Okay, for those of you interested in a preview of what the next
(SQL-based) version of the software is going to look at, here it
goes. (Note that I am posting this to +chat, which means you can safely
ignore it if you're not interested in development stuff.)
The layout is pretty plain; I'll add in the color-coordinated stuff later
on, and make the above-and-below tables selections a whole lot prettier.
Also note that it's a mockup, so nothing really works (you'll notice there
are no Submit buttons, for one thing), and some of the links are empty
(which will probably toss you back to the listowners index page. Use your
back button if that happens). Right now there's one user^Wmember (moi),
and one list^Wgroup (moderators, which is what listowners will get renamed
to, on account of we don't call them "lists" anymore).
First off, and not shown, is the login screen. There is a username (this
is new) which is no longer tied to the email address (although if I
auto-generate them in a conversion, the generated one will be based on the
email address as this example was). The login screen will accept an email
address, though, and automagically do a lookup and convert it to your
username, just like it presently looks up alternates and converts it to
your primary address. So you don't ever have to know/remember your
username if you don't want to. There will also be a magic button that
will email your password to the address if you've forgotten it.
This is pretty much the opening page a user sees once they've logged
on. The first two critters on this screen are universal... the address
you get mail at, and the addresses (if any) that you might send mail
from. Unlike almost everything else, there is no option to override these
on a per-group basis. (If for some weird reason you want to get some
groups at one address and others adt a different one, you just have to set
up two user id's.) This will let you change your address in one spot for
the whole Phoenyx.
If you click on "moderators" under Groups You Are A Member Of, you get
this screen (the settings-as-user version). You can change your name here
if you want, to use a specific character name for a game group or
whatever. If you leave it be, it will default to your global setting from
the previous page. (If you don't have it set at all, it will default to
the universal "Unknown User".)
Changing status on this page unsubscribes you to/from the group.
If you want to get really picky, you can even set your name for a specific
topic. Westwind could use this so that Jeff could appear as "Oasis GM" in
the oasis topic, and "Selket Mouse," his character, in the savannah topic
(which is a different game).
Status here determines whether you get that particular topic. It gets
overridden, though, if your group setting is Inactive or Active-Nomail or
Active-Digest.
Most likely I'll just put a quick-add/drop button on the previous menu
since people usually aren't going to need to see this screen in its
entirety.
If we go back to the user screen and check the Groups You Are a Moderator
Of choice for moderators, we get to see the group settings for moderators.
In general, the Moderators topic is set up to use the systemwide
defaults. Only one setting is technically required: descriptor (in fact,
creating (as a system owner) the "descriptor" for a list is all it takes
in the database to create the list). The subject Tag is also handy, and
in this case because Moderators is essentially a private list, some other
settings have been changed.
There will be, at the bottom of the screen, a method of selecting
individual users. For a small list, there will be a checkbox of all
users, and for a bigger list there will be a pre-selection screen (A-L,
M-Z or some such).
Same settings, for a subtopic. Subtopics can now do pretty much anything
a full-fledged group can do, including have their own moderators.
This is the version of the user screen the moderator gets. You can set
their stuff for them, plus override the moderation settings (to muzzle
noisy users, or to allow players to post unmoderated on an
otherwise-moderated list).
Same thing, at the topic level.
Okay, now a word on defaults. When it's doing something like looking up a
user's name, here's pretty much how it goes:
If they're posting to a subtopic, check for a user+group+subtopic version.
If none is found (or they're just posting to a group), check for a
user+group version.
If none is found, check for a user version.
If none is found, check for a group version (i.e. the moderator can
override "Unknown User" with a language-specific version or whatever).
If none is found, use the systemwide default ("Unknown User")
Now, if it's trying to figure out if someone is subscribed to a subtopic,
things are a little different. First, it makes sure they're subscribed to
the group (user+group status of Active, not digest or nomail), then it
checks to see if they're explicitly subscribed to the subtopic
(user+group+topic status), and if there's an entry, it uses that one. If
there's no entry at all, it uses the subtopic default (group+topic) if
there is one. It sounds kind of complicated, but it's really pretty
simple in operation... when they first subscribe, they have no topic
settings one way or the other, so if the subtopic is set to Inactive they
won't get it unless they explicitly go to that topic and change their
setting to Active. And when a topic is first created, it has no status
settings one way or the other, so it will default to the user's group
settings, which has to be Active. The net effect is the same as it is
now, pretty much.
Coming soon... what the much-neglected-of-late email interface will look
like.
--
Karen J. Cravens silver@phoenyx.net
The Dog Ate My Sketchbook: http://silver.phoenyx.net/
-- --------------------------------------------------------------
Listowner tools are found at http://www.phoenyx.net/listowners
