Forum Thread

I personally find it annoying to scroll through a bunch of long posts and/or signatures in forums. Especially with suggestions; when you’re trying to find others’ thoughts on the suggestion. (I’d assume that’d also be an issue with roleplays; and for shop owners)

There is currently the option for users to hide their signature on their own posts, or add spoiler tags to take up less space. But there is no option for readers to hide others’ signatures, or shorten the length of others' posts.

EDIT 28/07/2025:
After scrolling through 70 pages of the BBCode guide, this seems even more necessary for me. I noticed that while signatures have a limit on the space they can take up, the same does not apply for the forum posts themselves. Posts should also have a scrollbar when the content exceeds X lines/pixels. Signatures should be placed below, within the same scrollbar, not separately after.

Regular 150x150 avatars don't take up much space. [Avatars with weird proportions take up space in forums, like they do in feeds, but that's a different issue]

[A] Premium banners, however, can sometimes extend posts. Maybe the ONLINE bar could be changed to the PalPad online icon, and placed on the left of the Username. Then Premium banners wouldn't create a noticeable difference. OR, there could be a small star badge/icon representing their Premium status, placed on the left of the Trainer level.

[B] Alternatively, the length of the sidebar (info + avatar + banner) determines the maximum length of the post before the scrollbar starts. This means Premium users would get a bit more space (which could be advertised as an additional Premium benefit). [Staff would also get more space, which is useful]. The signature would start at the end of the post, within the same scrollbar.

[I'll try to add some visuals later.]

Other options (if implementable with the current forum setup):
- The 'maximum length before scrollbar' shouldn't apply to the first post in a thread
- The max. length wouldn't apply to Moderator/Admin's posts, or certain threads such as Minor Updates.

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This could either be implemented as:
- a permanent update for everyone, in the case of option [B] above
- a setting that enables compact mode in all threads (as well as forum search and PMs)
- a checkbox above each thread that (temporarily) enables compact mode in that thread/PM/search

If the latter 2, I think it’d be best if both were implemented. Some users may want to selectively use compact mode (on in suggestions, off in forum games), so the checkbox for individual threads may suit them. Others may want to avoid long posts, or advertisements and/or GIFs in signatures, so an always-on option would work better.

Thread has received Mod approval and is now open for discussion.

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