💾 Archived View for ywcafe.cities.yesterweb.org › formatguide.gmi captured on 2024-08-18 at 16:32:59. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Here's a quick, easy way to make your replies efficient and engaging to interact with! With these quick tips, you'll be having fun interactive conversations in no time.
Before you go further
These are *NOT* required by *ANY* means. Feel free to chat how you like! Either using these formatting tools -or- by simply using plaintext over the cafe's [guestbook]'s > quote system. (guestbook? huh?? [;)])
Always remember the Devolutionary Oath
1. wear gaudy colors or avoid display 2. lay a million eggs or give birth to one 3. the fittest shall survive yet the unfit may live 4. be like your ancestors or be different 5. we must repeat!
OK. Now that we got all that intro stuff out the way. =)
So, first thing's first, is you should get yourself acquainted with the way the chat works.
Like a wise man once replied in the message board for the chat,
This is so incredibly clever. What a brilliant abuse of guestbooking
- Basil_Mori
Essentially, that's exactly what's happening here. The front page is, entirely, justs one big guestbook page. Now, THAT being SAID, it's a guestbook page with a *lot* of character and capability. :P Really, this should have the same capability as any other does. The benefit is that, generally, it's meant as a way to act as a rudimentary message board for people between Yesterweb Cities' Capsules and make updates with eachother or interact as they see fit.
It's very simple. The format goes like this:
message of sending/replying participant
- username of sending/replying participant
Nothing more to it than that. When the guestbook client input asks for your name, usually, is where you'd put your tag of choice. After that, it asks for a message, in which it will render out in a > blockquote format. That's really all about does it on that end, anyways.
Since the userbase are other capsuleers across Yesterweb/geminispace.
Please, use courtesy, and be kind to eachother. No hostility or any inappropriate conduct. Nothing you wouldn't do at work or in a public place, feel me?
(If there is ANY instance of ANY kind of negative/ inappropriate conduct or behavior in the chat, this will all be terminated immediately *zero tolerance*)
With the cat out of the bag, here's some funny lil exploits I've found out as a result of messin' around with goin' outside the usual boundaries of what a guestbook is meant for; i.e. that is, the usual purpose being as a way to leave a small message acting as a greeting on someone's webpage. :3
You might've noticed something interesting in the chat's replies. You'll see the usual instance of a message appear like so:
> message sent by actively engaging participant of reply-string - username (in plaintext)
Conversely, alongside those normal types of guestbook messages, you'll see one that appears like this:
> @username (recipient-participant) > general-subject-of-reply -LINEBREAK-(blank space) the rest of the message is plaintext along w/ - username (replying-participant)
Now, what exactly is happening there?
It's only informal because the first instance of it happening, really, was unintentional and an accident. Be that as it may, it's opened up some doors for making interactions across this site seamless. What makes it informal is the fact that, after the linebreak, the next line is in plaintext.
So, if you wanna avoid the informal approach, how do you make it more formal?
Make sure to use a > to bring back the quote, so that it should appear like this instead:
> @username (recipient-participant) > general-subject-of-reply -LINEBREAK-(blank space) > the rest of the message is a quote again - username (back in plaintext)
This is the basis for the basic direct reply system we use in the Yesterweb Cafe.
So what more can you do after the linebreak, tho?
Good question! Well... let's find out. :^)
You got something interesting you wanna share with everyone? With the linebreak, this makes it much more simple and easier to do.
Follow the basic sequence as above, but with the variation of including a link before engaging back into the formal/informal reply. Like so:
> message of choice or @username reply-string -LINEBREAK-(blank space) => protocol:\\string title of URL > the rest of the message is a quote again - username (back in plaintext)
You can even just leave the rest of the message as is after the link and it should work just as well.
You may have noticed that I've been using pre-formatted text throughout the guide as a way to demonstrate strings of basic formatting you can use for your replies within the guestbook.
With all those basic gemtext formatting tools utilized in this manner, since the pre-format being prevalent through this guide, let's address that now so that we don't forget later.
At least for now. That might seem restrictive, but for the time being there could be very serious formatting glitches that could occur if pre-formatted text is attempted without completing -or- totally understanding the format of a pre-formatted block. It would be one thing if this guestbook system were editable or non-appendable (e.g. Auragem.space's guestbook). Unforunately, that is not the case. Because this platform is non-editable (which is the reason for the *zero tolerance* policy), for now, pre-formatted text will have to be restricted for the time being until a good way of making sure it's use can be guaranteed as universally understood.