB code? “Don’t worry, you don’t need to ever do that ok? Now run along.” My other gripe is that the ampersand characters used to escape the wrath of the parser, so if I wanted to put a mu in, I could just type μ and there it would be in all its glory. Now my & are automatically converted to & because god knows we could destroy the entire intarweb if a single ampersand character made it through! :rolleyes: Maybe there were those of you out there who used these same tricks. Well, they work no longer. Maybe I’m the only one, in which case the thread should die in obscurity with much pointing and laughing. By the way, even putting spaces in won’t help. The parser is “smart” enough to realize that a tag around a space is just like nothing at all–including an actual space! How convenient is that? BECAUSE THAT’S OBVIOUSLY WHAT I MEANT. Fuck. Why don’t we just fucking get rid of vB code and go back to god damn plain text newsgroups. I mean I understand killing the marquee, image, or script tags, but jumpin’ jesus this is ridiculous. Thankfully (blah blah :rolleyes: ) still works. I’m not saying I’m happy about it, and I’m sure some future upgrade will think I mean 🙂 by : ) and fuck that up to, because _who ever uses spaces for anything anyway_. Fighting the parser is like arguing with the marketing department in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy. “But you’ll never need to open the windows! The environment controls will make the conditions perfect! Enjoy!” DIE. OK that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/2 "2004-04-01T21:18:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Thankfully (blah blah :rolleyes: ) still works So what’s the problem? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/3 "2004-04-01T21:24:21Z")
Poor **Erl**. I was formatting my reply in my head from the beginning of your rant: _So just put a space after your smiley if it’s parenthetical and you’re good to go!_. It seems **Bruce\_Daddy** beat me too it. I’m not sure I get the bit about the & and the parser. What’s a parser? For that matter, what’s a “mu”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/4 "2004-04-01T21:28:36Z")
A parser is something that divides things into parts — for example, a computer algorithm that parses special characters (which is what your browser is). A mu is a Greek letter. I think the board uses unicode now, so maybe the & characters are redundant. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/5 "2004-04-01T21:32:14Z")
Because I don’t like spaces ending my parenthetical smart-ass remarks, damn it, and the world clearly exists to serve me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/6 "2004-04-01T21:37:22Z")
> [@Libertarian](#): > > I think the board uses unicode now, so maybe the & characters are redundant. µ → Is there a unicode representation of the em dash? Because I thought most of the time Mac users ended up seeing an inverted question mark instead of an em dash. And I so love the em dash. em dash: — ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/7 "2004-04-02T13:18:33Z")
I just use ALT+0151 — I used the M-dash a lot. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/8 "2004-04-02T13:54:43Z")
I’m on a Mac and I see that em dash. Do you see mine? — (alt-shift-hyphenkey, the conventional Mac way of em-dashing) ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/9 "2004-04-02T14:13:30Z")
Fools dash em where angels fear to tread, y’know. [sub]Why are you all looking at me that way?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/10 "2004-04-02T15:34:01Z")
For a really ugly way to sort of get around it, you could put in white dots… :.) \<-- small white period between the : and the )… since the backgrounds aren’t actually white this doesn’t work perfectly, and of course it does take up a little space versus none at all. [i.]blah blah blah[/i.] ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/11 "2004-04-02T15:43:21Z")
Isn’t there a checkbox that removes smilie priority called **Disable smilies in text**? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/12 "2004-04-02T16:22:07Z")
There is, but that doesn’t help when you WANT one smiley to show but not another. Nor does it help when you want to do an example of vB code. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foad-sdmb-post-upgrade-post-parser-totally-weak/237793/13 "2004-04-02T19:59:36Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I’m on a Mac and I see that em dash. > > Do you see mine? — Oh, good! I remember an ATMB thread once upon a time where it didn’t work. Yay!