New Posts Since Last Visit

[Ryan Jordan]

Passed on from the BPL Web Team:

“There is a subtle, but new feature in the BPL.com forums.

If you visit the main forum index page, and the thread index page (the one you get when you click on a forum from the main forum index page), you’ll see numbers in parentheses that indicate the number of new threads, or new posts, since your last visit.

Then, when you enter a thread to view messages, you’ll see a subtle red “NEW” tag associated with those new posts.

Also, on the forum submenu at the top of each forum page, you’ll see a link to “NEW POSTS” which lists each of the new posts since your last visit.

Finally, on the BPL.com home page, in the “recent” posts section, there are two links for “LAST 50” (most recent 50 posts in the forums) and “MY NEW” (new posts since your last visit).

Of course, you must be logged in with your bpl.com user account to use these features so it can appropriately track this information in your server-side user account without placing cookies on your pc, thus, the information remains portable to you.

Please monitor this feature and report any bugs or otherwise unusual behavior to [email protected].”

[paul johnson]

“My New” = genius!!
“server side” = better than cookies.

Many thanks.,
pj

[Tony Burnett]

I love the content on this board, but it is a PITA to follow a thread. This will only get worst as traffic increases. Here are my suggestions to make life easier…

1) Have the “My New” list only show threads (initial subject???) not individual messages. When you click on a link, take the user to the oldest “new” message. This alone would make the board 1000% easier to navigate.

2) Don’t allow users to change the primary subject of a thread. Maybe just the sub-heading. Half the time I see a subject, I have no clue if it applies to a thread I want to follow. Though if you were to do #1 (and display the initial subject), you really don’t have to do #2.

3) Support automatic subscription to threads you started or replied to.

[paul johnson]

Tony,

it just keeps gettin’ better. #1 & #2 excellent suggestions.

sorry, i’m failing to grasp the meaning of #3. if you mean, to “force” the system to automatically notify of me new posts to a Thread. I, personally, wouldn’t like this idea. I’d prefer NOT to get more email. I can just as easily click on a link i have to the “My New” and see what’s been added. If #1 is implemented, this would enable a user to more easily see the Threads to which posts have been added. However, if the wish is to accomodate everyone, then make it a User configurable option as part of their Account.

what do y’all think about having a means of Searching the Forums for Posts by a particular author? For example, one Poster recently mentioned that he had edited an earlier Post to use Thumbnails. No other info was given. Post doesn’t appear to be one of the last 50. If we could search by Poster/Author, I could easily find this Post referred to.

[Tony Burnett]

Obviously, #3 would be optional setting per user. The reason is a bit more subtle. When a thread is active, they are overkill. However, after the initial mahem is over someone alwasy replies 2 weeks later. Those “updates” often get lost in the current “hot topics”. Receiving a reminder (use a message rule to automatically put them in a different folder) let’s you know there has been activity on an otherwise “dead” thread.

[paul johnson]

Tony,

thanks for the clarification. i hope BPL implements your excellent suggestions. glad you have the “thinking cap” on.

[Mark]

I’ll second Paul’s “Search by Poster” idea. It’s been very helpful in other web forums.
-Mark

[Michael Martin]

Mark writes:

>> I’ll second Paul’s “Search by Poster” idea. It’s been very helpful in other web forums.

I agree, it would be a nice feature to have integrated into the bpl forum interface. But in the mean time, you can always use the “advanced” Google features to search for an author in the backpackinglight.com domain….

E.g., to find my old posts, google the following:

MikeMartin site:backpackinglight.com

[paul johnson]

Michael,

great idea. wish i had thought of that. thanks for sharing.

[Dondo .]

Paul,

I assume you’ve found my post with the thumbnail by now. If not, it’s in the cougar discussion we had a week or so ago.

Dondo

[paul johnson]

Donald,

thanks. my “old-timers” was actin’ up. i had forgotten it was in that Thread.

[Ryan Jordan]

Forum updates in the works:

1. Search by Poster

2. My New view will be updated to reflect Tony’s suggestions.

3. RSS subscription to new forum posts. I’d like some feedback on this. Separate feeds for all the major forum categories (of which there are currently 27 not including outdoor retailer forums), major forum ‘areas’ (of which there are 5), or all forums posts. Well, I can tell you that we are generating a feed for all forum posts, but whether or not we do individual feeds for areas/categories will depend on your feedback.

[paul johnson]

since i’m not one ashamed to put my ignorance on display, i’ll ask the question. most you who “surf” alot prob. already know, but frankly other than BPL, i don’t “surf”. so…

what does

>>”RSS subscription”

in Dr. J’s post mean? thanks in advance for educating me.

[Mark]

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or sometimes noted as Really Simple Syndication. It allows web users to see new headlines or information tickers without actively browsing. Sort of like how you can see updated sports scores on ESPN without asking for them.

A website sets up a document in a format that says “these are new headlines/ posts, here is a summary and a link.” You can use software that recognizes that information, like Google Desktop, and direct it to go fetch those headlines and links from specific websites for you every half-hour or so, and display the tickers while you do other things, like type up a Word document. That way you don’t have to go through “all that effort” to look for new material on websites you frequent.

If you type “define:rss” in Google, you can find lots more info, but that’s the Really Simple Spiel. For news/ forum/ blog junkies, it can be very handy.
-Mark

[paul johnson]

Mark,

many thanks. no need for me to research further, you provided all of the info i need to satisfy my curiosity. it was very kind of you to take the time to reply and educate me. take care.

[Author]

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