Script Summary: Improves the IMDb Message Boards functionality. Fixes broken things and adds brand-new functions.
Version: 2012.03.09
Copyright: 2008-2012 Chicago_gangster (http://userscripts.org/users/67626)
License: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Make sure to uninstall or disable overlapping scripts (that do the same things as this script) before installing this one.
Most of these functions can be turned on/off on your My Profile page after installing the script. [screenshot]
In order not to waste memory, only turn on the functions that you really need.
- Autoscroll
Automatically scrolls boards pages down to the "page top" mark (which is on the same level as the "My Profile" link) or, where applicable, top of user profile or board (list of threads). [screenshot]
Optional. - Auto-open Favorites
Automatically clicks the "Jump" button (visible on the previous screenshot) when you select a board from the drop-down list. (Naturally, you'll still have to click it if you want to jump to the first board from the list.) - View mode links
Adds view mode links to the bottom of threads. [screenshot]
The purpose of this function is explained in the "Tips" section below (see "How to not miss new posts in a thread"). - Fix "top" link
Fixes the "Back to the top" broken link (visible on the previous screenshot) at the bottom of every thread (which hasn't been working properly ever since the thread pagination was implemented in 2007!). - Fix PM arrows
Fixes the "broken arrows" on the PMs in the Outbox (which was reported to the IMDb in 2007!). [screenshot] - Jump to posts
There's a down arrow in other users' profiles, clicking which scrolls the page down to the posts. [screenshot]
It was implemented by IMDb on my request but the My Profile page was overlooked. This script adds the arrow in your own profile too. - Link to posts
Ctrl+click on the subject line of a post to generate a universal (page number independent, among other things) link to it (in the current view mode).
Optional. - Nest indentation indicator
In "nest" view mode displays the level of indentation of the post in the subject line. [screenshot]
Unfortunately, IMDb "resets" the indentations when you change pages, meaning that the minimum indentation on a given page is always shifted down to 0 (which should be the indentation level of the original post only). There's no way to fix it with a user-script.
Optional. - Inline Reply / Edit + Markup + Hotkeys
Reply to a post (or edit yours) without leaving the thread. [screenshot]
Useful when you want to see the whole thread while composing the reply. Also, it's much faster.
It works for PMs too. (Start replying to a PM right in your inbox so that you see/quote the recipient's PM while composing the reply.)
(Tip: if for some reason you want to bypass this function, click the reply/edit button with the middle button of the mouse to open it in a new tab. Or equivalently, right-click it and select "Open Link in New Tab".)
The default height of the form (and in the case of PMs, the width as well) can be changed via your profile (Text Display: Rows); the width depends on the width of the post.
And you can resize it with the mouse.
Almost all functions of the markup & hotkeys script (including the "space problem" fix) are also available in this mode. - Delete / Edit in read-only threads
Allows to delete or edit your posts in read-only threads. - Delete posts instantly
Delete your posts instantly, without getting thrown to the thread's first page (or reloading the page).
Optional. - Delete posts via profile
Allows to delete your posts directly from your profile page. [screenshot]
When you click a Delete icon it disappears and the corresponding post gets deleted; the link to the deleted post remains until you refresh the page (press F5).
Be careful: posts are deleted without confirmation. I recommend using this function only when you need to delete your entire posting history or many posts at a time (after which you should turn it off).
Optional. - Board display filter
Allows to refine posting history display by board. [screenshot]
Meaning that in user posing histories you can choose to view posts only from a certain board. - Transparent signatures
Makes annoying signatures transparent. [screenshot]
Transparency level can be changed from 0% to 100%.
This only works when the user has more than one visible post on the current page (the script compares them to detect a signature).
Optional. - Local times
Converts times of PMs and posts (inside threads, but not in user profiles and boards) from Seattle to your local time zone.
The current version of the script will take into account DST changes of 2011, 2012, 2013.
Optional. - Sort Friends by Last Active
Sorts your Friends by the "Last Active" time by default.
Optional. - Reorder Favorites
Allows to reorder the boards in the Favorites drop-down list. [screenshot]
Enter natural numbers from 1 to 99 and click the "Assign" button (don't press Enter). The page will reload and the boards in the drop-down list will be reordered according to the numbers you entered.
The boards lacking numbers will be grouped together, placed after the ordered boards and sorted by their URLs, as before. (Well, technically, they're sorted by theirbd/nm/ttalphanumeric identifiers, but practically, there's no difference.)
The boards that have the same number will also be sorted by their URLs within that number.
In other words, primarily, the boards will be sorted by the numbers you assign; secondarily, they'll be sorted by their URLs as usual.
Optional. - Notes in user profiles
Allows to attach personal notes to user profiles. [screenshot]
(Tip: your profile Preview mode allows to attach a note to your own profile as well.)
