Answered Code Question

[strawberrycupid]

So I've dabbled in bbcode here and there, mostly on like proboards/freeforum. But looking through some of the application codes and the code guide here, it's very different than what I've seen before on other sites. Is it like a different kind of bbcode? Or are certain things like programmed into the site to get them to work? Thanks to anyone that takes the time and read this and explain it to me maybe.

 

[Sir Les Paul]

Another Mod and/or Admin can correctly me if I'm wrong and I'll try to keep this explanation as jargon-free as possible.

BBCode in a vacuum is a simplistic language designed for quick, simple formatting on forums. It is literally shorthand for bulletin board code. It has become fancier and more complex over time, but at it's core, it is meant to be a "lightweight" language for formatting posts/replies/threads on forums. Obviously, it has come quite far since then.

This super basic answer here is just to explain why there are inconsistencies across platforms.

There is actually quite a bit you can do with even basic bbcode. I'm not sure where the exact starting line is for what is considered "base level bbcode", but there are tables, backgrounds, borders, and all sorts of text editing. In my experience, most platforms have most of these codes or the potential to (some sites may choose to disable some).

It is when we step away from this base level coding that the answer here becomes somewhat more complex. I will admit I'm more of a "people person" mod and while I've learned some coding myself, I genuinely do not know what fully goes on in the magical back end of the site that results in some of these codes working. I have what one would call functional knowledge and that's what I will share.

There are some codes I like to think as "proprietary" codes, and those would be things that are somewhat unique, like the accordions or the text-message formatting you see in the list. These are the ones I know the least about. They work and they're neat. I don't know if they're fully unique to the site, but they do result in some of the most interesting coding I've seen, specifically the accordions.

Then there are codes that allow you to use other resources like google fonts and hex color codes. These allow you to go here:

Browse Fonts - Google Fonts

Making the web more beautiful, fast, and open through great typography

fonts.google.com

or here

Color Picker — HTML Color Codes

Finding that perfect color is easier than you think. Use our color picker to discover beautiful colors and harmonies with Hex color codes and RGB values.

htmlcolorcodes.com

And do some tweaking beyond the basic colors/fonts listed. I will warn you though that different mobile browsers parse some codes a bit different, resulting in color or font discrepancies. I have seen this even in the art (I think of some coding done by fantastic on-site coders as more of art than work) of coders far better than I, of which there are plenty. Anyone may correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is a solution to the mobile browser thing. Though, if someone does have an answer, I welcome them to enlighten me; it has caused me much frustrations over the years.

Back on track, while there are some neat codes that allow you to float images or resize them, the vast majority of the most complex stuff that I consider a coding art is done via the raw editor. Many "power users" essentially never toggle off of the raw code editor once they learn to just code as they go. More importantly, toggling can affect more complex code in ways that essentially break it.

The final frontier of bbcode on the site is one with nigh-infinite possibilities. That is using divs or other means to essentially use direct CSS to code. BBCode is a light mark-up language. CSS is much more powerful with many more options. There are guides, though honestly learning it from the ground up can be far more useful, and code workshops that provide some free samples. In the cases of the best code artists on site, I believe they use third-party code editors/parsers to actually write their code, then copy it here. I can't 100% confirm that, but I assure you, there exists a level where that is far more logical and "clean" than trying to write it in a box.

In short, there is super basic BBCode you see on most forums, a little bit of a gray area that varies site-to-site, some custom stuff to this site, and then the realm of near-infinite possibility that comes with CSS/divs.

 

[Alteras]

As Sir Les Paul already mentioned, there are common bbcodes that most forums share, and custom stuff with each one. Each forum has different "flavors" of bbcode tailored to their own needs, each one usually maintained and handcrafted by the site owner. For us, our bbcode is very much on the complex side, bordering proper programming languages, but in most forums the bbcode would be fairly strict, designed to achieve certain things. bbcode never had an official standard to unify all the different types, so everything is up to who runs the site.