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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Sun 19 Dec 2004 11:41 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Nick, would you be receptive to a patch I could submit that would modify the recent-threads list to indicate in which threads somebody has participated and which threads they haven't? :) Like a little icon or something after the title to say "you've participated here" - that way one can always tell which threads one should be keeping track of, even if they're in a section one normally does not read in depth.
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #1 on Mon 20 Dec 2004 05:31 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
I was writing a similar thing earlier today. I dont know why I didnt post it.

But yeah, having each person able to customize their own thing seems like overkill. Since it removed the ability of the administrator from keeping any sort of theme.

I was also expecting something where the admin could set up a scheme, and have everyone use it, for the same reasons as previously suggested. If I have someone come to my site, I'd want the forum to not be blue and tan, if my site wasnt that as well, I'd want it to blend in with my site, and I actually wouldnt want to let the people that visit change that (unless it was between theme 1 and theme 2, both of which I have made, such as a high contrast one, and a normal one, or something).

I like how this forum looks, the reason I havent played around with the colors is when I looked the first time, I didnt know which color went where (you have since added that post answering just that), but I havent had the time to play around, nor do I really want to. Its your forum, unless your scheme had some problem with it, I dont especially have any want to change it.
~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,800 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #2 on Mon 20 Dec 2004 07:28 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]

Amended on Mon 20 Dec 2004 09:54 PM (UTC) by Nick Gammon

Message
As for the thread thing, I suppose. Where would it go? On the main list? It could slow down the SQL lookup somewhat, as it would need to check every post to see if you made it.

I recently enhanced the SQL for the main page to not look at the posts file, for speed, although the version you have may not have that in it.



Colours

I was thinking that, like in a MUD client where you seem to want to be able to customise the 16 ANSI colours, that being able to customise the background shading wouldn't be such a bad idea. Maybe just a bit to make it a bit lighter if you find the default colours annoying. Maybe make the font a serif font if you find Verdana hard to read.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Zeno   USA  (2,868 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #3 on Mon 20 Dec 2004 07:42 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Hmm, you could just stick a link to it in the menu section with " Home | View profile | Edit profile | Users | Search | FAQ". Or add a search option to find your own posts or something of the sort.
Zeno McDohl,
Owner of Bleached InuYasha Galaxy
http://www.biyg.org
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #4 on Mon 20 Dec 2004 10:28 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Quote:
Where would it go? On the main list? It could slow down the SQL lookup somewhat, as it would need to check every post to see if you made it.
It would be on the main list, yes, but it could be an option. I was also thinking of it being per thread, not per post, but there would of course be a speed penalty. So it should probably be an option or something. And yes, I don't have the most recent version. :)

Quote:
I was thinking that, like in a MUD client where you seem to want to be able to customise the 16 ANSI colours...
Personally I find that sort of customization only half-useful. I don't want to customize the 16 colors at all, in fact that's quite useless. I want to be able to edit the style-sheet. If the MUD owner decides that rooms and objects are in green, then under your system I am stuck with them in green; under a full system I get to choose what each color type is in.
Quote:
... that being able to customise the background shading wouldn't be such a bad idea. Maybe just a bit to make it a bit lighter if you find the default colours annoying. Maybe make the font a serif font if you find Verdana hard to read.
Well, I'm not sure that's what people really expect for a webpage. I don't think people really wanted to make your page look different because, after all, it is your page so it should have your design. :)
Quote:

Hmm, you could just stick a link to it in the menu section with " Home | View profile | Edit profile | Users | Search | FAQ". Or add a search option to find your own posts or something of the sort.
Not terribly useful for what I want, which would be a very fast indicator of which threads in the recent list I care about - where 'care about' is defined as 'having posted there'. It would be a useful feature but it's not the feature I was talking about. :)
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #5 on Tue 21 Dec 2004 02:04 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
If you look at the list of 'recent posts by this user' in everyone's profile (scroll down) you'll notice that they are in order of most recent post (just like on the first page). So you could use that. Or nick could even add a green bar to that list as well (which might infact be useful in other situations as well).

