Global Banner Topic Phun

support
1

I had this nice conversation that I wanted to pin globally as a banner. However, I wanted to edit the first post so the pin is inviting. As I’m a smartass, I decided to create a ‘Site Banners’ category under /c/staff, visible to Everyone. Then I proceeded to create a topic and hit ‘Banner this topic’.

Whew, nice, it worked! Er…

But then, I had a link to that banner topic appearing at the end of the original conversation… So I decided to close the banner topic so that people would simply come back to the original discussion, and…

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2017-09-08-165939_1147x9341147×934 71.5 KB

Yes, I could reply to a closed topic… Not what I expected.

Hacking It Anyway

So, I proceeded to move all posts from the original topic to the banner topic, gave the first post (the banner) to the original poster, and it was as if I had inserted the banner post before the existing topic. Sort of.

Questions

  • Isn’t replying to a closed topic a bug – even if it’s a banner?
  • Is there a marker for staff to edit the first post of an existing topic, e.g., before -- on its own line, to insert the banner text?
  • Is that something you would like to do (inserting a ‘banner post’ for an existing topic)?
  • How’s your way of dealing with this issue?
2

Admins can reply to closed topics (they can do anything :sunglasses:). But not others.

4 Likes
3

Ah, good call :slight_smile: So I could have saved myself some worry… But it remains that there’s no straightforward way to edit a first post for banner without ‘stealing’ it from the original poster.

4

Which link? Do you mean ‘Edit this banner’ link? It will display only for admins

Admins can edit any topic or post. No need to steal ownership.

5

As the banner topic mentioned a link to the original topic, the original topic had a link to the banner topic at the end.

But the entire post is used for the banner, so if you want to edit the post, you need to remove the original content, which is not what is intended. Unless there is some marker to separate the banner from the rest of the post?

6

The New "Banner Topic" pin type topic seems to say the first post in its entirety is taken as the banner.

9

So in the end I chose a different strategy for banners that you may want to apply to your forum:

  1. Create a new topic dedicated to holding the banner. It can be in any category. I usually prefer using #staff.
  2. Tag the topic with #banner, so you can find them later.
  3. Either make a short post, or, my usual, create an image with pixel size 627x123 (this way, the scrollbars won’t be triggered and it will appear “clean” in most situations) ; and use that image as the anchor for a link to the topic or link you want to highlight, e.g.,:
    [![anchor image](/path/to/the/image.png)](/path/to/the/target/link)

This way you can keep a collection of banners that will stick to an acceptable format, without touching your existing topics.

2 Likes
10

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