Legacy #hashtag in Thread Title - PLEASE

[heyzeus909]

I noticed to my dismay that hashtags don't register in thread titles. If this could be employed it would A) Do away with the need of sub-forums, which are clunky and underutilized thanks to being nested, and B) Allow people to easily search for information in a modern way (read: a Twitter-ish and now Facebook-ish kind of way that people are growing to expect) by clicking on a hashtag in a thread title to discover new information.

Example. Let's say I have a forum dedicated to cooking. I could require a prefix for each new thread. The prefixes, themselves, could be hashtags. The prefixes could be [#Vegetarian], or [#LowCarb ], or [#Dessert]...whatever.

People wanting to find only dessert recipes could later click on the dessert hashtag. Since every thread made in that forum would be required to have a prefix - which would actually be one or more hashtags (multiple hashtags in prefixes could be, for example, [#Desserts #LowCarb ] - it would make the discovery of new information easier. It would also eliminate the idea of sub-forums since threads could be divided into categories by way of hashtags rather than additional forums. This is a good thing...more categorizing, yet less sub-forums.

Folks could still use the standard search function of the site if they're needing to look deeper into the site, of course. The old-timers who get confused by Twitter and hashtags could still use the search function, too, and this idea robs no one of the functionality that's already there. But, no doubt, hashtags in thread titles would help people find new information and increase the usability of the Dragonbyte Tech-powered vBulletin sites.

Imagine, instead of stickies, for example, that there was a #HOF (Hall of Fame) hashtag for each forum. As an example, the thread title for the Cooking forum above could have the "stickies" with the #HOF -Food hashtags. The 'Food' in the hashtag obviously designates that only HOF threads from the food forum will be returned. Imagine being able to designate threads as "important" but without having to take up screen real estate the way a traditional stickies do (which is why there are mods available to hide them!). This could lead to even more threads being designated as "important" by moderators, without fear of having an entire page of nothing but stickies.

This is part of a #trifecta of requests that can help revolutionize the way people use and think of and use vBulletin. It can help it get modern, real quick.

It would nearly do away with the idea of having the forumdisplay template, which would be a good thing, imo

 

[heyzeus909]

Each hashtag/prefix would essentially serve as a sub-category, much the way sub-forums now work. But using hashtag/prefixes would allow Admin/Mods to create many "sub" areas of the main forum, compared to the way there are usually just a couple of sub-forums, if any. This greater specificity would encourage people to subscribe to the hashtag/prefixes that interest them most, compared to the way most people don't bother to subscribe to more general forums/sub-forums now.

And if people subscribe to the hashtag/prefixes, they're more likely to participate in the site itself. And that's what a social site is all about.


Thanks again.


#trifecta

 

[Fillip H.]

Am I understanding you correctly if I say that your request essentially boils down to the ability to use multiple thread prefixes for one thread?

 

[heyzeus909]

No, not at all. Sorry for the confusing post. I'll try to be more concise.

Look at this thread. You see in my thread title (which is also the title of the first post) a word with the "pound sign" preceding it. If that word with its pound sign had been inside a post, it would be generated by your mod as a hashtag. But it doesn't get generated by as a hashtag when it's in the thread title.

That's what I'm asking for. Hashtags in thread titles.

The rest of my rambling is why I need that. I need to be able to use hashtags in thread titles in conjunction with mandatory thread prefixes (which would also be hashtags). Having thread creators choose mandatory hashtags would absolutely revolutionize the way people subscribe to and find information on my site, and bring your wonderful mod to a new level. A potentially revolutionary level for Admins who wish to employ it properly. But it can't be done without hashtags in thread titles.

The Multiple Thread Prefixes would also be awesome, but that's another mod for another day

 

[heyzeus909]

Since hashtags are links, I'm guessing it may not be possible to have them in thread/post titles? If not, then a possible workaround would be for an Amin option to have thread titles appear in the first post (before the message being posted).

 

[Fillip H.]

Correct, there's no efficient way to have hash tags in thread titles without also opening your forums up for XSS exploits.
Having hash tags in the first post would be no different from the OP just adding them to his post the way they normally would.

That's the reason why I believed you meant multiple thread prefixes.

In either event, neither multiple thread prefixes nor hash tags in thread titles can currently be done without significant detriments to performance (and lack of uniform support across vBulletin & other modifications).

 

[heyzeus909]

Excellent information regarding why hashtgags (links) can't appear in thread titles. I'm not intimatewith the workings of vBvBulletin enough to keep from making such a request

How about as an adjunct to the hashtag portion of your modification, the Admin ability to auto-insert the thread title into the first post of the thread? I have seen such standalone mods that do this, but only for v3.x. The benefit of the 'thread titles in first post' option could be explained in the settings: "If you have hashtags set as thread prefixes, clicking yes will insert those hashtags into the first post of the thread thereby totally awesomefying your forum and making it appear really modern'.

Or, ya know, however you'd like to word it.

That, right there, would be awesome enough. If an admin would like to take it further, like me, he or she could introduce hashtag links into the forumbits (the description of each forum) on FORUMHOME. Imagine linking to hashtags on the main forum home rather than the clunky way of employing sub-forums.

Maybe it wouldn't be employed to that level by most admins, but one BOTM win could change that

Thanks for your consideration.

 

[Fillip H.]

That's a pretty neat idea, I'll definitely be sure to look at that when reviewing this feature request