Posting instructions on New Thread, link to prefix index?

[Teresa]

In our main forum, we have about 10 very active forums and each forum will have around 20-30 possible thread prefixes.

Ideally, I'd like to put some instructions just above the thread prefix/title area in posting a new thread, that explains the posting rules. Ideally, I'd like a link to a new page or table or popup or something that shows them all of the prefixes, a) sorted by forum, and b) sorted by prefix, then showing the forum it belongs to.

This would help them see that a given topic actually belongs in a different forum.

I can't find an add-on for putting in any custom text/html just about the thread title.

And then, is there anything out there to dynamically present the prefixes? I can't find anything.

[Lynne]

you'll have to just edit the template to add some text where you want it. To find the template - vboptions > General Settings > Add Template Name in HTML Comments > set to Yes . Then go back to your page and view the source code and you will see the name of the template called around your part of the code. Sometimes the template is the one mentioned at the very top of the page source.

I know of no mod to dynamically present the prefixes.

[Infopro]

Originally Posted by Teresa

In our main forum, we have about 10 very active forums and each forum will have around 20-30 possible thread prefixes.

Ideally, I'd like to put some instructions just above the thread prefix/title area in posting a new thread, that explains the posting rules. Ideally, I'd like a link to a new page or table or popup or something that shows them all of the prefixes, a) sorted by forum, and b) sorted by prefix, then showing the forum it belongs to.

This would help them see that a given topic actually belongs in a different forum.

I can't find an add-on for putting in any custom text/html just about the thread title.

And then, is there anything out there to dynamically present the prefixes? I can't find anything.

Not sure if this is helpful to you or not, (or if I'm even understanding you correctly) but I've been toying with something of a similar idea, wanting to add a small popup here and there around the site to help certain users who may need some additional help.

I'm using greybox for this, I'm sure there are other solutions, but this one works fine and is very easy.
http://orangoo.com/labs/GreyBox/

I've just added a link to a small page with help, on the new thread window (newthread template) like this:
(see attachment for visual)

Open the template called newthread and search for this:

            <td>
                <input type="text" class="bginput" name="subject" value="$subject" size="40" maxlength="$vboptions[titlemaxchars]" tabindex="1" />
</td>

I replaced/edited actually, to this:

            <td><a href="greybox/helpfiles/newthreadhelp.html" title="Help Info" rel="gb_page_center[600, 450]"><img border="0" src="http://mydomain.com/images/help.png" width="16" height="16" /></a>
                <input type="text" class="bginput" name="subject" value="$subject" size="70" maxlength="$vboptions[titlemaxchars]" tabindex="1" />

You'd have to look at the greybox site for the brief explaination of the URL I'm using here (and other examples about how to get it working to start with), but basically I just set the size of the popup in the link as you see. I created a directory called helpfiles (in greybox directory to keep things tidy) and add an html file named to the need. (ie: newthreadhelp.html in this example)

That link I'm using to a popup, could be used instead to open the forums FAQ to a specific section instead. (ie: faq.php?faq=vb3_reading_posting#faq_vb3_message_ic ons)

Adding your own FAQ is easy and you can give it a URL title you want. Add that URL to the link for your popup and you're set.

HTH somehow. Good luck.

[Teresa]

Thanks for both suggestions. The grey box thing looks very promising.