From a Cave in the Woods...
The Unofficial GoComics Style Guide
Back to the Unofficial Pibgorn Tribute Page
GoComics.com allows visitors and members to post comments on the various strips that are published there. These comments often become the equivalent of a bulletin board or slow-paced IRC chat.
Trial and error has revealed that it is possible to do a fair amount of formatting of comments using various control codes. For your gratuitous edification, I present below the unofficial style guide for formatting comments on GoComics.
I asked the administrators for help on this, and they politely responded that they have no clue how it works, so what you see here is the result of experimentation. Thanks to UncaAlby and Ranma for their assistance. I have to say that the HTML generated by this engine is pretty flaky - and often doesn't even do what it's supposed to do.
This is a work in progress. Improvements and suggestions welcome - send them to ccdesan[at]gmail[dot]com.
Notes:
Control codes are interpreted upon submission and converted to HTML.
There is a delay between the time you post your comment and the time it becomes visible to those who are not signed in. It appears as though GoComics maintains a separate, mirrored database for logged-in users, and it takes a few minutes for the comments to post over to the other side.
Be aware that the HTML generated on each side is different. What you see when you are logged in may appear differently when you are logged out. (See the section on Ordered Lists as an example)
Font Codes Forbidden Character Escape Characters Special Characters Heading Styles Blockquote Unordered Lists
Ordered Lists Horizontal Rule Line Spacing Editing Comments Pre-formatted Text URL's Embedded Links Images
Font Codes
Note: Asterisks ( * ) and Underscores ( _ ) perform the same function.
Code Function Example Result HTML Generated None Body text Normal Text Normal Text None * or _ Italic *This line is italic*
_So is this line_This line is italic
So is this line<em>This line is italic</em>
<em>So is this line</em>** or __ Bold **This line is bold**
__So is this line__This line is Bold
So is this line<strong>This line is bold</strong>
<strong>So is this line</strong>*** or ___ Bold Italic ***This line is bold and italic***
___So is this line___This line is bold and italic
So is this line<strong><em>This line is bold and italic</em></strong>
<strong><em>So is this line</em></strong>
Various formats can be used within the same sentence.
Escape Characters
The escape character is the backslash (\). To print any control character in column 1 instead of having it be interpreted, precede the character with a backslash (\).
To print a backslash, you have to type two in a row (\\).
Regular asterisks require no special handling.*
Any text between angle brackets (<) and (>) is ignored. To print angle brackets in your comments, use < and >
Forbidden Character
` (a back-tick, or grave accent) anywhere in column 1 breaks the system. The comment will not post, and you are led to a generic questions page.
Special Characters
The GoComics forum is UTF-8 compatible. With some exceptions, such as Unicode codepoints that are way out of the normal range - like certain Chinese ideographs - any character that can be found in Arial Unicode MS can simply be pasted into the comment box and it will display in your comment.
One guide to accessing special characters for both PC and MAC is here. On the PC, all Unicode characters can be accessed with the "Character Map" tool (Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Character Map)
Examples:
斡 - Chinese / Japanese
ㄆ - bopomofo
お - hiragana
ギ - katakana
✈ - Wingdings
∌ - Math / Logic
␆ - TTY "ACK" symbol
돉 - hangul
ﷲ - Arabic
আ - Hindi
അ - Malayalam
(Thanks to Boniface Muggli for reminding me to post this here)
Heading Styles
"#" is the style tag when used in column 1. (To print a # in column one, precede it with a backslash (\#).)
# in column 1 results in
Style H1
## in column 1 results in
Style H2
### in column 1 results in
Style H3
#### in column 1 results in
Style H4
##### in column 1 results in
Red Text
Blockquote
The ">" is the "blockquote" character. Each ">" in column 1 results in an additional nested blockquote, with the closing HTML tags added at the end of the nest with additional "BR" characters. Thus:
A ">" in column 1 results in
tabbed text.All text after the tab character is indented until another tab command or a null line is encountered.
Multiple >'s in column 1 results in
more of the same.
Like this.
Etcetera
Etcetera
Etcetera
Indented text can have other formatting added.
A null line (paragraph) returns to normal indentation, but notice the trailing paragraph lines, which result from the closing blockquote HTML tags and their associated (BR) characters.
Unordered Lists
An asterisk (*) or a hyphen (-) in column 1 results in the <ul> and <li> tagset being generated, but text is not indented and bulletted as expected. Example:
If you type your comment as:
Unordered list:
*Item 1
*Item 2
*Item 3
End of unordered list
it will publish as:
Unordered list:
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
End of Unordered list
If you use the <blockquote> control character (>) in conjunction with the unordered list, you will get indented items:
Unordered list:
>*Item 1
>*Item 2
>*Item 3
End of unordered list
Will produce
Unordered list:
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
End of Unordered list
Ordered Lists
To produce an Ordered List, use the <blockquote> character (Thanks, FridaBonita!)
> 1. Item 1
> 2. Item 2
> 3. Item 3
will produce
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3.
If you happen to create the ordered list without the ">" character, the numbers will display outside the comment box, and also when you are signed in, you will not see the numbers displaying correctly.
Horizontal Rule
A line consisting of three or more asterisks (***) will insert a horizontal rule like the one in between these sections.
The line must have no other text on it.
Line Spacing
Multiple hard returns in your comment are ignored.
To create a single blank line, type - this is the HTML non-breaking space.
A line with a single asterisk in column one, followed by a space, produces two carriage returns. (Thanks to Ranma-one-half)
Pre-Formatted Text
Any line preceded by four spaces generates the <pre> and <code> tagset.
Text appears in a fixed-pitch font, andline breaks are preservedas well as spaces.Be careful, however, because if there is too much text on the line, it will run out of the end of the comment box and not be readable.
A null line returns to normal font.
Editing your Comments
Editing comments once you have posted them will result in the above-mentioned formatting being removed, the first time you edit them. For some reason, with subsequent edits the formatting is preserved.
One workaround is to save the text of comment you make in a cumulative text file somewhere. Naturally, as you post, if you copy the text you typed to your clipboard, you can re-paste it over and over until your comment looks the way you want it to.
URL's
GoComics has a difficult time resolving long and complicated URL's. Even using the escape character [\], arguments and parameters (such as in http://www.myURL.com/myapplet?idClient=1233) are not resolved. The best solution is to use TinyUrl to create a simplified address which the board can handle.
Embedded Links
The GoComics.com comment boards are based on the Markdown engine. As a result, hyperlinks can be created with this format:
[Display Text](URL)
Example:
The Old Wolf's [Banquet from Hell](http://home.comcast.net/~ccdesan/Banquet/Banquet.html) produces this result:
The Old Wolf's Banquet from Hell
Images
Small images can be inserted into your comments - please use these with discretion. Also, large images disrupt the display on some people's monitors.
The code:
![Caption][Image1]
[Image1]: Image URL
Replace the Image URL with the address for your picture.
The caption is necessary but never displays. If you are inserting more than one image in a single comment, change "Image 1" to something else which is unique for each image.
Note: Redirected URL's (such as TinyURL links) will not work. You have to include the direct address of the picture.
*Like this.
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