Esteemed monks,

I think it could be handy to have the possibility of defining some templates for messages, either fixed and equal for all, or personalisable.

I've noticed that a little effort in this direction has already been done: in the Message Inbox there's the note:

To help someone by giving Writeup Formatting Tips, link to it by including [id://17558] in your message.
This approach could go a little beyond, like letting the user preselect a template message and fill-in other info, if necessary. A couple of useful templates could be: This would let the reader warn the OP without much energy, and avoid consideration where some operations could be done by the OP themselves, reserving consideration as a later option.

If this proposal is found interesting, I'd also propose to work in "append mode", i.e. append the template to the current message. This would save the useful feature of messaging the OP directly from one of their nodes (which inserts a link to the node directly into the message).

Flavio
perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

Don't fool yourself.
  • Comment on Proposal: templates in messaging system

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Free Nodelet Hack: Quick /msg to current node's author
by jdporter (Paladin) on May 31, 2006 at 13:22 UTC

    For the "personal use only" option, you can do what you're proposing via the Free Nodelet.

    I have the following bit of code in my Free Nodelet. It makes a text box pre-loaded with a link to the current node; when you hit <enter> in the box, it sends a /msg to the author of the current node. 

    <form method="post" action="?" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlenco
+ded">
<input type="hidden" name="_redir" value="`id`">
<input type="hidden" name="node_id" value="`author_id`">
<input type="hidden" name="op" value="message">
<input type="hidden" name="replyto" value="user">
<input type="hidden" name="sendto" value="`author_name`">
<label for="replytotext">/msg&nbsp;[`author_name`|author]</label>
<input type="text" name="replytotext" size=40 maxlength=255 value="re:
+ &#91;id://`id`] - ">
<input type="hidden" name="sexisgood" value="submit">
</form>

    [download]

    I also have another one just like this but which sends me a /msg.

    For more ideas, see Free Nodelet Settings, and the three threads linked there; they explain how the Free Nodelet works and present numerous examples.

    We're building the house of the future together.
[reply]
[d/l]
      Wow, this is cool. I put the following in my Free Nodelet:
      
<form method="post" action="?" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlenco
+ded">
<input type="hidden" name="node_id" value="`author_id`">
<input type="hidden" name="op" value="message">
<input type="hidden" name="replyto" value="user">
<input type="hidden" name="sendto" value="`author_name`">
<label for="replytotext">/msg [`author_name`|author]</label>
<input type="text" name="replytotext" size=30 maxlength=255 value="ple
+ase retitle &#91;id://`id`] to '' or similar, see &#91;id://17558]">
<input type="hidden" name="sexisgood" value="submit">
</form>

<form method="post" action="?" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlenco
+ded">
<input type="hidden" name="node_id" value="`author_id`">
<input type="hidden" name="op" value="message">
<input type="hidden" name="replyto" value="user">
<input type="hidden" name="sendto" value="`author_name`">
<label for="replytotext">/msg [`author_name`|author]</label>
<input type="text" name="replytotext" size=30 maxlength=255 value="ple
+ase add code tags in &#91;id://`id`], see &#91;id://17558]">
<input type="hidden" name="sexisgood" value="submit">
</form>

      [download]
      But the suggestion still stands: it would be helpful to have such a templating feature, so that it is available to all "off the shelf". Anyway... thanks!

      Flavio
      perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

      Don't fool yourself.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Proposal: templates in messaging system
by ruzam (Curate) on May 31, 2006 at 20:21 UTC
    I for one (and being very green here) can never find the 'Writeup Formatting Tips' link when I need it. It seems to come and go with the wind and I probably don't take advantage of linking other nodes because if it. (oh, wait, there it is at the bottom of the page :s)

    It would be great if the message composer had a row of handy 'fill in' buttons for things like linking to other nodes, other monks, the usual text modes and special characters. This is the web after all?
[reply]
Re: Proposal: templates in messaging system
by Scott7477 (Chaplain) on May 31, 2006 at 23:41 UTC
[reply]
      The real advantage in such a feature (at least for the templates I suggested) would be that many considerations could be avoided, thus it should be better if it were available to all monks via the "usual" interface.

      Nonetheless, I'm taking a look to the editor, thanks!

      Flavio
      perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

      Don't fool yourself.
[reply]
        The real advantage in such a feature (at least for the templates I suggested) would be that many considerations could be avoided

        I highly doubt that. There have certainly been many monks who have had multiple nodes considered for the same fairly simple problems and have had several private /msgs regarding the problem sent to them but still manage to produce nodes with the same problem for quite a while. Many nodes would also still get considered simply because the author doesn't happen to be around soon enough after the problem is /msg'd to them.

        Worse, I don't think "have everyone send a private /msg instead of considering" scales at all well. Perhaps you plan to implement the "delete all 200 private messages I got that tell me to add READMORE tags for this particular node" feature? :) Sending a private /msg instead of considering is often a good idea. But there is a balance to be struck.

        - tye        

[reply]
Re: Proposal: templates in messaging system
by ambrus (Abbot) on Jun 01, 2006 at 09:27 UTC

    You can easily create such templates using the free nodelet.

[reply]

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