Meta: Browser script that makes Board comments more compact

Submitted by Pkf97 on

I put together a little browser script that makes board comments more compact and easier to follow along.  Comparison picture (click here for full-size):

It's free / open-source.  If you'd like to try it for yourself, you'll just need to:

Step 1) Install TamperMonkey (open-source user-script manager)

Step 2) Install the script

Step 3) Enable it on MGoBoard and hit refresh.  You can toggle on/off any time

So, how does it work? It's basically a little piece of code that activates only when you're at MGoBlog.com/MGoBoard. It tells your web browser to change the styles of certain page elements after they've loaded: for example-- remove the sidebar areas, make the posts wider, hide the author profile picture and signature, make the indents more prominent, etc.

It only activates when you're on this one site, and it doesn't interact with the MGoBlog server or slow down your experience. The code is open-source so you can play around to ensure there's no funny business going on.
 
Happy to answer questions or help troubleshoot if you have trouble getting it working.  You can also go to the Github repo for more info and detailed installation instructions.
 
Note to mods: I got the okay from Seth to post this.
 
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StephenRKass

August 25th, 2016 at 9:06 AM ^

I really don't know what to say. I'm still hoping that next week Brian unveils plenty of site operability changes. There are plenty of things that would make mgoblog easier to use. But I will continue to come here regardless. Thanks for your efforts. Maybe the site administration can create a site toggle switch to turn this feature on and off.

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 22961

mGrowOld

August 25th, 2016 at 9:08 AM ^

But why did I need to provide my address,  social security, bank routing and credit card numbers for identification to enable the script?

Seems a bit much to me.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 211964

LSAClassOf2000

August 25th, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^

I believe this is only true if you are a Nigerian prince who has an apparent issue with the rules and standards of international banking or who has failed to set up an account with a bank here. Now, if we're talking about a Russian dating site, then there is no need to provide the ABA routing information - chances are it has been provided to them by a third-party hacker. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130531

sadeto

August 25th, 2016 at 10:36 AM ^

Depending on the model, you can replace your laptop's display for less than $100, it's not too difficult to do yourself. I replaced my son's twice, once he closed it on a pen, the second time he dropped it. His laptop is a 17" widescreen HD and I think the display cost about $50-60 on Amazon. Beats paying $300+ to have a vendor do it. 

Joined: 01/17/2014

MGoPoints: 10469

goblueritzy92

August 25th, 2016 at 9:31 AM ^

Do you have a fix for the "next" button on the MGoBoard sidebar so it actually goes to page 2 and not the diaries? I think that has been a problem since I joined this blog 7.5 years ago.

Joined: 01/26/2009

MGoPoints: 4933

bacon

August 25th, 2016 at 1:23 PM ^

"Do you have a fix for the "next" button on the MGoBoard sidebar" It's a common misconception that this is broken. In fact this is a cleverly disguised trick that Brian has embedded into the site to keep newbie would be posters from looking back to see if someone has already posted their content. That way, they repost something, everyone shames them and then they're warry of ever posting again. It's brilliant, but too many people knew the work around of right clicking, so Brian disabled the search function. Also brilliant.

Joined: 01/04/2009

MGoPoints: 18646

wolfman81

August 25th, 2016 at 9:56 AM ^

does it work on mobile? I know, the app...but why have a whole new app when you can. just use your browser? as far as the app goes, having push notifications would be good (but is maybe not practical?) especially when content hits the front page.

Joined: 12/17/2008

MGoPoints: 2078

Pkf97

August 25th, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^

Only works on desktop.  

I actually really love the MGoBlog HD app, and think it's super functional and sleek.  I'd think that optional push notifications wouldn't be too hard to implement, but I'm not the developer so obviously can't really comment.

Joined: 10/31/2015

MGoPoints: 1800

UMProud

August 25th, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^

Wait...so the posters who constantly type up responses that are 4-10 paragraphs in length that I constantly scroll past because I don't have 2 hours to read their posts...will it truncate them?

Joined: 12/18/2014

MGoPoints: 2705

Mr. Elbel

August 25th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^

eh.... do you have a script for people who argue something into the ground? It's always super annoying when I have to scroll halfway through a thread just to get past comments that now have two words per line because people just don't know when to quit on the internet.

Joined: 03/02/2014

MGoPoints: 21359

Michigan Shirt

August 25th, 2016 at 1:46 PM ^

I can't wait for the implements to be incorporated, then everyone screaming about how the old way was better and they can't figure out this new fangled system. Only half sarcastic because this will definitely happen.

Joined: 02/05/2010

MGoPoints: 2097

BlockM

August 25th, 2016 at 3:00 PM ^

Awesome! I did something similar ~5 years ago and posted it here that allowed you to hide users, change their comment colors, etc. but yours looks much classier. One piece of advice: if you implement every suggestion you get from the board, your code will look awful, haha.

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 40711

Pkf97

August 25th, 2016 at 4:02 PM ^

That's awesome, had no idea Ultra-MGoBoard existed.  I'm sure you'll feel me when I say that navigating through all of the divs and patch-jobs in the HTML on the board can be pretty interesting, haha.

Definitely not going to add many more features.  Might take a crack at a comment collapse as a stretch feature if I find some inspiration.  Still very new at this stuff in the grand scheme.

Joined: 10/31/2015

MGoPoints: 1800