Get Everything Done

Hello everyone,

I've published several userscripts in the past to improve this website and forum. They're now scattered across three threads in this forum and some variations exist, making it hard to find out which scripts exist, which can be combined and which shouldn't be combined.

Thus I merged all my userscripts into one. One script to rule them all. ;-)

You'll only need this single link, the newest version of the script and instructions will always be available here:

http://andreashofmann.net/userscripts/markforster.net/

Before you install it, uninstall any of my userscripts you may have installed. You won't need anything beside this script.

It includes:

- Highlight New Topics and Posts
- Highlight Mark Forster's Posts
- Go to Last Page When Opening Topics
- Scroll to Bottom When Opening Topics
- Open Topics in New Tabs/Windows
- Block Esc Key From Forwarding to Login Screen

In addition, there now is an options menu, which will be added to the bottom of the left side bar and allows you to enable/disable all features in realtime.

Thanks Andrea. Brilliant as usual.

Does it scroll to the bottom when opening topics or does it scroll to the first unread post?

Whichever script I am using scrolls to the last unread post. It highlights unread in yellow on and Mark Forster i n green. That's the way I like it best. Therefore I am thinking that if it isn't broken I shouldn't fix it.

Mike:

Thanks!

MartyH:

Where it scrolls to depends.

If you don't activate one of the "Highlight ..." scripts and don't activate "Jump to Bottom", it will always stay at the top.

If you activate neither one of the "Highlight ..." scripts nor "Jump to Bottom", it will always scroll to the bottom.

If you do activate one of the "Highlight ..." scripts and don't activate "Jump to Bottom", it will scroll to the first new post if there are new posts and stay at the top if there aren't.

If you activate both one of the "Highlight ..." scripts and "Jump to Bottom", it will scroll to the first new post if there are new posts and scroll to the bottom if there aren't.

In that aspect, the new script and my old scripts (installed together or separately respectively) behave exactly the same.

There's one aspect the new script behaves differently: The old standalone higlight script only highlighted Mark's new posts in green. The new script highlights all of Mark's posts, using the same old green for new posts and a much lighter shade of green for old posts.

Oh, and the reason I say "one of" the highlight scripts is that it will scroll to the newest post even if you only highlight Mark's posts. I'll fix that behavior in the next version.

<<If you don't activate one of the "Highlight ..." scripts and don't activate "Jump to Bottom", it will always stay at the top.

If you activate neither one of the "Highlight ..." scripts nor "Jump to Bottom", it will always scroll to the bottom.>>

Screwed that one up, it's "install neither -> alway at top" and "don't install highlight, install jump to bottom -> always to bottom", of course.

That's brilliant Andreas, thank you! I've never used GreaseMonkey scripts before, so this is a revelation. I'm only sorry I can't use it at work, where I have to use Internet Explorer.

Andreas -

Thanks for the explanation of how they work together. Sounds perfect. I'll get it installed right away.

Andreas: Likewise, first time using Grease Monkey scripts. Don't know how it works--it might be magic... But what an improvement for reading this site! This sort of behaviour should be baked right in.

<< This sort of behaviour should be baked right in. >>

I believe Mark Forster can incorporate AndreasH javascript into his site webpage if he wants. Anyway, I'm another new happy user of AndreasH's script. ;-)

Installed the script yesterday, and looking at how it works: WOW! Andreas, you're the best!

Feeling a bit dense. . . where is the "bottom of the left side bar" so that I may access the options menu? I'm using firefox. . . do i not have the right version?

I was dense, too--looking for something on the bottom left of the web browser. Once you've installed the scripts, the options box appears embedded on the bottom of left of THIS website! Like magic.

Joseph:

It means the last box in the left side bar. There are the boxes "Search", "Newsletter", "Most recent postings", "To think about" and "Login", followed by the twitter updates. The box "Userscript Options" should be below that.

It is the left bar on the page itself. (I scratched my head like you are doing - don't feel bad.)

Problem is, if the middle pane is longer than the sidebar, the options are not at the bottom of the whole page. They're technically at the bottom of the sidebar, since the sidebar is only as high as the combined height of the boxes it contains, but visually you may think of the sidebar continuing empty to the bottom of the page, in which case "at the bottom of the left sidebar" is confusing.

Perhaps I should've just said "in the left sidebar".

Or "in the left sidebar of the website". I forget there are sidebars in browsers. ^_^

I changed the text and added a more illustrating screenshot at http://andreashofmann.net/userscripts/markforster.net/#options

Ha! Thanks folks, it was there in plain sight. Andreas, you were right. . . i was thinking "sidebar" integrated into a browser. The whole time I was thinking "Firefox doesn't have a left hand sidebar!"

Great script, thanks!

Yes, this is awesome. And yes, I also did not see the options on the left sidebar until this thread explained it to me.

Now that I am using this, I feel that it would be more efficient for me if the New Tab/Window option kept the focus on the main forum page, rather than taking me to the newly opened topic here's why.

I go to the forum page. I see the top 4 topics are yellow. What I usually want to do is click all 4 highlighted topics. Since I have the attention span of a fruit fly, if I am immediately taken to the opened topic, I then forget which ones I have already opened and which ones remain to be opened. I would prefer to remain on the forum page and just click all the highlighted topics that interest me. I can then close the forum page and start to read the opened topics.

