OT: Finding 'new' posts?

terrypin wrote on 8/21/2012, 2:52 AM

This is aimed at those here who follow threads as they progress.

How do you do it?

At present the threads are in descending order of the original post. So to find any containing fresh replies I have to open every thread until I lose the will to continue.

Shortly after first using the magix.info site, following the demise of our old forum, I suggested bringing the threads into line with standard forum practice. Namely to display threads sorted in descending order of latest post. So you'd always know that the thread at the top was the one with the most recent post.

An alternative would be to retain the present sequence but add some useful information such as "Latest answer 17th August 2012", rather than just "5 answers". Better, do both, as most other forums do.

Do others share my view? Enough to reinforce my request to Support by dropping them an email along those lines?

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While I'm in gripe mode, I also find it counter-intuitive that posts within a thread are by default in order of Latest first. I invariably want to read a thread the same way I read a book, namely from start to finish.

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BTW, there used to be a forum (called magix.info?) for discussing this sort of thing. But I'm darned if I can find it now. Maybe it was closed - I think I was the only contributor!

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Comments

gandjcarr wrote on 8/21/2012, 4:40 AM

Hi Terry,

This makes a lot of sense to me and would be very useful especially for the more complex problems that require a lot of questions and answers. Do we send a message using the "Feedback" link at the top of the page or is there a better address to send this request to?

terrypin wrote on 8/21/2012, 12:13 PM

Alan, George: Thanks both. I read that as saying you want posts within a thread in Oldest first order, like me. Did you have a view on my first issue, the order of threads?

Yes, I'd use Feedback to start with.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

gandjcarr wrote on 8/21/2012, 12:26 PM

Terry,

Sorry if I was not clear, yes, descending order on threads is what I would like to see ascending order means you go to the bottom and work your way up which is just not logical to me. Another alternative would be to allow the user to sort by ascending or descending, that way you choose your preference. More complex to implement but more flexible for people whose mind works different than ours.

johnebaker wrote on 8/21/2012, 2:43 PM

Hi guys - just a little tongue in cheek poser for you:- what does that drop down box above left do?

Admittedly it does not appear on all forums - I think it is an option selectable by the original creator of the forum.

John

gandjcarr wrote on 8/21/2012, 2:46 PM

Hi John,

I understand where you are going with your comment, but thatdrop down really only sorts all the posts by the selected criteria. It does not sort the thread within a post.

George

terrypin wrote on 8/21/2012, 4:11 PM

Hi

Hi guys - just a little tongue in cheek poser for you:- what does that drop down box above left do?

Admittedly it does not appear on all forums - I think it is an option selectable by the original creator of the forum.

John

Hi John,

Yes indeed, that's what I have to use. And yes, I know it's only at most two clicks and a short wait. But it's a bore having to do that on every thread I study. It would have been so simple to make the default a user-settable option. Or to add that code in response to the several requests I've made over the last year or so. I've examined the INI file but didn't see any opportunity there to fix this permanently. Can you take a look in case I missed it please?

Anyway, that's a workaround for the second of my two issues, the order of posts within a thread. I'd appreciate your views on my first issue: the order of threads themselves. I just cannot see why the Q&A section has to be different in this respect from the Forum section, which neatly shows all threads in the logical order, like all the other 30-40 forums I use, namely with most recently active at the top.

These days you're far more active than me, so how do you manage to identify all new posts since your last session?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

johnebaker wrote on 8/21/2012, 5:56 PM

Hi Terry

I understand where you are coming from on that one - to make the setting stick for a user would involve a cookie holding user settings for the forum - some forum software does this and many other websites do eg the BBC.

The forum software that this site runs may not be programmed to allow this and I know from experience - in an earlier life teaching web design and doing PHP programming - that it is not easy to modify an existing system to take advantage of user selectable options where non existed before.

When you click the dropdown to change order that sends a message back to the website server to send the information again sorted in the selected order - unless of course the web pages are coded to take advantage of browser ability to sort data - which this site is not. Programming this ability brings in other problems which can lead to complaints from the user that the site is slow - so you have a catch 22 situation - no one wins.

In the end the way a forum works depends on the froum/board software used to make everything work.

Where is the ini file?

@George

Do you not have the thread order drop down just above the first answer displayed.

Cheers

John

terrypin wrote on 8/22/2012, 1:56 AM

Hi John,

Thanks, that makes sense. I hadn't appreciated the technical difficulty of implementing it now. But I'd have thought it would have been the obvious default to build into the original code.

Anyway, as it looks as if I'm never going to see it changed by Magix, reckon I might try writing a macro that will toggle all threads on a page to Oldest.

Sorry, ignore my reference to the INI file. I got my memories crossed. That was about trying to get the Audio Recorder dialog defaults changed. Something I eventually accomplished with a macro. My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

gandjcarr wrote on 8/22/2012, 4:06 AM

@George

Do you not have the thread order drop down just above the first answer displayed.

Cheers

Thank you John, I never noticed it before. But see you can teach an old dog new tricks.

gandjcarr wrote on 8/22/2012, 5:53 AM

Hi Esoteric,

The easiest way to post it is to open the message select the text, copy it then paste it in the New Answer box. I usually do it by using ctrl c to copy and ctrl v to paste. Never had a problem doing it that way.