How to display unique text at the top of a specific thread (not an announcement)

[ataraxia]

Here is a simple way to create a UNIQUE "news" or "topic sentence" display for any thread.

This is something like a "sticky post" RATHER THAN an "announcement".

Basically, it is just a matter of publicly displaying the "Moderator Notes" found in the "Edit Thread" tool. You or your designated moderators can change this at any time for the thread in question. You will, of course, sacrifice the ability to privately display these "notes" to moderators only but you gain a "news" or "topic sentence" capability. Your choice...

Here's how:

GO TO: CPadmin --> Styles&Templates --> Style Manager --> select "Edit templates" from the desired style (or "Default" style) --> scroll down to "Showthread templates" and click on the << >> link. Then select "Customize" for the SHOWTHREAD template (or "Edit" if you have already tinkered with this.)

Find this:

<!-- / controls above postbits -->

Just BELOW it add this bit of code:

$thread[notes]

That's it! Of course, you can play with the location, fonts, formatting, etc. The key element is the $thread[notes] variable. (I have mine centered and use <smallfont>)

SOME QUESTIONS:

1. Is there a way to make displaying the $thread[notes] field recognize vBcodes by changing something in a template rather than require a hack toa .PHP script)?

2. Is there a simple (non-hack) way to expand the number of allowable characters in the $thread[notes]to more than 250? (Can one change the allowable characters for the "notes" field in the "thread" table using phpmyadmin without messing things up? How?)

Thanks!