But all this is petty stuff. The way things are is far superior to the way things were, where I was constantly trying to remember what I had already read and what was new.

The generosity of Mark and Andreas continues to inspire me. Thanks.

I middle click which opens each in a new tab while leaving me on the main page.

<<Now that I am using this, I feel that it would be more efficient for me if the New Tab/Window option kept the focus on the main forum page, rather than taking me to the newly opened topic here's why.>>

That's something I can't influence, I think. I either let the links open in the same tab/window, or give them target="blank" to open in a new tab/window. HTML doesn't support a "in background" target. Maybe I can find something in JavaScript to achieve that effect.

What you need to do to open them in the background varies depending on which browser you use. In Chrome, I hold Ctrl down while clicking the links. In Opera, it's Ctrl+Shift. In Firefox, Ctrl alone does the job (I don't now if this is influenced by the Tab Mix Plus extension I have installed).

And as MartyH says, middle-click works for me in all three browsers as well, but I don't usually do that because my notebook has no middle mouse button. ;-)

Nope, opening tabs in the background is something I can't do. It's something you as the users have complete control over, probably as a protection from malicious scripts.

Moises, if you use Firefox, install the Tab Mix Plus extension, it has tons of settings regarding the handling of tabs. You can set new tabs created from links to open in the background automatically there (or invert left click and middle click on links, so left click opens in background and middle click in foreground).

Hi, Andreas. Your script works amazingly fine with Firefox. Thanks!!

Andreas,

Got it! I use Firefox and I see that holding CTRL accomplishes just what I want. Thanks.

Andreas I am loving the userscript-- I just wish I could test out the "highlight Mark's posts" functionality. :)

vegheadjones:

Well, it does highlight all of Mark's posts, not only the new ones. For example: http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/1006802

I only want to test it on Mark's new posts... :) :)

Okay, okay, I catch your drift. ;-)

Thany you Andreas for your effort and time you put into the script.
It is so much easier and faster and fun to read the forum with it.

Andreas,

Does your script work with internet explorer? It just produces errors when i try to run it!

piggler:

No, it doesn't work in Internet Explorer. There are two reasons for this:

1. Internet Explorer doesn't support userscripts.

There exist several attempts to rectify this with external applications (Greasemonkey for IE, Trixie, Turnabout and IE7pro), but even then my script will (for now) still fail.

2. Internet Explorer doesn't support JavaScript.

Sound strange, but it's true. While all other browsers support JavaScript (and are therefore capable of running this script, which I wrote in JavaScript), what IE has isn't JavaScript, but Microsoft JScript. JavaScript and JScript are very similar, but Microsoft often has its own way of doing things, so my script won't work with JScript. The only thing that works currently is the menu.

It's possible to change the script to work with IE or even detect whether it's run in IE or a standards-compliant browser and work in both. I'll eventually do it, but currently I'm concentrating on AutofocusAHK. If anyone want's to take a shot at it in the mean time, feel free.

I appreciate the userscript very much. (Foxfire worked best.)
I can easily read just the newer posts and waste less time figuring out where I left off the last time I visited the forum.

You save me time.

Qeran

Me like.

http://andreashofmann.net/userscripts/markforster.net/ gets redirected to ... https://andreasmaurer.net/userscripts/markforster.net/ that now gives a 404 error.

http://andreashofmann.info/userscripts/markforster.net/ did not resolve.

Only found this copy on Github. Putting a place holder for it here, for now ...
https://github.com/andreashofmann/markforster.net-improvement-userscript

Wow, this is a blast from the past!

The script doesn't seem to work anymore, I'll make some adjustments and post a new url here some time this week. Probably today, since I got a feeling this task will stand out to me. :0)

Creating and maintaining this script is obviously a great public service, though I don't think I'll be using it myself.

But I'm intrigued by sabre23t's remark:

>
This version has the bonus "Norman" or "Best Sense" features. Can't see that feature in action though, since Norman is no longer active here.
>

Did this mean Norman U, of fond memory? Did the script have some sort of defensive measure or early warning against him?

And what about "Best Sense"? Was that a person, or did the script magically sort the smart wheat from the dumb chaff in the posts - using advanced AI, presumably?

If so, I'd better make the effort and install the script.

Chris Cooper:

"Best Sense" was simply the label of a group of three options concerning Norman: Highlighting Norman's posts, Hiding all posts except those by Norman, and Blacking out Norman's posts.

I don't remember how that came about.

I fixed a lot of the problems and hosted the script here: https://github.com/andreasmaurer/markforster.net-improvements-userscript

I got most options working, just the core functionality of highlighting new topics and posts is still broken. Better uncheck it for now. I also think the "Compact Posts" can under "Sidebar" can be removed, the sidebar has changed since back then.

The code of the script hasn't exactly aged well, so I'm inclined to completely re-write it, but that is a more time-consuming endeavor. I will create a now forum thread when I start implementing it.

I think I fixed the highlighting of new posts. At least it is not throwing any errors any more. I'll have to wait for new topics/posts to check.

Even if it does work, the script was written in a time when there was only one forum, so it will get really confused if you switch between the two forums.

No wonder Norman flounced out!

I was sorry to see him go.