Posted by Varina Patel on March 28, 2011 at 8:28 PM
I wonder how difficult it would be to provide an indicator beside forum thread that shows if there are unread posts. I know this is built-in functionality for some forums - I use it on my own phpBB3 forums. I have no idea what NPN looks like behind the scenes, but since it's been around a while, I suspect that it's been a "building block" process. That probably makes it a lot more difficult to make changes.
Still, I'm curious to know if others find themselves with the same problem I have. When I log in to a forum, I'd like to be able to see at a glance if there has been activity on any of the threads. I know there's a "Notify me via e-mail" option - and I use that for threads of particular interest, but I certainly can't do it for everything. Unfortunately, I find myself clicking on each thread one after another to see if there's been another post.
In case I'm not being clear, you can see what I mean if you take a look at the workshop forums on my website - http://www.photographybyvarina.com/forums/.
Obviously, these are much less complex than NPN - but notice the little icons next to each forum topic. There's a "legend" that explains the icons, but basically, any forum with unread posts will show a little orange circle with a blue check mark inside. When I see that mark, I know I need to click in and check out the new post(s).
Now - as I said - I know NPN is MUCH more complicated than this. And I'm not trying to make more work for anyone. I'm just wondering if this is a simple change - or something not worth the trouble to implement.
Varina, another way to go about it would be to sort photos/topics by last comment. This way, threads go back to the top when they are commented on. The toggle function can be found just under the Posting Guidelines link in both the discussion forums and IC galleries. You can also set either as a default on the Preferences screen.
I hope this helps!
Posted by Varina Patel on April 11, 2011 at 6:40 PM
Ah ha! Thanks for the tip! That does make things easier.
Discussion
2 repliesStill, I'm curious to know if others find themselves with the same problem I have. When I log in to a forum, I'd like to be able to see at a glance if there has been activity on any of the threads. I know there's a "Notify me via e-mail" option - and I use that for threads of particular interest, but I certainly can't do it for everything. Unfortunately, I find myself clicking on each thread one after another to see if there's been another post.
In case I'm not being clear, you can see what I mean if you take a look at the workshop forums on my website - http://www.photographybyvarina.com/forums/.
Obviously, these are much less complex than NPN - but notice the little icons next to each forum topic. There's a "legend" that explains the icons, but basically, any forum with unread posts will show a little orange circle with a blue check mark inside. When I see that mark, I know I need to click in and check out the new post(s).
Now - as I said - I know NPN is MUCH more complicated than this. And I'm not trying to make more work for anyone. I'm just wondering if this is a simple change - or something not worth the trouble to implement.
I'll quit rocking the boat now.
Varina
I hope this helps!