Interesting stuff I found using BB Code from around the web

As you may already know, Friendica makes BB Code as a basis of it's formatting. You can use it to embed all sorts of content in your posts, comments, even on your profile. Basically, anything that is not unformatted text only uses some BB Code somewhere. While most of the web nowadays uses HTML for embeds or relies on Markdown, there are plenty of other tools that still make use of it. They are mostly designed to be used on forums (since they are the ones making heavy use of BB Code nowadays basically), but they can be used here as well. I decided to share with you some of the interesting such tools that I mostly use.

Post temporary images and host the images externally using postimages.org

When you want to post an image, you can either post it directly to your Friendica instance. However, there are cases when you would like to have it hosted externally: you might want to save storage on your server, or, if you're like me, you'd like not to overcrowd your Wall Photos album. In addition, you can also use an external uploader if you want your image to be available only for a limited time. There are plenty of external photo hosting services, including something like the infamous Imgur. However, the one I use the most is Postimages.org.

The way it works is simple: You select a picture from your computer, select for how long do you want to keep the image on the website if you want to (default is no expiration). You can also snip your screen and press Ctrl+V (or whichever keyboard shortcut you/your OS use(s) for pasting) into the home page, and it will upload your image automatically (remember to select the expiration date beforehand when uploading this way). Once your photo is uploaded, you'll be greeted with the following screen:

You'll want to use either the option that says Hotlink for forums (for pasting without giving it a second thought) or the Direct link one (I've underlined both in the screenshot above).

In fact, the very screenshots I have posted here, are through postimages.org. Postimages also offers a way to upload via URL (which is also handy, but Friendica also handles images uploaded externally via URL in the first place), as well as a desktop app for Windows. They do not seem to have any Mac or Linux app though.

Post about the concerts you enjoyed with setlist.fm

Setlist.fm is self-titled the setlist wiki. It's a place where people keep track of the live concerts they've been to, as well as the songs that were played on (the set list basically). Every set list you share on Friendica basically looks like this:

Edit this setlist | More All Time Low setlists

Sharing a set list is easy; open the set list you want, then scroll down to
Share or embed this setlist. You'll want to copy everything that's in the Last.fm Event Review box in the right. Last.fm is a music tracking service that also uses BB Code internally, for their artists, albums and music wikis, as well as for profiles or comments (similarly to Friendica).

If you want to customize your setlist before sharing, click the Customize your setlist.fm widget below the two boxes.

You'll be directed to a screen where you can set a different size of the widget, as well as select a different font out of 3 options and a different color for the font, the background and the border.

Once you're done, click update to preview your result, and scroll down and copy all the text from the box labeled Last.fm Event Review, and paste it everywhere you want in Friendica.

Track everything you listen to with libre.fm

Last.fm (the service I mentioned earlier) is a hugely popular service for keeping track of everything you listen to (also called scrobbling), and making it public (if you want). All you have to do is to configure your scrobbler app (it also has an official app that does it for you). Many music players, as well as Spotify, also allow you to connect to it directly. However, last.fm is proprietary and appears to be owned by CBS Interactive.

There's an open source answer to it, an independent service called libre.fm. From my experience, libre.fm works the best with Pano Scrobbler. For iOS, I found no option to scrobble directly, but you can also link a last.fm account to your libre.fm account and scrobble both ways.

On last.fm, there's an option to set an "obsession" to your profile - basically a scrobble that you really enjoyed (hence the name). It will stay there for around two weeks. libre.fm doesn't have this functionality, but you can use Friendica for it. Here's how you can do it:

Go to your profile, then go to either Overview or Recent tracks, then scroll down to the song you want to use.

You'll want to click on the date of your scrobble (third column, the rightmost one), not the song name or the artist.

From there, scroll down to Embed this anywhere and copy everything in the box. You'll get something like this where you paste it:

Or you can click on "View/share as image" and share that URL here on Friendica by using the [img][/img] tag.

You can also embed what you're currently listening by pasting [img][img]https://libre.fm/user/<your-username-here>/now[/img][/img] (of course, replace <your-username-here> with your actual username).

libre.fm was built on GNU FM, a software that you could self-host. They are however transitioning to something called "hacienda" and are promising Fediverse integration as well. It will be interesting how this will work out, but I do hope they'll keep the BB Code integration as well, and maybe even expand it to some other stuff.

Go treasure hunting with Opencaching

There's an interesting real-world game out there called Geocaching. What you have to do is to basically go at some designated locations on the map. You'll find various recipients called "caches" containing a paper log. You take that cache out as careful as possible (in order to not be seen by other people passing by), write down your username and hide the cache, with the log, back in the place you found it. Afterward, you log your find on the platform. Most of the time you're looking for the needle in the haystack, but it's a fun way to visit various places.

There's an open alternative to it called Opencaching. It's a network of websites (not communicating through any protocol though, afaik), out of which opencaching.de is the biggest, covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.

You can use c:geo on Android to log caches to Opencaching.

You can share your brief stats about your found/hidden caches by going to My profile in your geocaching account, then copying your text next to BBCode for your statpic. Then, you can paste that as well on your profile, on a pinned post etc.

This widget can also be customized by clicking on Choose statpic on the top of the page.

From there, you can change your label (displayed on the last row), as well as use a different style for that widget.

These are pretty much all the external services I know that use BB Code in an interesting way. I hope you'll find these useful and/or fun to use.

What about you? Do you know other such services? Let me know in the comments below.

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