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Posted by Poromenos   Greece  (1,037 posts)  Bio
Date Thu 26 Feb 2004 03:55 PM (UTC)
Message
I was wondering, could the forum be coded to only show new threads? It's tiresome to read many new threads just to see which ones i have read and which ones i haven't, and it would be very nice if the forum could "remember" the ones i've read (there would also probably have to be a feature that would mark everything as read) and only show me the new threads and the threads in which someone has posted under the "day view" in the forum homepage...

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
http://porocrom.poromenos.org/ Read it!
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Posted by Poromenos   Greece  (1,037 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #1 on Thu 26 Feb 2004 04:02 PM (UTC)

Amended on Thu 26 Feb 2004 04:03 PM (UTC) by Poromenos

Message
Or, uh, you could just log the user's last logged time, and show a red line after the date in the forum, for example:

Recent posts

Thu 26 Feb 2004
VBscript: Variable Mismatch problem.  latest by Gore at 01:19 PM 

Wed 25 Feb 2004
General: Trigger help - channels  latest by Nick Gammon at 09:34 PM 
General: My client's greyed out?  latest by Sleeve at 08:15 PM
------------------------------------------ (red line) 
General: Design mode (from the thread on external windows).  latest by Shadowfyr at 06:14 PM 
Bug reports: Edit field not scrolling  latest by Tarbor at 08:17 AM 
General: Trigger Help - regeneration  latest by Nick Gammon at 03:08 AM 
Tips and tricks: Zmud User Wondering  latest by Shadowfyr at 01:46 AM 
General: Making a sound  latest by Flannel at 12:51 AM 

Tue 24 Feb 2004
General: Thoughts on script events  latest by Shadowfyr at 11:53 PM 
VBscript: Accessing Other Programs  latest by Shadowfyr at 10:50 PM 
News and updates: Version 3.45 released  latest by Nick Gammon at 10:28 PM

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
http://porocrom.poromenos.org/ Read it!
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Posted by Poromenos   Greece  (1,037 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #2 on Thu 26 Feb 2004 04:02 PM (UTC)
Message
So that way I know which threads i haven't read, AND i raise my number of posts by writing 3 posts for one thread! :P

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
http://porocrom.poromenos.org/ Read it!
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,122 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #3 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 04:45 AM (UTC)
Message
I thought about this a while back, but it is hard to define "unread threads".

We can't really just record the date of the *last* thing you read, because you don't necessary read in order, and - for example - reading a new post you just made would probably count as reading something.

Thus we need to record, for every thread and every user, which user read which thread (and that is assuming you log in to read, which I don't always do).

So, you have 1800 users times 3727 threads, which is 6,708,600 user-threads which we need to record a "has or has not read" flag against it.

If you can think of a better way, please let me know.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Norbert   USA  (61 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #4 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 01:32 PM (UTC)
Message
I've never been one for reading forums, nor have I had much dealings with newsgroups. But I recalled newsgroups being able to save the msg's and stuff to the readers computer and then the options of what is read or not read is up to the user. Maybe there is a way to make the forum post able to be read or used by one of them newsgroup programs. Like I said I really have no ideal what all is involved with forums and newsgroup nor their differences. But ever since I found this forum it has become a daily routine for me to read and try to learn and see exactly what MUSHclient can do. I thank everyone for all of their insightful post.

Norbert

-Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot?
Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens
It's a dumb question... skip it.
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Posted by Poromenos   Greece  (1,037 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #5 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 03:03 PM (UTC)
Message
True, the flag would take lots of space, but how about the other idea? You would only store the time the person last logged on and draw a line in the recent posts section, so that I know that the other posts were after i logged on (or off, maybe?). That would be easier, and it could maybe even be stored as a cookie instead of internally? It would make reading the forums a lot easier...

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
http://porocrom.poromenos.org/ Read it!
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #6 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 08:38 PM (UTC)
Message
I was all for it as well, except...
Once you read one post, your "last read" changes. Which I suppose isnt such a bad thing, you just have to read in order.
Although one comes with problems while posting, since it shows you your thread.

But yeah, as opposed to 8 bajillion flags, Nick, couldnt it be done locally with cookies? Even in a limited sense, where not every post is remembered but possibly only the ones on the front page. Which would be the last however many it is. The data about the posts that leave the front page would expire and be removed.

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,122 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #7 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 09:17 PM (UTC)
Message
The main forum page is meant to be structured to allow you to do that without any coding, or cookies, or billions of flags, or dates etc.

Issues abound, for instance, if you haven't logged in, how could it remember when *you* last read something? I have more than one PC here, so only one is every logged in at one time, but I might read a forum message on another one, or even reply to it by replying without logging in.

Second, the "time logged in" is no good, there are times when I go for days without logging in, so putting a line above that time wouldn't help.

The main summary page shows recent posts, organised into blocks by day (local time if you have adjusted your forum profile), so what I would generally do is look in the morning for new posts that have been made since (say) 10 o'clock last night.

Assuming you remember roughly when you were last on, you can see any posts that were made since that time.


- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #8 on Fri 27 Feb 2004 10:11 PM (UTC)
Message
The only problem with the time thing, is that usually for me, the first time I view the page, Im "not logged in" and the times and days are at whichever timezone they default to.

Its not that big of a deal though, obviously most of us havent had strokes trying to keep track and read all of the new postings.

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,122 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #9 on Sat 28 Feb 2004 12:39 AM (UTC)
Message

It turns out it wasn't too hard after all.

So, thanks to Poromenos there is now a new forum feature. :)

I'll describe it in more detail in the Announcements section of the forum part of the forum.

See Forum enhancement - indication of unread threads for more details.


- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #10 on Wed 10 Mar 2004 05:55 AM (UTC)

Amended on Wed 10 Mar 2004 05:57 AM (UTC) by Flannel

Message
Eh, not nessisarily a big thing, however if a user has his post as the most recent, the green bar is still below it, even after he reads it.

I understand why this happens because of the coding and making exceptions for wiping your "most recent" when you post.

Just an observation, its not that big of a deal.

Edit:
Its not if its the most recent, but rather the check automatically excludes posts by that user. When there is more than one even the second one has the bar under it.

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,122 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #11 on Wed 10 Mar 2004 08:15 PM (UTC)
Message
Er, I don't think that will work. The updating of the "last read time" is done at posting time, but the drawing of the bar is done at reading time.

When I am reading post A (the most recent) even if it is by you, how will I know whether I will eventually hit a post not by you, and where to draw the line? It could be done by reading the whole lot into an array, I suppose.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  Bio
Date Reply #12 on Wed 10 Mar 2004 08:38 PM (UTC)
Message
Nick, what wont work? I wasnt suggesting anything.

Just commenting on how my green bar doesnt update until I read a post newer than my own.

~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (23,122 posts)  Bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #13 on Wed 10 Mar 2004 10:54 PM (UTC)
Message
Sorry, I thought you were saying it didn't work properly. I quote from the announcement in the news and update section:

Quote:

Note

The "date read" is not updated if the last thing you read was a posting that you yourself made. This is so that the "unread posts" line does not jump to the top of the list of posts as you reply to posts.

Thus, you may see posts you have made sitting above the "unread posts" line. However we assume that you are not too interested in re-reading posts in threads where you were the last one to post, so simply ignore those.

- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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The dates and times for posts above are shown in Universal Co-ordinated Time (UTC).

To show them in your local time you can join the forum, and then set the 'time correction' field in your profile to the number of hours difference between your location and UTC time.


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