When I mean in order of posts, theyre just like they are on the main page, except filtered. Those times are the 'last post by anyone' times and not the 'last post by this user'. So its currently just like the old frontpage, where you had to remember what you looked at last. So nick, if you could add a bar (which I dont think would be too difficult, considering you already have all the stuff for it, youre just inserting it elsewhere) to those lists, I think the problem would be solved. I might be wrong about the ease though, I havent really given that much thought.
~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #6 on Tue 21 Dec 2004 07:21 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Not what I want either. I don't particularly care what posts I have recently made - I want to know which threads have been active that I have participated in. The reason I suggested that I write a patch to do it myself is that I imagine there aren't tons of people who want this; hence the suggestion to not encumber Nick with it.
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Flannel   USA  (1,230 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #7 on Tue 21 Dec 2004 07:37 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]

Amended on Tue 21 Dec 2004 07:39 AM (UTC) by Flannel

Message
Wouldnt the fact that you've made a post in the thread imply you were at least somewhat active in it?

The 'recent posts' list is pretty long, so I dont see why it wouldn't be pertinant. If its no longer on the recent posts list then you haven't really participated in it recently enough for it to be relevant.

The green bar on that list would imply that it has new activity (or at least that you havent read it yet). As I was saying, that list updates times based on the last post made by anyone, not your last post. So that is indeed what you are looking for.

Edit: It's fifty posts. So the last 50 threads you have posted in are listed on that page. That would be sufficient for most uses I would think.
~Flannel

Messiah of Rose
Eternity's Trials.

Clones are people two.
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #8 on Tue 21 Dec 2004 07:54 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Well, but the point is not to see only the threads I've participated in - I want to be able to see all the posts, with flags marking the ones I'm involved in. If I were to only see "my" threads, I would miss all the others - potentially new threads - and the 'little green bar' would go above them thus filtering them away from my attention. No, I really do want it to be on the main page, with all the recent posts, as a little flag. :-P
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,800 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #9 on Tue 21 Dec 2004 11:10 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
I am already a bit worried about the time taken to generate the main page. I have optimised the SQL as much as I can, removing references to the bbpost table which isn't really needed to generate it. However to check if - somewhere in a thread - you made a posting, would add somewhat to the SQL. In fact I'm not sure you could do it in a single statement, which means that for every one of those 50 items shown, if would have to requery the SQL server to find if it should show the flag.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #10 on Wed 22 Dec 2004 06:20 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
Probably - I was thinking of the same problem myself. Still, it could be an option in case it bothers people to wait a bit more. Are there other constraints here besides speed?
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,800 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #11 on Wed 22 Dec 2004 09:36 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
An option for who though? The individual user or the administrator? At present we seem to have around 2,500 visitors per day here (or views anyway). Assuming that most of them start at the home page, if the home page increases its SQL queries from a half-dozen to 50 or more that will slow down the forum for everyone, not just those who elect to use it.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by David Haley   USA  (3,881 posts)  [Biography] bio   Moderator
Date Reply #12 on Wed 22 Dec 2004 11:03 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
I was thinking an option for each user, but as you say that would still slow things down for everybody. When I have some more time I'll try to think of a way to combine SQL queries in hopes of optimizing things. Are the SQL queries in your downloadable forum version the most recent ones?
David Haley aka Ksilyan
Head Programmer,
Legends of the Darkstone

http://david.the-haleys.org
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (18,800 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #13 on Wed 22 Dec 2004 11:34 PM (UTC)  [ quote  ]
Message
No, I'll update them soon. First I want to get a new version of MUSHclient ready for Christmas. :)
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Kris   USA  (198 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #14 on Mon 27 Dec 2004 10:07 AM (UTC)  [ quote  ]

Amended on Mon 27 Dec 2004 10:12 AM (UTC) by Kris

Message
For the threads thing, one hackish idea you might consider would be to add a column to bbuser that stores like the 50 most-recent bbsubject_id's that the user has posted to in an array or whatever. That way, you only have to do a single query on the bbuser when loading the page, then do a standard PHP ifcheck comparison when each recent bbsubject_id is being loaded on the page. If it matches one of the numerical values in the array, then it's a subject you've recently posted to. Storing the recent posted subjects for each individual user is much better than having it do a MySQL query for each post everytime someone loads the main page to find out if the user has recently posted there.

Just a thought. It would solve the execution time problem involved with that idea. =)
--Kris
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