I've been thinking about what features one might want in the Wakaba and Kareha scripts that go beyond what is offered in the usual Futaba- and 2ch-style scripts. I'm not talking about any fundamental changes, or big and flashy things, but the sort of small touches that are appreciated by the sophisticated and intelligent patrons of image and message boards.

Yeah, the elitist features.

One thing I might do is add some Markdown-like functionality (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/). Are there other suggestions? Note that I am mainly thinking of features that are useful for posters here, not for leechers.

I have been wishing for a spellchecker... :)

This is not a bad idea, but the amount of work involved for me is larger than the amount of work to just try and spell correctly, so I think that kills it.

...but it would be funny to make it (optionally) not allow posts until they pass the spell check.

Yeah. ^^
Or underline/color all spelling errors. ^^
"_zomg_ this _iz_ _teh_ _rei_!"
Nah, almost everything would end underlined.

And にほんご would fail too...

Maybe a wakaba version number.
Some of the boards here have the no-refresh bug, for example.

A crude translator would be nice. Would it be possible to pipe the stuff through babelfish?

"Error: Duplicate file entry detected."
could include a link to the existing file or thread.

In order of expected difficulty, some ideas off the top of my head:

Toothpaste for Wakaba. More stylesheets in general. Make thread replies line up consistently instead of clearing the parent's float and staggering - makes for easier visual separation of threads. Time zone pref so times are reported in user's preferred time zone. Or, at least, "current time is" so I don't have to try to figure out what time zone the timestamps are in. "Ignore thread" option. Virtual board "/my/" where you can save threads/images you like or want to track. "NSFW" flag (will require active moderators to be effective).

Does wakaba already have an administrative option to set size of thumbnails? They are rather large across wakachan sites - smaller=less bandwidth.

OK, so some of those are "fundamental changes".

Could I suggest an easier way for admin's to delete whole threads?

Also, I'm not a big fan of using javascript for admin stuff.

>Does wakaba already have an administrative option to set size of thumbnails? They are rather large across wakachan sites - smaller=less bandwidth.

In my experience if the thumbs are too small I have to click to see what the image is about, even if I may not care for the pic. Meaning wasted b/w.

>In my experience if the thumbs are too small I have to click to see what the image is about

Sure - I call this this "5chan effect". Still the thumbnails for replies are smaller than the parent, and those don't garner complaints for being too small, so there does seem a range there to find that balance.

Another suggestion: for kareha (which I rather like), hide the posting form at the bottom of each thread until requested. It uses up a lot of real estate on a page of many threads.

Oooh, I got another one for kareha: NNTP gateway.

Because really, if you stop to think about it...

Oh never mind.

RSS Feeds for Kareha?

Hey shit, I could make that myself. Just make a script read the /res/ folder, and fill in the details with the data within, only listing the first 10 or so threads.

>>8

Not a bad idea, I'll try to look into that when I get back to work on wakaba.

>>9

First of all, I'd like to re-write the whole wakaba HTML in properly structured XHTML. Right now it's imitating Futallaby's upgrade of Futaba's big old mess. The only problem is that IE doesn't support the display: table style, so I can't reliably reproduce the current look, which is loved by many. I want stylesheet switching, but before that I would have to guarantee that the original style is in there.

Also, at one point I implemented a simple killfile for 4chan that would let you hide threads and posts by specific users, as a Firefox extension. I'm thinking I could maybe resurrect that as a feature integrated into Wakaba.

>>10

You can go to the "All threads" screen, and select "Manage" to delete and permasage threads.

>>12

Personally, I like having it RIGHT THERE so I can post immediately, but some people don't like it. I'm thinking I could implement hiding it in Javascript, and make it an option. We'll see.

>>14

Adding an RSS feed would be as easy as writing a template for it, and duplicating the code that makes the subback.html file (a couple of lines). Not a bad idea.

>Still the thumbnails for replies are smaller than the parent, and those don't garner complaints for being too small,

Actually, I find the reply pics on 4chan way too small.
iichan was sort of okay but if i had a good pic I would post a pic/a thread because of the in-thread shrink effect. Or at least put the pic on the top.
If you want to save b/w you could do what some boards do: compress more the jpgs. Tho, at one point the compression becomes so awful that it's like there is no thumb at all. ^^;
On the other side of the spectrum you have boards that inline all the pics!!! Now THAT is waste.

>compress more the jpgs. Tho, at one point the compression becomes so awful that it's like there is no thumb at all.

Oh, no, wait. *THAT'S* the "5chan effect".

>Oh, no, wait. *THAT'S* the "5chan effect".

Is it? Well, maybe.
Me when I think 5chan I get a mental image of black text over a dark background, thus illegible. And tons of "you are a moron" subliminal messages, like "This is a thumbnail image. Clicking the thumbnail will enlarge the image to full size. If the picture is a GIF, there is a remote possible possiblility that the image is animated, meaning a sequence of pictures will play in a sequential sequence. In the case you haven't understood the above, the same message is repeated on the top of this page. Now you may proceed by clicking the image, which is accomplished by using the mouse, unless you are using a puck. In the case you don't know what a puck is..."