First, no hybrid please. Meaning the same post should have only one type of formatting applied to it. The current system tries to do bbcode and markdown at the same time and it ends up doing stuff like disappearing comments from code boxes.
It seemed a good idea at first (maybe) but indeed...
There seems to be a lot of issues arising from running the input through both the bbcode and markdown parser. I'm planning to separate the two, and allow the user to select their parser...
https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk/issues/1035#issuecomment-714722576Second, bbcode needs to be migrated 1:1. No matter how ugly the code is, run php in the backend if you must, it just needs to work. With all the quirks, like the squished first column in tables. Same styling/colors too. There's too much good old content dependent on all those bbcode quirks - it would be a shame to have it mangled.
I agree 100% about the old posts.
The issue is mostly about future posts. An alert message when quoting old posts would help. The "post glitchiness percentage" in the alert is a cute idea.
And there should be shortcut buttons for everything - from bold text to tables. We can't expect everyone to remember all codes, be it bbcode or markdown. But if bbcode is allowed only for editing old posts then perhaps it doesn't need a full featured editor. Not sure if that really saves any development effort though.
That is definitely the plan and editor would be fitted with buttons
...I'm gonna go with option 1. Adding any sort of complexity to a migration process (e.g. multiple markup languages, one way conversions on edit, etc.) is bound to break something as well as increase the ongoing cost of maintenance. And for what? A subjectively "easier" markup language (with potentially less features)?
Most people that use the forum either don't use any BBCode, use light styling touches (bold, italic, etc.) or know BBCode in and out and style their threads to the maximum extent the system allows. Those that either don't use BBCode or only do light styling aren't suddenly going to change their behavior and go all out with their posts / topics just cause they can use Markdown. And the users who put in massive amounts of effort into their content (which BTW includes complex signatures that often heavily rely on mountains of parser implementation quirks) will not only (potentially) have their old content mangled but have to learn the ins and outs of a new language as well as any specific implementation tricks of the Markdown parser to achieve anything even close to what they were able to previously.
I totally understand your concern and I have no problem sticking to BBCode.
Regarding sigs it would be harder to manage. Doesn't sound that good to have the "new parser" for future posts at the same time the "hacky php parser" for displaying sigs below the posts going forwards.
Sigs change a lot, campaign ends etc and might not be that hard for them to adapt to a less quirky BBCode for example
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