Recent Post List functionality

By Mumblefratz Posted September 23, 2008 12:25:54

I just recently stumbled across a two year old article Forum & Tips & Tricks authored by Frogboy which describes various aspects of the "new" forums.

In particular he describes the following functionality.

Another key difference in Stardock forums is that new posts float to the top of the parent forum which in turn floats to the top of its parent.

He goes on further in the article with the following example.

One can imagine a forum like this:

Hardware
    PC
      Graphics Adapters
            nVidia
                7800
                    Overclocking
                        Utilities

In a Stardock.net forum, a user who clicks on the nVidia forum would see the newest posts from all the sub-forums. So if there's some hot new utility that lets users over-clock their 7800, the user who just clikced on the nVidia forum would see it without having to dig all the way down to the Overclocking utilities area. As a result, it saves a lot of clicks.

It is true that recent posts from any forum that exists on a particular site do get placed in the top level recent posts list but that's the only recent post list that works like this. The recent post list of every forum that I've seen consists of recent posts from that forum only. This means that if someone wished to monitor the GalCiv II forum (forums.galciv2.com/forum/162) and all 17 of the forums that exist under it then they would have to scan 18 separate recent posts lists. If the functionality worked as described above you would only need to monitor the GalCiv II forum's recent post list. I do understand that the GalCiv2 site's top level recent post list will contain recent posts from all of the above mentioned forums. However the top level recent post list may also contain many posts from unrelated forums that someone might prefer to not have to wade through.

Sorry about the length of this issue description, but is this functionality going to be implemented at some point in the future, or if it had been implemeted and is now simply broken, will it be fixed?

+21 Karma 18 Replies

From my standpoint what Frogboy describes regarding Recent Forum cross posting is currently working.

To selectively monitor forums and their most recent activities use RSS feeds to obtain the greatesr user control based on the forums that match your interests. In your GalCiv II example just choose the RSS feed that has the listing you're intested in.

There's also a consolidated RSS feed on the GCII forums that will give you the top 10 forum listings for all 17 GCII forums. As I've indicated in the past make use of the tools Stardock makes available to you.

Another key difference in Stardock forums is that new posts float to the top of the parent forum which in turn floats to the top of its parent.

This is not true.

From my standpoint what Frogboy describes regarding Recent Forum cross posting is currently working.

Therefore I can't see how you can say this.

The official answer is: yes and no.

We're still on a quest to make our forums function more like the major forum applications out there that most people are familiar with. One of the dealydojobs in this process was the post bubbling. Back in the day, you would have a forum post nested 8 or 10 categories deep (kind of like your example mumbles) and that post, whenever it recieved activity would be then pulled to the forefront in the top most parent. Well, we did away with that with the database and code update last January. The Recent Posts listing took over that job and the main forum listing performs like people expect them to. It also helped us out a lot with maintaining a sane category tree. We're still trying to eliminate crazy nesting, but we're getting closer to a simpler setup.

So yes, the functionality has changed. But no, it's not a bug We just moved it somewhere else (to the recent posts).

(And in case you're tempted to ask, it's not something that I am scheduled (nor want) to bring back)

In any case I've merely reported what appears to me to be a discrepancy between forum operation and an admittedly old description of how the forums work. If Andrew disagrees with my interpretation of the operation of individual recent posts lists then I have total confidence that he won't be shy about declaring this a non-issue. If he has anything else to say about the issue, I'd be very interested in hearing about it. Regardless, this isn't the place for you and I to argue about it so I won't.

Another key difference in Stardock forums is that new posts float to the top of the parent forum which in turn floats to the top of its parent.
This is not true.

Uh?? Not looking for a response but, they're working here just fine. At least as I have understood they are supposed to work since this past year and....

and all 17 of the forums that exist under it then they would have to scan 18 separate recent posts lists

If you want to make use of the facility that Stardock makes available to address this then just monitor the one consolidated GCII Recent Forums RSS feed and you will get the ten most recent posts from all of the 17 GCII forum categories. It will duplicate exactly what's on the recent posts listing found on the GCII Forums main page. By placing this in an RSS feed widget you can be doing whatever you want in your browser and the widget will keep you up to date with what's happening in the forums at the same time.

Oh my, yet another victim of andrew's fickle finger of doom and deletion? I thought Brad just spoke to him about this a few days ago....

I believe Andrew's response to be perfectly reasonable here, nor was it any different than I expected. The "some people think" comment was addressed to BigDog regarding the RSS feed thingy about which we've had previous discussions. As to any fickleness, I don't consider the Forum Issues moderation policy to be unwarrented specifically in the context of a help forum. Outside of such a restricted area would be a different matter.

He means that my reply was posted to the database while he was writing his. None of his content was deleted.

Little-whip please don't post replies that are off topic in posts that are in the Forum Issues category. In the Forum Issues forum, if your reply doesnt relate to the issue which was reported then it's off topic. Please keep that in mind moving ahead.

Edit: Thank you for the support Mumbles.

Quoting little-whip,

reply 7

[edit] Andrew's reply occurred while I was typing this reply so the point is moot. In any case I don't feel it unreasonable to at least ask the question, regardless of what some people think I should or shouldn't do. [/edit]

Oh my, yet another victim of andrew's fickle finger of doom and deletion? I thought Brad just spoke to him about this a few days ago....

As was said, those comments aren't needed in this section. If you have a site issue to report, or to add to what the issue is, that is one thing. Otherwise, keep it on topic in this section.

If the functionality worked as described above you would only need to monitor the GalCiv II forum's recent post list

Well that was what I was saying you can do this right now the rss feed is the way to do it now. If you choose not to use this that's up to you. You can also write your own HTML and pick what ever you want to from these Stardock web pages and custom design your very own GCII home page that is exactly to your liking. But, that's a lot of work.

Well that was what I was saying ... But, that's a lot of work

I understand completely what you're saying, it's just that there are aspect's to your argument to which I disagree. But as both Andrew and Island Dog have pointed out this isn't the place to discuss it.

I did specifically address the RSS feed proposal in my reply #146 of the hijacked Is This My Blog thread. If you wish to continue this discussion that's probably a better place for it. However I'm perfectly content to acknowledge that we have different opinions on the matter and don't feel the need to try and convince you otherwise.

Sounds good. No need to discuss this futher on my part either.

It might be cool to not have the Forum Issues Forum involved in the JU site recent articles/comment list. People without issues don't really give a damn about what goes on in this forum. Having it out of the recent comments/article list would limit visitation to the forum to only those people that seek it with perceived and/or real problems.

I came here from JU. As far as I'm concerned, it's someone's blog.

Where have I heard this argument before.

OckhamsRazor, while your points are valid, your reply is very off topic in this post. Please feel free to start another post in the General Discussion area of JoeUser (if you are viewing from there) to continue that discussion.

Well, we almost had the post back on topic

Mumbles, may I consider this issue resolved-ish and close the post?

Absolutely.

Sorry about the response to Ockham's reply. I knew it was pushing the limit but his reply struck a certain resonance with some of the things I've been trying to promote as well.

No worries at all. Moving ahead, please do feel completely comfortable in requesting a post be closed if you feel your issue has been resolved.

Thanks again for reporting this, I think we've benefited from your reports for sure.