Long User Names

[JJ]

Forum URL: hootyowl.proboards.com/

I remember seeing a conversation about this somewhere, but now I cannot find it. I have several members that have created really long usernames, 20 characters or more. Is there a code or plugin to prevent this? And is it retroactive?

Thanks.

[CheatAreZee]

Hi JJ,

I did a quick search and found this topic, but I see you had already given that a try due to the last post in the thread. I'm not sure of any other modifications that are made at this time for this, so you may want to try making a template or Header & Footer request to see if something can be made

[JJ]

Thanks, CheatAreZee, I bow to your search skills. I knew I'd seen it somewhere and just couldn't find it. Ok, I'll go request a code. Meanwhile, I've posted a request at my site and even added an addendum in the rules section. I now have a member who has a four letter name that has extended that with numbers and symbols to 22 characters! I sent that person a PM to change it, but I still have the member whose name goes into next week and I was hoping to address it with a quick fix. I don't mind the occasional ~ or such, but 22 characters?! Ahh the joys of owning a website. But I do love it and my members, warts and all.

[Joachim]

I've seen it on support before, I just can't find it, I think it was a short script of sort that shortened usernames that were too many character long, it cut them up and added '...' at the end of them. Perhaps not so much a script as a small CSS snippet.

It doesn't so much stops people from having overly long usernames but it keeps those usernames from stretching all over the place.

[JJ]

Yes, Joachim! I've seen it too, and just can't find the darned thing. You're right, it was a snippet. I'm sure it makes their name look funky. but hey, if you are going to have an extreme name, you get what you get! Thanks for the feedback.

[Joachim]

It's called CSS truncating, from my little bit of research, it'd be something not far from what's on this site:
css-tricks.com/snippets/css/truncate-string-with-ellipsis/

I wouldn't know how to fix it up to get it working with the usernames though.

[JJ]

That was fun, Joachim, did you check on the see HERE on that site and see the cow with her missing middle. That was good for a chuckle. I think of the word truncate to mean you cut off the end, and that is definitely what I want to do. I'm not CSS adept, I just do what I'm told to do. Well I put in a request over at the head/footers section, so we'll see what that produces.

Thank you for the conversation, it's nice to meet you.

[Joachim]

I managed to get the following working for me, you'd just have to play with the width: 100px; to find a length that's working for you. I put it at the bottom of my style sheet.

.user-link {
 width: 100px;
 white-space: nowrap;
 overflow: hidden;
 text-overflow: ellipsis;
 -o-text-overflow: ellipsis;
 -ms-text-overflow: ellipsis;
 -moz-binding: url('ellipsis.xml#ellipsis');
 display: block;
}

[RedBassett]

Note that this will work in most cases, however different font sizes (like the list of moderators on a board, users who like a post, etc) will be affected differently.

In fact, if this is an issue for you, I've gone ahead and authored a plugin (currently pending approval) that limits based on character count rather than actual width. This is a slightly more resource intensive way to do it, but is more accurate if you need that accuracy.

[JJ]

Hi, Joachim, thank you for the code. I will experiment with it at my test site.

RedBassett, the plugin you mentioned sounds like what I am looking for. I can see that there might be a problem with different font sizes. Mostly, I want to restrict the length and/or number of characters. I will go to my other post in Headers and Footers and leave an update that I am waiting for a pending plugin. Thank you.

[Joachim]

Restricting by character count is best in my opinion as well but looking high and low I couldn't find anything on how to do it despite that I really, really recall seeing it posted up on Support before, I'd love to see it based on character count instead of width.

[JJ]

I'm with you on this, Joachim, I know I saw it, probably a year ago. Since I'd never ever had a problem with a long user name at my place I probably just read it and moved on. Just goes to show that if you stay open long enough, you get to experience new things. lol

[RedBassett]

Plugin is in the library, if you wish to use it:

www.proboards.com/library/plugins/item/698

May 30, 2014 8:18:05 GMT -8 Joachim said:

Restricting by character count is best in my opinion as well but looking high and low I couldn't find anything on how to do it despite that I really, really recall seeing it posted up on Support before, I'd love to see it based on character count instead of width.

Yeah, I think your solution was actually really great (and I was unfamiliar with the overflow set to ellipses mode, must have missed that when using overflow before), it just irked some small part of me inside that it wasn't consistent

As I noted previously, technically my solution is a little more resource intensive and requires a plugin slot, but if you care about making the limit character-based, then it will do that!

[JJ]

RedBassett, thank you very much. It's brilliant and extremely easy to use. I pondered over the directions a minute because it doesn't say anything but Display Name Length. You might want to change that to Display Name Character Length. I knew it wasn't PX, so just picked a number and went with it. The one member name that was driving me nutso had a lot of ... and * stuff going on. Well, this member's name now looks bit odd, but so be it. I sent the member a PM asking for a shorter name than 22 characters and got no response. I'm not a total dictator, I ran it by the members on the board and the consensus was that they don't like those long odd names either. I chose 15, but might go even shorter!

Ok, now let me share a personal journey with the members here. My name is JJ and has been for over 40 years, everyone I know calls me JJ. (My real name is Jacqueline, last name starts with a J. Who the heck wants to type that!) Certainly not me nor people responding to a post of mine. Yet, for the last ten years when I started visiting websites, I was informed that my name was too short. So for years, at places I am known as JustJJ. Tonight I joined a place and decided I'm not a Just anything, so I joined as I'm JJ. If I can jump through hoops, people with creative names can jump with me.

[RedBassett]

Yeah, that was a quick build, I can re-work the language a little. I'll put that in my issue tracker for when I make an update!