Forum has been upgraded (was: Scheduled Forum Maintenance tonight)

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by nielm

When viewing a forum, in the Forum tools menu, there is 'Mark Forum Read' which only marks the threads in this forum read.

Yes, I realize that because it was covered above. But clicking a link to then click another link to then end up on a page you don't want to be on (some subcategory of sub-forums, not the complete list of sub-forums), all just to do what was practically automatic prior to this change is hardly progress, IMHO.

I was just suggesting that this wouldn't be quite so bad if you could mark the forum as read dirctly from the forum, not going through another menu to accomplish the task.

Originally Posted by cslatt

I use it every day My method of reading the forums: Middle-click on each updated forum to open it in a new tab. Wait for all the tabs to be done loading and then "Mark All Forums as Read". Close that tab. Now go through each of the forum-specific tabs. Middle click on any interesting looking discussion to open it in a new tab. Close each forum specific tab once I get to the bottom of the list of new/updated threads. Now I have a tab open for every thread I could possibly want to read. I read it and close the tab after reading or replying. What can I say? I'm thorough.

Did you have to do all that prior to this change?

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

I just look at "New Posts", go through and read things of interest, which shows new stuff from all forums. Then do the same again to see if there's anything new. If nothing new, I mark all forums read, then next time New Posts shows me the stuff since.

You're potentially missing stuff doing it that way, because something could have been posted just after you looked, but prior to the time you mark all forums as read. To not miss stuff you'd have to do what's detailed in the last post I responded to, posted by cslatt. That's why I think it's rather pointless--most people wouldn't go through all that.

[Opus4]

Goodspike: The first thing you'll notice is that your 3 replies with quotes have been merged into a single reply, something you could have done yourself by using the new multi-quote feature.

Originally Posted by Goodspike

Yes, I realize that because it was covered above. But clicking a link to then click another link to then end up on a page you don't want to be on (some subcategory of sub-forums, not the complete list of sub-forums), all just to do what was practically automatic prior to this change is hardly progress, IMHO.

I was just suggesting that this wouldn't be quite so bad if you could mark the forum as read dirctly from the forum, not going through another menu to accomplish the task.

You don't have to go all over the place -- you either will end up on the main forum page or in a sub forum at some point. There are pull-down menus to mark the forum or subforums read, not a bunch of links to follow. You can also mark an entire subforum as read by double-clicking on the bulletin board icon to the left of the forum name. It really is very easy.

And, the new method of marking what has been read is a huge improvement over the old method of marking everything read after your session times out. Now, you no longer have to read every new post before leaving the forum; previously, it was easy to miss things if you left the forum before getting caught up. Since there doesn't appear to be any negative affect on the server by using this option, it looks like it will be staying, so I suggest getting used to it.

You don't want to mark all the old posts as read? Fine, then don't. When you return to the forum after a log-out or after a session time-out and then use the New Posts option, any previously unread posts will be listed below a header saying they are older replies. You can ignore those & anything over X number of days is auto-marked as read, figuring you aren't intersted in those topics. I think it is set for 10 days. Simply read the new topics that interest you.

- Andy

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Opus4

And, the new method of marking what has been read is a huge improvement over the old method of marking everything read after your session times out.

This is the crux of it. The old method may have been more automatic, but it was fundamentally broken. Spend too long on one page (because you're composing a reply or just got temporarily distracted) and it marked everything read whether you'd actually read it or not. That's just plain wrong. So count me as a solid vote for keeping the new system.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by nielm

Another suggestion... As there is a bit more space, can the SageTV FAQ be put on the Nav Bar?

Without using much more space, I changed the FAQ link into a drop-down menu that contains links to various types of FAQs.

- Andy

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Opus4

There are pull-down menus to mark the forum or subforums read, not a bunch of links to follow. You can also mark an entire subforum as read by double-clicking on the bulletin board icon to the left of the forum name. It really is very easy.

