Could you explain the logic for the two places to set this, and how
they interact? Thank you, it is greatly appreciated.
Hi DM,
I was recently battling with the display of "pipe code" colors in messages (over on FSXnet). I wasn't seeing them in the messages while reading on the BBS. Long story short - I didn't have them enabled properly due to some confusion (at least on my part) about how that was done.
In each and every sub-board in a given FTN, under Toggle Options, is the menu choice for Extra Attribute Codes, where you can enable/disable different BBS color display codes. I had those enabled but was not seeing colors (just saw the raw pipe codes). Others said things worked fine on their system.
I was wondering if it had anything to do with DDMsgReader, which I was using, but others said they used it and all was fine. Discussed in IRC with Nightfox and he suggested I try disabling DDMR and use stock SBBS message reader. When I did that, I was able to see the colors as expected, so that seemed to point to an issue with DDMR... However, I eventually stumbled onto an additional place to configure these Extra Attribute Codes, which is under the System menu on the opening screen of SCFG. When I enabled the extra codes there, and resumed using DDMR, the colors worked fine.
So... it's clear that DDMR only pays attention to that setting, and not the individual message area toggles. I realize that isn't your problem, and perhaps DDMR can be tweaked to pay attention to both, or something.
My real point here (finally getting to it!) is that I'm wondering why the setting is in two different places. I'm thinking maybe the "global" one in the System menu enables it for any/all message areas, and then a Sysop could fine tune that by disabling the color codes for individual message areas or FTNs. I guess that makes a little sense but would seem to be an unlikely configuration. Maybe I'm the first one to be confused by this arrangement, but honestly it is indeed confusing to me at least.
Could you explain the logic for the two places to set this, and how they interact? Thank you, it is greatly appreciated.
Accession wrote to Gamgee <=-
Could you explain the logic for the two places to set this, and how
they interact? Thank you, it is greatly appreciated.
Well, good thing I read this /after/ posting my most recent suggestions regarding exactly this! ;)
Digital Man wrote to Gamgee <=-
I was recently battling with the display of "pipe code" colors in messages (over on FSXnet). I wasn't seeing them in the messages while reading on the BBS. Long story short - I didn't have them enabled properly due to some confusion (at least on my part) about how that was done.
In each and every sub-board in a given FTN, under Toggle Options, is the menu choice for Extra Attribute Codes, where you can enable/disable different BBS color display codes. I had those enabled but was not seeing colors (just saw the raw pipe codes). Others said things worked fine on their system.
I was wondering if it had anything to do with DDMsgReader, which I was using, but others said they used it and all was fine. Discussed in IRC with Nightfox and he suggested I try disabling DDMR and use stock SBBS message reader. When I did that, I was able to see the colors as expected, so that seemed to point to an issue with DDMR... However, I eventually stumbled onto an additional place to configure these Extra Attribute Codes, which is under the System menu on the opening screen of SCFG. When I enabled the extra codes there, and resumed using DDMR, the colors worked fine.
Sounds like DDMR is using the wrong setting flags: https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/da9485cf0e62b
So... it's clear that DDMR only pays attention to that setting, and not the individual message area toggles. I realize that isn't your problem, and perhaps DDMR can be tweaked to pay attention to both, or something.
DDMR should *only* use the per sub-board setting for SBBS v3.21 and
later.
My real point here (finally getting to it!) is that I'm wondering why the setting is in two different places. I'm thinking maybe the "global" one in the System menu enables it for any/all message areas, and then a Sysop could fine tune that by disabling the color codes for individual message areas or FTNs. I guess that makes a little sense but would seem to be an unlikely configuration. Maybe I'm the first one to be confused by this arrangement, but honestly it is indeed confusing to me at least.
Could you explain the logic for the two places to set this, and how they interact? Thank you, it is greatly appreciated.
The "Global" extra attribute setting is for display files (and strings
in Baja modules), while the per sub-board settings are for messages
posted to those sub-boards. I thought the name of the options made the distinction clear: System->"Extra Attribute Codes in Display Files" Sub-board->Toggle Options->"Extra Attribute Codes in Messages"
The online help for those settings could go into more detail about them
I suppose.
The "Global" extra attribute setting is for display files (and
strings in Baja modules), while the per sub-board settings are for
messages posted to those sub-boards. I thought the name of the
options made the distinction clear:
System->"Extra Attribute Codes in Display Files" Sub-board->Toggle Options->"Extra Attribute Codes in Messages"
Sounds like DDMR is using the wrong setting flags: https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/da9485cf0e62b
I can't say I've been to that specific selection screen a bunch, but I just recently directed him there as I had never even realized there was a "per sub-board" setting for those in messages, as it's so deep into multiple submenus that I may have never noticed, or I went there once to enable them on first setup a long time ago, and never had the need to go back. *shrug*
Either way, sounds like it was indeed DDMR. I'm sure it'll be addressed soon.
System->> "Extra Attribute Codes in Display Files" Sub-board->Toggle
Re: "Extra Attribute Codes" settings
By: Digital Man to Gamgee on Wed Apr 15 2026 10:55 am
Sounds like DDMR is using the wrong setting flags: https://gitlab.synchro.net/main/sbbs/-/commit/da9485cf0e62b
The comments in that commit mention a pmode property of sub-boards. I just updated to make sure I have the latest binaries, and I did a little test in JS to print the properties of a sub-board, and I'm not seeing a "pmode" property. I do see a print_mode property, which seems to be the one that stores the settings for the extra attribute codes for a sub-board - Is that the one?
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