Hey all! I've got a pretty big list of requested features for the Paizo Forum Tools browser extension, and I'd like your help deciding what to work on next!
How It Works
Everyone gets 10 votes. Contributors to the project (either monetary or via Github) and Paizo employees get 20 extra votes, for a total of 30 each. To vote, allocate your votes among the various features and post the result. Your post might look something like this:
Some of these features are more complicated than others, so I reserve the right to apply some kind of weighting system to the votes. That is, 10 votes for feature X might beat 15 votes for feature Y if feature Y is significantly more complicated. (That's what the stars mean next to features; more stars = more complicated).
Potential Features
PbPFinder****
aliases tab arranger*
sheet parser***
aliases tab "data view"*
status line parser**
"roll" BBCode tag***
personal player rating system**
blacklist/settings transfer between browsers*
PFS session exporter/API****
WYSIWYG post Composer**
custom avatars*/**
"favorited by others" tab sorter*
"private" BBCode tag**
mobile app****
alias selector in replies*
"language" BBCode tag**
shared campaigns indicator**
"Need to Post" indicator*
PbPFinder:
Complexity: ****
This isn't technically a PCT feature; it's an enormous new website that I've actually already done a lot of work on. It grabs all the PbP data on Paizo's forums, and uses that to generate lots of statistics about PbPers and their games, then displays those in an easy-to-digest, searchable, cross-referenced way. It'll also recommend specific games to players as well as players to GMs, GMs to players, and even players to other players.
Aliases Tab Sorter:
Complexity: *
This feature would add a small, Paizo-style sorting drop-down to the Aliases tab, allowing sorting of the page (whether your own or someone else's) by activity, post count, name, etc., and save your selection for future visits to the Aliases page. Might also allow the designation of your own aliases as "inactive", and display inactive aliases in a separate subsection.
Sheet Parser:
Complexity: ***
This would enable the extension to parse Hero Lab- and Oladon-formatted alias profiles, which would allow spiffy new features such as the "Roll" tag, the "language" tag, automatic status line generation, and potentially other spiffy things down the line.
Aliases Tab Data View:
Complexity: *
This would add a new view to the Aliases tab, allowing a more table-like view of aliases and likely an export option. If combined with the Aliases Tab Sorter, it would allow sorting based on the various columns.
Status Line Parser:
Complexity: **
This would allow the extension to parse variously-formatted status lines (the character "subtitle" often used for HP, AC, etc.) to allow better sorting of Aliases, dice rolling shortcuts, more informative data display for aliases, and other things down the line (think DM tools, etc.).
Roll BBCode Tag:
Complexity: ***
If you've used MythWeavers, you're familiar with this one. Would require completion of either the Status Line Parser or the Sheet Parser, and would allow you to type things like [roll=Perception]+4[/roll] to quickly roll your character's Perception with an extra +4.
(Personal) Player Rating System:
Complexity: **
Allows you to (privately) rate players and DMs to aid in remembering who you've enjoyed playing with.
Blacklist/Settings Transfer (between browsers):
Complexity: *
This would allow you to connect your extension settings and blacklist to Firefox's or Chrome's central data server so that it's shared across all your authenticated browsers.
PFS Session Exporter/API:
Complexity: ****
This new feature would let users export their (PFS) Sessions tab to a Paizo-external site, where it could then be searched by PFS ID or scenario/module. This would give game coordinators more information to help them determine what to run.
WYSIWYG Post Composer:
Complexity: **
Buttons for adding text styles, dice, etc.; a bit like a live preview of your post. Would likely be in conjunction with John Mechalas, as he's been working on something similar.
Custom Avatars:
Complexity: */**
Ever wanted to change someone's avatar, or use your own image for one of your characters? This feature would allow you to do just that. In the two-star-complexity version of this feature, your custom avatar settings could be shared with other users of the extension to allow users to see other users' custom avatars.
Favorited by Others Tab Sorter:
Complexity: *
I'm Hiding In Your Closet wants to be able to sort your Favorited By Others tab by name or post time. Do you?
Private BBCode Tag:
Complexity: **
Again, if you've used MythWeavers, you're familiar with this. The "private" tag allows users to place targeted text into their posts, and have the text only display to specific other users. For example, [private=Oladon]This is some private text for Oladon only![/private] would be displayed only to Oladon.
Mobile App:
Complexity: ****
Basically, a mobile app version of the Paizo Forum Tools to aid in mobile posting. Details here.
Alias Selector in Replies:
Complexity: *
Currently the Alias Selector feature doesn't work when replying to a post. How important is that to you?
Language BBCode Tag:
Complexity: **
Another classic: allows you to designate specific text as being in a given language. For non-DM users whose sheets don't have that language, the text is shown in some random other language instead of English.
Shared Campaigns Indicator:
Complexity: **
I'd personally find it nice to have shared campaigns marked when I'm visiting another user's Campaigns page. That's what this would do.
Need to Post Indicator:
Complexity: *
A user-settable indicator to remind you to post in certain games. Might automatically unset itself when you post.
TL;DR
I'm running a poll to see which new features would be most popular as additions to my Paizo Forum Tools browser extension. Unless you're special, you get 10 votes; allocate them to let me know your preferences!
Hmm, a lot of good potential features.
I will note that I am currently using your extension in the Pale Moon web browser. The front-end of PM is stable and nearly identical to that of Firefox 24, so FF add-ons that work in FF 24 and only modify the front end (including most extensions and all themes, but not plugins),usually work in PM (the back end, on the other hand, uses its own rendering engine which differs substantially from Gecko.)