I think both of those methods require lower security settings than what I have. I'm leery of having loose security settings on a site like this where people can copy whatever into their posts. I know cookies often try to pass through, so it's possible some real live nasties might also. So with my security settings a lot of the features of the site don't work (e.g. clicking on a smiley, spell check, the multi-quote feature) or don't even appear (pull down menus)

I guess it's just a matter of preference, but I frequent a board with a lot more posts than here and seldom have trouble with unread posts automatically disappearing because I took too long. The only board I know with this type of system is run by my ISP, and it's a mess (as are most things run by ISPs).

It's not that big of a deal since this is a relatively low volume site. I just don't consider the changes to be an improvement. But as the mouse vs. remote threads prove, what I like isn't necessarily what others like.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

I think both of those methods require lower security settings than what I have. I'm leery of having loose security settings on a site like this where people can copy whatever into their posts. I know cookies often try to pass through, so it's possible some real live nasties might also.

If you are worried about HTML code, it can't be used inside posts, unless it is just listing the code for display. At the bottom of the screen, you should see a comment that "HTML code is Off".

I think you would have to click on a link someone posted & catch something by going elsewhere.

- Andy

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

You're potentially missing stuff doing it that way, because something could have been posted just after you looked, but prior to the time you mark all forums as read.

You mean in the few seconds between clicking New Posts, seeing nothing new and clicking Mark Read? I'm willing to take that risk...

[spike5884]

What about putting a copy of the Nav bar(s) at the bottom of the page?

It is kind of a pain to get towards the bottom of the page and then having to scroll back to the top in order to do something.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

You mean in the few seconds between clicking New Posts, seeing nothing new and clicking Mark Read? I'm willing to take that risk...

Yes, I mean that time. This is a relatively low volume forum, but I've had instances on VBullitin forums where there's something posted in-between the time I click to post and my post appears.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

Yes, I mean that time. This is a relatively low volume forum, but I've had instances on VBullitin forums where there's something posted in-between the time I click to post and my post appears.

No, I'm not talking about when I post, but when I click "New Posts" and "Mark Read". Not a big deal if I miss something anyway, I'm not obsessed with it...

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

No, I'm not talking about when I post, but when I click "New Posts" and "Mark Read". Not a big deal if I miss something anyway, I'm not obsessed with it...

That must be why you never respond whenever someone questions your . . ..

[mayamaniac]

Is it possible to add a "View Your Posts" or "Find Your Posts" type of quick links on the top bar? Its a bit different from the My Posts link because it shows the actual posts and not the thread. I see other forums has this feature and I find it very useful. I know IP Board has it as a standard feature, but I've seen the same features on other vBulletin forums, such as http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ . If you click on the Search link, it pops up a drop down menu with options for "Find All Your Threads" and "Find All Your Posts". They are using vBulletin 3.6.5 also.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Is it possible to add a "View Your Posts" or "Find Your Posts" type of quick links on the top bar? Its a bit different from the My Posts link because it shows the actual posts and not the thread.

The existing link for "My Topics" should find all the threads you've started, but there was a mistake with "My Posts" that I hadn't noticed before (I guess my eyes were closed when I tested it) -- it should now display a list of your posts, as I intended, instead of a list of the threads where you've posted.

- Andy

[waynedunham]

Any chance of getting the single post view "fixed". I see a message I want to print and hit print. Then I see that it's going to print 12 pages when all I wanted was a single post. So I click the message # in the upper right of the message and instead of showing the single message as it should it still shows the thread view.

You can get around that simply by changing "showthread" to "showpost" in the URL after clicking on the message #, but it should do that without intervention.

[Opus4]

Yes, I'm familiar with that because I changed it a couple years ago. For simplicity, many people copy & paste that link when referring to other posts, instead of using the [post] and [thread] vB codes, so I changed it to have the link open the entire thread for ease of reading referenced posts/threads.

- Andy

[waynedunham]

It would be nice to have a more seamless way to view/print a single message without having to manually massage the URL.