Erik
Well-known member
OK, so this is kind of an odd/innovative idea, so some of you may hate it, but here it goes.
What if XenForo has a feature to add "inline text content pop-ups" (for lack of a better description) to posts, so that one can use them kind of like footnotes and put information that is not absolutely necessary into a content pop-up, thereby shortening the post and making it easier to read?
Basically, they would work like footnotes, but with the actual footnote content being inside of a little JS pop-up instead of at the bottom of the page.
Example:
When hovering over the little superscript indicator, a friendly, unobtrusive box pops up with the content. Rolling the mouse outside the box makes it disappear again.
What's the use of this feature? Well, the information in the box isn't really necessary to my post or the conversation. To understand my post, all one really needs to know is that I want to learn more about OOP. If they want to learn more, they can hover over the link and read my additional thoughts. They could often be used where parentheses are normally used.
The use of this feature can clean up posts and threads and simplify reading posts by making only the essential information visible. If the users use it right, it makes posts very concise and easy to read.
The syntax would be something like this:
The links and the pop-ups themselves would be created entirely through JavaScript on page-load, so users without JavaScript (and search engines) will still see the content in it's original form (surrounded by double brackets). Clicking the footnotes would also pop-up the box, so devices without mouse hovering (like the iPhone/iPad, etc.) would also be supported.
Try out the footnote implementation here to get an idea of how slick and pleasant these can be:
http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2010/04/20/footnotes/
The author of that code has placed it completely into the public domain, so it could be used within XenForo without any issues.
Sorry if this post sounds fragmented. It was hard trying to explain my ideas and my vision of the use of this feature. So, what do you guys think?
What if XenForo has a feature to add "inline text content pop-ups" (for lack of a better description) to posts, so that one can use them kind of like footnotes and put information that is not absolutely necessary into a content pop-up, thereby shortening the post and making it easier to read?
Basically, they would work like footnotes, but with the actual footnote content being inside of a little JS pop-up instead of at the bottom of the page.
Example:
When hovering over the little superscript indicator, a friendly, unobtrusive box pops up with the content. Rolling the mouse outside the box makes it disappear again.
What's the use of this feature? Well, the information in the box isn't really necessary to my post or the conversation. To understand my post, all one really needs to know is that I want to learn more about OOP. If they want to learn more, they can hover over the link and read my additional thoughts. They could often be used where parentheses are normally used.
The use of this feature can clean up posts and threads and simplify reading posts by making only the essential information visible. If the users use it right, it makes posts very concise and easy to read.
The syntax would be something like this:
Code:
I want to learn more about OOP.[[I already know the basics, I just need to learn how to properly implement it.]]Try out the footnote implementation here to get an idea of how slick and pleasant these can be:
http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2010/04/20/footnotes/
The author of that code has placed it completely into the public domain, so it could be used within XenForo without any issues.
Sorry if this post sounds fragmented. It was hard trying to explain my ideas and my vision of the use of this feature. So, what do you guys think?
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