Quick intro for those who don’t know: Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that lets you create/download javascript files that can automatically be run in your browser when you visit a certain website. For example, you can re-arrange links, move distracting content, and so on. Note that this only applies to your browser, and doesn’t affect the actual website for anybody else.
Anyway, I’ve been working on a script for the past few days to address some of the problems I’ve had since I showed up on your doorstep last month. The major features of the script follow:
Member Trait Badges
This is actually the reason I started making this script in the first place, though I think it may be the most controversial.
Basically, since I’m new here and don’t know everything about many people, I’ve found it sort of difficult to understand the context of everybody’s posts. For example, if a liberal made a sarcastic joke about conservatives, and I didn’t know he was a liberal, I might not know it was a joke. In topics about religion, it’s hard to remember who are the self-professed atheists and who are the religious ones. Not knowing these things can seriously damage the context upon reading.
So I made a system whereby traits about members can be cataloged, and so a handy badge appears next to their name on all of their posts.
For example, here’s someone who’s democrat and an atheist.
Here’s a republican.
Here’s someone who gets a bonus badge for being a member since 1999.
Here’s republican tea-party gun owner who’s been here since '99.
(Note that this data isn’t necessarily accurate at this point, I just put in some dummy data for testing, though I tried to only apply a trait to someone if they have publicly claimed it. Crafter says he’s not a republican, for instance, so he shouldn’t have that badge)
And here’s one that’s surprisingly useful: someone’s who’s a doctor.
I did a search for “IAAD” and recorded everybody who has claimed to be a doctor and has it as their occupation in their profile. Later, I looked in a thread where I’d asked a few medical questions and saw that some of the people who responded were doctors, and I had no idea at the time. Context!
The badge system works like this: there is a google spreadsheet where I can add someone’s username and then mark the traits that apply to them. Then, whenever you view a forum thread, the script pulls that spreadsheet data from Google, then compares the names of all of the posters on that page with the names on the spreadsheet. Because it pulls the remote data on pageload, as soon as the data changes on the spreadsheet it will be reflected for the script’s users. Basically, everybody’s script is always up-to-date. If the spreadsheet can’t be reached, no badges will be applied. No out-of-date information.
The actual images are held in another spreadsheet that caches in your browser, and updates daily, so “traits” can be added, removed, and updated constantly without end users needing to manually update anything.
The reason this might be controversial is that people might see it as prejudicial, like a scarlet letter. Me, I see them more like merit badges or bumper stickers. Because everybody with the script sees the same data, nobody can be left out by having a “judgy” badge applied to them.
I can open the spreadsheet’s permissions so multiple people can maintain the data, and Google lets you review or undo any change in the document’s history, so there’d be checks and balances and no possibility of hijacking.
If I were to release this script publicly, I’d probably have to institute a rule where traits can only be applied at a user’s request.
Highlighting Your Own Posts
As I’m browsing threads, I tend to jump around a lot, skimming quickly to try to find where the last place I left off is. Usually, I’m most interested in finding my posts and seeing if anybody has replied to them and called me a doo-doo head.
So I made it that if you’re logged in, all posts by you have a noticeable border so you can’t miss it: like this.
Also…
Highlighting Replies to Your Posts
When somebody quote-replies to you, your quote shows up in a similarly-highlighted way.
That way, you can more quickly spot when someone’s talking to/at/about you.
Flag Specific User’s Posts on This Page
Sometimes there’s a thread, like an “Ask the…” thread, where you’re most interested in keeping track of one person’s replies. Often I’m doing a Cmd-F search on the page to find the guy’s next reply.
So I added a little button on everybody’s posts that lets you flag all of that person’s posts on that page.
When you click it, that post and all others from that person get a green border. So they’re easier to spot.
Also, when you have somebody flagged and somebody quotes them, that quote gets highlighted as well, so you can see who’s talking to the user you’ve flagged.
You can flag multiple people at once, though they’ll all be the same color. And this all works on a page-by-page basis, so that person’s posts wont be flagged anywhere else.
Image Link Hover-Preview Thingies
While I agree with the limitation on this forum that prevents putting images inside of a post (that can make for some ugly chaos), it can be a bit inconvenient to have to click many links to see many pictures (like in this post).
Soooo… I’ve made it so the script detects when a link is to an image, and puts a little photo-icon next to the link. While this is in itself quite useful, letting you know when a link will get you an image, the real magic happens when you mouse-over that icon: a preview of the linked image hovers next to your cursor. It’s quite lovely.
If anybody knows how to install a greasemonkey script and would like to beta-test it, shoot me a PM.
If anybody has some suggestions or feedback about features, shoot me a PM.
If anybody is a javascript whiz and would like to contribute in some meaningful way, shoot me a PM.
If anybody hates me and everything about me, I’ll shoot you some BM.
/Mods, if you think this would be better in MPSIMS or IMHO, feel free to move it.
//Staff, if you are thoroughly impressed with my skills and fortitude and would like to offer me gainful employ within Chicago, I’ll entertain offers.
