Is it logical to discuss the underlying code, just speculatively, here?

I mean, if we were all allowed to MARCIE just one other person, it'd be easy, because showthread.php could just get a clause like:

if($poster == $marcied_poster){ next; }

or whatever, but presumably we get more than one?

So we need a new joining-table of some kind? A table like

MARCIE-erMARCIE-eeJohn HRebecca Lizard

(if I were ever to MARCIE Rebecca) only with numbers of course?

What does this mean?

CVS is a code versioning software that runs (primarily, I think) on Unix boxes, and allows pretty granular control and status info that allows a distributed team of programmers to work together with minimal shedding of blood and loss of code with stomping on.

And yes, John, it would work like that. We didn't pick a maximum number of filters/user, and we have designed the in-thread look of the feature, but there'll also need to be a page where you can see a list of who you've marcied and be able to unblock them.

My SQL abilities are my weak point, so bear with me -- what about an array variable in the user table? So for every userid, there would be an open ended array. Whenever a user MARCIEd someone, the MARCIE-ee would get appended to the array. Then the code would check if $poster was contained in the array for that user.

I (and John will bear me out, once he stops laughing or rolling his eyes) am Normalisation's bitch. And what John proposed is precisely normal -- relationships other than one-to-one should have their own table. Your suggestion is how I'd represent the data inside the PHP object, but when I have a little less of a pounding headache maybe I can explain to you why it's less good for the underlying structure.

Which isn't supposed to sound condescending or dismissive, but I fear it may.

I shoulda just typed "BECAUSE IT'S WRONG!!!", shouldn't I?

EDIT: in reply to Jon.

So that would be more like:

if($poster in( $marcied_posters_array) ){ next; }

right? I can't remember the exact look-things-up-in-an-array syntax.

But ita's right of course, even if she is in an abusive relationship with normalisation.

That's how the data would be stored.

Then it would be taken out, on a page-by-page basis, and stored in an array of $this_buffistas_marcied_people.

Forgive the ignorance, but is {next;} in your examples shorthand for "do whatever MARCIE does" or does it just mean "skip this post"?

Because I thought that MARCIE'd posts were going to look more like deleted ones, only with "this post made blinvisible by MARCIE" instead of "deleted by so and so."

That way, it's easier to see that there are posts other people are responding to, and the conversation looks less Dada-ish.

Jess, MARCIE display discussion starts about here: Noumenon "Buffistas Building a Better Board" Mar 3, 2003 12:30:02 pm EST

Which isn't supposed to sound condescending or dismissive, but I fear it may.

Not at all. Like I said, relational databases/SQL are my weak point. One of the reasons I like coding this place is because the code is so pretty -- it's a good framework from which to learn.

I shoulda just typed "BECAUSE IT'S WRONG!!!", shouldn't I?

No, but you shoulda typed Normalization.

{next;}

Probably isn't even correct PHP code. Very much shorthand.