Let Site Supporters set custom member titles

[Hobbesistan]

Not sure if this has been suggested before, but Site Supporters should be able to set custom usertitles (where 'Ambassador' is on me) on the forums.

It's a neat custom way of self-expression within the forum and a perk to those of us who support the game, not to mention it would be pretty easy to implement.

[Frisbeeteria]

not to mention it would be pretty easy to implement.

Yeah, not so much. Forum/game integration is tricky at best. Site Supporter is a gameside feature with gameside benefits. Forum titles are currently set exclusively by forum admins (which includes only one current mod, Reploid Productions), and require admin permissions to change. So, we'd have to work up some kludge code that combined the two, with possible risks regarding forum admin permissions. In addition, mods would have no way to edit offensive or trolling titles without a complete rework of permissions.

So no, it's not as simple as you might think.

[Enfaru]

Lets adjust that and add a new item to the shop.... $0.25 to change forum user title once? $2.00 to change it whenever.

[Reploid Productions]

Lets adjust that and add a new item to the shop.... $0.25 to change forum user title once? $2.00 to change it whenever.

Fris literally just explained above you that doing so is not as simple or feasible as you'd think.

[Hobbesistan]

I'm pretty sure it would just be some mySQL commands to mirror permissions, don't know if itle be that difficult.

As for ediitng offensive titles, I don't know about phpBB's system because in my opinion it sucks compared to, say, myBB.

[Rejistania]

Back in the day, back when the forums were reachable reliably between 6 am and 9 am CET and Jolt nothing but a word, custom titles existed - and could be won in weekly competitions. I was Steadfast Pacifist back then. So it does not sound as impossible.

[Enfaru]

Lets adjust that and add a new item to the shop.... $0.25 to change forum user title once? $2.00 to change it whenever.

Fris literally just explained above you that doing so is not as simple or feasible as you'd think.

My apologies, allow me to clarify my process.

A member submits a payment request with a suggested title.
An admin/someone with permission then goes into the administration area and changes it when they have time.

I'm familiar with how PHPBB works in the back end. I wasn't proposing an automatic solution as Hobbesistan had suggested earlier of which Fris' answer was adequate. There would be no need to combine Site Supporter with the new shop item and there'd be no need to add code in my solution.

It does mean that titles can be vetted by mods before it is then sent to the admin or whoever has implementation permission. Due to the fact that it isn't done automatically.

This solution allows members to get custom titles, perhaps the fee could be waived for site supporters.

[The greater Vakolicci Haven]

Is it not possible that you could allow everybody to change their member titles?

You could moderate the dodgy ones out the same way you get rid of bad flags/nation names.

[District XIV]

You could moderate the dodgy ones out the same way you get rid of bad flags/nation names.

mods would have no way to edit offensive or trolling titles without a complete rework of permissions.

[The greater Vakolicci Haven]

You could moderate the dodgy ones out the same way you get rid of bad flags/nation names.

mods would have no way to edit offensive or trolling titles without a complete rework of permissions.

A complete rework of permissions.

It would take a few minutes, actually.

[District XIV]

A complete rework of permissions.

It would take a few minutes, actually.

And who are you to say how long "a complete rework of permissions" would take?

[Reploid Productions]

A complete rework of permissions.

It would take a few minutes, actually.

Not really, being the forumside is a different beast entirely from the gameside, meaning a customizable field forumside is likewise a completely different thing from one gameside, which can be changed as needed via the game mod controls. Right now, there are a grand total of 5 people that could edit forum titles, which requires specific access via the forumside admin controls, and only one of those (that is, yours truly) is routinely available to handle such enforcement.

"Reworking" that would require substantial coding work to make the game talk not just to the forum, but to make the game mod controls talk to the forum admin controls, to enable all of the game mods access to edit that particular field. Which would in turn involve a fair bit of mucking around with trying to make the game and the forum talk to one another more than the relatively basic "This game account is linked up to this forum account." that currently exists.

The alternative, keeping it strictly forumside, would involve giving ALL of the mod team access to the administrator controls, as opposed to the much more limited moderator controls. Which, as I'm sure many an off-site forum that's gotten wiped due to a rogue member with admin access could tell you, is a very potentially dangerous thing. Trying to give enough access to work with forum titles while locking them out of the delicate stuff would, as in the prior example, require somebody going in to muck around with the forum code, as giving the entire team access to the forum admin tools (which includes among them, the ability to completely delete everything) is just flat out Not Going To Happen on account of security concerns. While the team is trusted with plenty of things and over the past decade-plus has only had one true instance of mod-gone-rogue, all it would take is one Stephistan Mk-II to cause considerable damage to the entire community, hence forum admin access is very severely limited to the techie admins, and myself.

tl;dr version: No, it would not in fact take "a few minutes."

[The greater Vakolicci Haven]

Couldn't you just change the permissions settings for the 'global moderators' group to allow them to alter custom fields?

[Reploid Productions]

Couldn't you just change the permissions settings for the 'global moderators' group to allow them to alter custom fields?

Nope, not without giving them access to the admin controls. The way ranks are set up requires going into a specific section of the admin controls to create the custom title, and then to a different section of the admin controls to assign it to a user.