I am telling you this to note that it is possible you may inadvertently make your extension incompatible with PM (unless you decide to make a PM specific version). PM does not support WebExtensions (but will continue to support XUL and XPCOM indefinitely).
Also, I'm pretty sure that the proposed feature
Quote:
Blacklist/Settings Transfer (between browsers):
Complexity: *
This would allow you to connect your extension settings and blacklist to Firefox's or Chrome's central data server so that it's shared across all your authenticated browsers.
Would not work with Pale Moon unless you added code to support it. PM uses its own syncing service (Pale Moon Sync), so unless you decide to support it (which is probably unlikely given the small number of people on Pale Moon), I won't be able to use that feature.
With all that in mind, I vote for
--PBP Finder: 2 votes
--Alias tab sorter: 2 votes
--Aliases Tab Data View: 2 votes
--Favorited by Others Tab Sorter: 2 votes
--Shared Campaigns Indicator: 2 votes
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Aliases Tab Sorter: 1 vote
Aliases Tab Data View: 1 vote
WYSIWYG: 3 votes (particularly if it can be used with Chrome or FireFox on a tablet)
Favorited by Others Tab Sorter: 2 votes
Mobile app: 2 votes
Shared Campaigns Indicator: 1 vote
Thanks for the additional votes! The mobile app has taken the lead, which surprises me a bit... the alias tab sorter and WYSIWYG post composer are also looking pretty popular.
Because the Alias Selector in Replies is pretty straightforward, I've started work on it and am planning to release it as the next feature... just have to find time in between work and other things. (That release will also fix the bug which causes the extra formatting tag text to incorrectly appear on the aliases and campaign Characters pages.)
After that, we'll have to see, but the mobile app is looking plausible.
Current Totals:
Mobile App: 30
PBP Finder: 22
Alias Tab Sorter: 21
WYSIWYG Post Composer: 18
Favorited by Others Tab Sorter: 16
Custom Avatars: 16
Alias Selector in Replies: 13
Need to Post Indicator: 13
"roll" BBCode Tag: 9
Aliases Tab Data View: 8
PFS Session Exporter/API: 6
Shared Campaigns Indicator: 6
Status Line Parser: 5
"Private" BBCode Tag: 4
Sheet Parser: 3
Amazing Red:
I wasn't able to include your votes because you allocated 15; which 10 of those would you like to use?
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
That frees up two of my votes; new allocation below.
WYSIWYG: 4 votes (particularly if it can be used with Chrome or FireFox on a tablet)
Favorited by Others Tab Sorter: 2 votes
Mobile app: 3 votes
Shared Campaigns Indicator: 1 vote
Is there a way to make the thread post in ascending age to have the most recent post first?
Mobile app is huge for navigation and reading. a nice helper UI for bbcode to post stuff would be great.
Interesting idea — I hadn't thought of a reverse thread sort, but I could see people finding that useful.
The helper UI you're referring to would be the "WYSIWYG Post Composer" option; the more I play around with it the more it's looking like I'll end up releasing something fairly basic to start with, and then iterating on it with feedback.
Don't know why, but it seems to me like the "Default Alias per Campaign" feature died with the last firefox update.
Anyone able to confirm this?
Using Firefox 51.01 under Ubuntu and Win10 and in both places it seem to have stopped working as I am stuck with the "default alias" from the account setting again. Also it seems that it doesn't remember aliases marked as unactive.
Oh, as an addendum, (not quite a vote, given its not an option, but something I would be interested in seeing) there is one feature that if it had been on the list I would have thrown all 10 votes to it: a searchable comprehensive list for all the spells on the PRD (sort of like what they have for the beastiary). It can be somewhat of a slog openening each an every spell tab for each splatbook just to compare spell offerings when creating a character/updating one for gained levels.
Obviously this would take some effort to create, and would add to the work involved in adding future references to the PRD (as practically every time a new reference is released there are new spells to be found within) but I would estimate the difficulty to a ** or *** at most (as you aren't really having to alter the existing references, and theoretically you could clone the underpinning framework for the beastiary's page as a starting point).
The alias tab arranger is actually already implemented, including the ability to mark aliases as "inactive" (which moves them to a separate section of the page).
Also, just to be clear, I'm not part of Paizo; I'm an independent developer who's created this tool to help forum users have a better experience here. With that, the feature you've suggested would be extremely complicated for me to implement, since I don't have any connections to Paizo's underpinnings or databases.
However, I think you're on to something good with that idea; I'm going to add it to my features list as "right-click option to search PRD for selection". Would that solve the problem that you're experiencing?
Possibly, though it might require tag functions to make it work right.
I'll give an example by way of explanation:
A new person comes to the forums and decides that they want to play PBP here. They read the various classes on the PRD, and find that they are interested in the wizard class. From reading the class notes (and probably getting some help from their first GM) they know that they start out with a spellbook that contains every available cantrip and a small selection of level 1 spells.
Currently, that player would have to browse to about 6 different pages within the PRD just to verify they have all the cantrips (and what they are) let alone make a decision as to what level 1 spells they want to pick. I think it would be helpful for this person to have a page or search function where someone could return all wizard spells. And for wizard spells specifically it would be helpful to be able to filter by school (giving said new player a way of removing opposition spells from his search results, or focusing on his primary school).
Anyway, that is sort of what I was thinking. Not sure how complicated it would be to pull off without access to the PRD portion of the site.
Exactly what I had in mind!!! Both are great resources. I just wish that this site had something similar, even if it was a bit more basic or limited.
Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining (the PRD is perfectly usable and updated at regular enough intervals) but having something similar on site would make the place that much more user friendly... which, in turn, makes it more likely that someone new will take the time to try the game IMO. (Not to mention more useful for veteran players and GMs.)