Technically, the notes are saved in your Firefox. So they may be lost if you uninstall the script/Greasemonkey/Firefox. You may want to backup them. - New PM alert
Notifies of new Private Messages on all boards pages by adding this blinking envelope to the boards header. [screenshot]
In order not to waste bandwidth (IMDb's, your ISP's and yours) the minimum interval between checks is set to 2 minutes.
Alternatively you can use the IMDb's e-mail notification system (if you don't receive many PMs every day...).
Optional. - Staff logos
Adds small IMDb logos next to (current and former) staff members' names on the boards and your Friends list. [screenshot]
This is generally useful for the users who visit the "Contributors Help" board and want to recognise official threads instantly.
(Tip: visit the "IMDb Information" board for demonstration.)
Optional.
FeedbackRecent Changes
9 March 2012- Added new staff members (for the "Staff Logos" option).
Tips
- Posting special characters Whether any special characters can be posted or not depends on the IMDb and your browser. To check it, simply copy & paste a character into your message and click Preview (if it can't be posted, it will be converted into its numeric code).
- How are signature characters counted What you need to know:
- About "Last Active" "Last Active" is displayed on the users' Message Boards profiles (and in your Friends list) and only refers to their Message Boards related activity (updating the profile, ignore list, friends list, favorites; reporting/posting/editing messages, sending/receiving/deleting PMs). Boards-unrelated activity doesn't update (reset) the "Last Active" time.
- How to not miss new posts in a thread When new posts are added to a thread, its "Latest Posting" link colour changes from purple (visited) to blue (unvisited). But there may be multiple new posts in it, not just one. If you prefer the "flat" view mode, you'll always see the posts in chronological order and won't miss any new posts. But if you prefer "nest", they may be scattered across different pages. In that case do the following if the thread is large. Temporarily switch to "inline" view mode (this is where the "View mode links" function of this script comes in handy, as clicking "Latest Posting" often scrolls the page down to the bottom), which shows the posts in chronological order and one post at a time. The posts you haven't read yet will be blue (unvisited link colour). Click on the first new post to open it. If you need to know which other post it's posted in reply to, middle-click on the "nest" link to open that post in nest mode in a new tab. Read it and close the tab. Click the down arrow on the post to open the next post in "inline" mode. Again, open it in "nest" mode in a new tab if needed.
- Parallel realm for chatting If you want to organise a chat among several posters, you can attach a chat window to the boards by adding gabbly.com/ in front of the board URL. Example:
- Notification of a non-existent PM If you have received an e-mail notification of a PM that doesn't seem to exist, try the following. If you have more than one account, make sure you are logged in with the right account (from which the notification originates). Then click the link in the e-mail -- it leads directly to the PM which has generated the notification. If it still doesn't show up, it means the sender's entire posting history has been wiped (either by admins, or as a result of self-deletion), which also wipes all their sent PMs.
- Missing "reply" buttons If the "reply" buttons have disappeared, you may have blocked IMDb's media server (
- "ttXXXXXXX ()" boards in profiles If you see such boards in a user's posting history (example), it means the corresponding title/name has been deleted from the database (for whatever reason). When this happens, its message board doesn't get deleted automatically along with the rest of the data (you may report this bug). The links to the boards & posts remain in users' profiles but they cannot be accessed by clicking on them (you'll get an error message).
- Official Help
All characters from IMDb's list can be posted with Firefox but some of them can't be posted with Opera.
Also, user profile biographies accept more special characters than posts.
- Markup tags and spaces also count (as the official help page implies).
- A line break counts as 2 chars.
- The limit is actually 99 chars, not 100.
- Don't use Microsoft Word for counting characters, it doesn't always do it correctly (or rather, you may not know how to use it correctly). The easiest way is to use Microsoft Notepad (included in any Windows). Right-click on the desktop and click New => Text Document in the context menu to create a .txt file, enter your signature in it, close & save the file, right-click on it and select Properties to see the exact number of characters (bytes) in your signature.
New users' "Last Active" field is blank.
As you may have noticed, some users were last active a day before they registered (example). That's because the user registration information is stored on the servers located in Bristol (where IMDb is based), while the message boards software is running on the servers located in Seattle (where IMDb's parent company Amazon is based).
This may sound complicated but it's really easy once you get used to it.
gabbly.com/http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000041/threads/Anyone can join you by visiting the same URL, so if you want to chat privately, you can arrange (via PM) a meeting at a modified URL, which no one else can possibly know about. Example:
gabbly.com/http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000041/threads/gang211ia.media-imdb.com) either with ad-blocking add-ons/software, or with the browser itself. If you block ads, make sure IMDb-related domains aren't blocked. Also check your browser's image load/display settings. If you're using Firefox, check this list: Tools => Options => Content (tab) => Load images automatically - Exceptions (button).The way to access those "in-limbo" threads is to change the "tt" (title) or "nm" (name) number in the URL to a number of a title/name that exists in the database (increasing or decreasing the last digit by 1 usually does the trick). The title/name displayed at the top of the thread will correspond to the new number but now you'll be able to read the thread and delete your posts. You can also use this script to delete such posts directly from your profile page.
