# Would it be useful to make a thread's OP's screenname a different color? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 4, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346 "2006-08-04T16:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/1 "2006-08-04T16:48:33Z")
It seems when you’re reading those mammoth, six-page threads, sometimes you forget who started the damn thing, which sometimes makes a difference when you’re reading what they’re saying on page six. Would it be possible (or beneficial) to make the screenname of the OP a different color (or something) to set it off from everyone else’s posts? And if so, how many signatures do I have to get to sign my petition? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/2 "2006-08-04T17:05:51Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] And if so, how many signatures do I have to get to sign my petition? [/QUOTE] One should do it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/3 "2006-08-04T17:32:08Z")
This would be The Grapist’s dream come true ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/4 "2006-08-04T21:15:53Z")
The people to petition are the friendly folks at JelSoft, who wrote vBulletin which is the software used by the SDMB. If it’s not a feature in the base software you’ll never see it here. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/5 "2006-08-04T21:57:18Z")
This is an excellent feature request. You should probably start a thread at the vBulletin Feedback forum at: [http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55](http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55) While it should possible to do this via a hack, it is highly unlikely that such a feature would be enabled on the SDMB unless it is part of the standard vBulletin feature set. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/6 "2006-08-05T00:10:34Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] It seems when you’re reading those mammoth, six-page threads, sometimes you forget who started the damn thing, which sometimes makes a difference when you’re reading what they’re saying on page six. [/QUOTE] What if the OP does not post again? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/7 "2006-08-05T02:13:45Z")
I think it’s an excellent idea, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/8 "2006-08-05T02:35:41Z")
I, for one, welcome our new grapist overlords. (Seriously, if someone starts a thread at the vBulletin feedback forum I’ll come on and show my support.) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/9 "2006-08-05T04:26:13Z")
[QUOTE=Lakai] What if the OP does not post again? [/QUOTE] I think it would be useful to have the thread starter name and date started displayed on every page, along with it’s title, especially in threads that are several pages long. That way, even if the OP doesn’t post again, it’s just a scroll up to the top to see who it was. On the forum pages, the thread start date could be useful too. Occasionally something that’s fairly old pops up again, and it would help to know if it’s a new thread with the same name, or that old one that I might have read, but didn’t care to follow or whatever. It might cut down on the several-page additions to zombie threads, too. I would hope that this, at least, could be something already available with VBulletin? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/10 "2006-08-05T16:15:23Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] I, for one, welcome our new grapist overlords. (Seriously, if someone starts a thread at the vBulletin feedback forum I’ll come on and show my support.) [/QUOTE] I really want to ‘grape’ this post, but since I don’t want to wind up getting the post locked down, I’ll leave it. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/11 "2006-08-05T23:33:14Z")
Glad to hear others might like this feature. I went ahead and posted over on vBulletin. The thread [is here](http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=194575), if you want to show your support (DooWah for President, 2008!). **mnemosyne** , I hope you don’t mind, but I also included your suggestion in my thread. And by “included” I mean I copied and pasted what you wrote. Of course, that’s what I did with my own words, so hopefully you’ll be cool with that. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/12 "2006-08-06T04:23:33Z")
I’m not sure if the vB boards use “OP” as a common term. I seem to see more of “thread starter” or “topic starter”. Perhaps you might want to edit your post and/or title to reflect that. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/13 "2006-08-09T20:35:18Z")
Somebody on the vBulletin boards responded: “Already possible, with HTML markup. All it takes is some tweaking to make it [v]isible on the first post of the thread.” I’m not really sure what this means. Is this something we can do for ourselves, if we choose, or something that has to be done to the entire site as a whole? ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/14 "2006-08-10T03:53:18Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] Somebody on the vBulletin boards responded: “Already possible, with HTML markup. All it takes is some tweaking to make it [v]isible on the first post of the thread.” I’m not really sure what this means. Is this something we can do for ourselves, if we choose, or something that has to be done to the entire site as a whole? [/QUOTE] That answer seems rather vague. I’m not sure what s/he’s trying to say. It certainly is possible to do this by customizing the code that runs the vB software (usually called a MOD or a hack), but unless it comes as a standard feature in vB it is not likely to be implemented on the SDMB. Technically, it is also possible to do this on the user side (i.e. on your computer), but in order to implement it you would need to parse the output of the sdmb pages through some script which makes the required change and then displays it to you on your browser. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/15 "2006-08-15T15:58:38Z")
I got some more details over on the vBulletin board. They said this should work: \ code for thread starter \ So… I assume this would have to be done to the boards as a whole. Does anybody think it would _not_ be a useful feature? ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/16 "2006-08-15T17:07:01Z")
We do not venture far afield from the plain vanilla vB coding. For two reasons: 1. Adding “hacks” can destabilize a board. Ours is unstable enough already. 2. Any upgrade to vB wipes out all hacks and restores the system to full vanilla. Why do all the work over and over again? If this becomes a feature in a scheduled version of vB, we’ll consider it. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/17 "2006-08-15T18:31:43Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] Does anybody think it would _not_ be a useful feature? [/QUOTE] The questions are **how** useful would it be and does the utility outweigh the effort of installing and maintaining it. The Reader’s answer to the latter is no. I don’t think it’s very useful in itself. You could just re-open the first page in a new browser window. It seems to me that the effort involved in that is dwarfed by the effort of wading through a multi-page thread. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/18 "2006-08-16T03:27:14Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] I got some more details over on the vBulletin board. They said this should work: \ code for thread starter \ So… I assume this would have to be done to the boards as a whole. Does anybody think it would _not_ be a useful feature? [/QUOTE] I personally think it would be a useful feature, but that’s not the issue here. Installing the hack is rather simple, but the issue is of maintaining hacks across upgrades, which is not a trivial task and therefore not undertaken at the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-useful-to-make-a-threads-ops-screenname-a-different-color/367346/19 "2006-08-16T15:12:56Z")
Gotcha. I had no idea how easy or hard it would be, so thanks for explaining that. No biggie!