Today's posts

[CharlieB]

Another chat that I belong to also has multiple forums, similar to this one. Additionally, it has a category called "Today's Posts" which lists all "Subjects" without regard to forum location. (Actually, they list two days' worth.) . The listed posts are identified by "Subject," and selecting that subject brings up the entire thread. It's much easier to scroll through the "Subjects" for items of interest than it is to visit each individual forum. I like that convenience. I have looked for that option here, but I have been unable to find it. Maybe I just don't know where to look ?
If it is not available, would there be any interest in offering that feature ?

[Neo Bri]

If you're using the Latte theme (default), then directly below the TromboneChat logo all the way to the left is a button with three horizontal lines. Click that and you'll see "unread posts." That's what I use to see what's new.

[CharlieB]

Thanks, Neo Bri.
I had found that option, and that is a good idea. Unfortunately, it doesn't do what I'd like to see, because the post disappears back into the forum maze after the first reply. When my day is over and I sit down after dinner to check the daily posts, I'd like to see all the posts of the day in one place, including the ones already answered.

Other chat sites that have this feature arrange the daily answers chronologically in the "Today's Posts" scroll, so the most active topics automatically keep moving to the top of the scroll, while those with little or no activity disappear off of the bottom when their one or two day time limit expires.

Please don't take this as a criticism of the fine job you guys are doing building this new site. It's already light years ahead of the old TTF. This is just a suggestion. If somebody thinks it has merit, I can send a link to a chat forum where the idea is working extremely well, so that you can see it in action.

[Matt K]

You mean something akin to Facebook or Reddit where all topics are listed but the content is not (e.g. you click a link and it goes into a topic)?

Or are you seeking every post (but not the topic generally) in one single list. (E.g. you would see the four posts in this thread as well as every post that was made between them in every other board, in the order they were posted in but not grouped by the context)?

Is there a link to a site that has this feature you could link to? Generally anything is possible but obviously somethings are less practical. I'd hesitate to introduce the latter as that would be a lot of bandwidth if we had a lot of people using it but something like an RSS feed could be enabled that would be essentially what you're looking for.

[CharlieB]

Hi, Matt. Thanks for joining in.
Rather than me stumbling through what may be incorrect jargon, I'll cite an example.
In addition to trombones, I'm also into old tractors and I frequent the site with the below listed link.
If you click on "Forums" on the home page, you can see a very large listing of diverse forums and sub-forums. Each of these is easily accessible in its own right, but finding daily activity by visiting each forum is just not practical.

Instead, back at the home page, you can click on "Today's Posts". That operation finds all of the subjects that have been active, across all forums, during the previous two days, and displays them chronologically. Clicking on any of the "Today's Posts" will take you to the full thread discussing that subject and let you join the discussion. The subject will remain on the "Today's Posts" list as long as replies are active, but will fall off if activity ceases for two days. Frequently, someone will find a need to reply to a very old subject, and that subject then shows up on the "Today's posts" list until there is no more interest, at which time it goes back into hibernation on its home forum until it is accessed again.

Neo Bri has pointed out to me that Trombone Chat has a similar option that allows you to access only "Unread Posts."
That's a good thing, but it is mostly a listing of dead subjects. The "Today's Posts" option plugs you directly into active conversations, which is really what chatting is all about. If it is reasonable to create a "Today's Posts" page here at Trombone Chat, I think it would help to streamline Trombone Chat, making visits more appealing, and maybe even helping to get the membership up a little more quickly.

https://www.smokstak.com/

Thanks for listening.
Charlie

[Matt K]

I don't know how easy it would be to implement that as a special page because my php is erm, non-existent. There may be an add-on, etc. We can look into it. In the meantime, I think if you bookmark this URL it should give you what you're after:

http://trombonechat.com/search.php?keyw ... mit=Search

[Neo Bri]

Hi, Matt. Thanks for joining in.
Rather than me stumbling through what may be incorrect jargon, I'll cite an example.
In addition to trombones, I'm also into old tractors and I frequent the site with the below listed link.
If you click on "Forums" on the home page, you can see a very large listing of diverse forums and sub-forums. Each of these is easily accessible in its own right, but finding daily activity by visiting each forum is just not practical.

Instead, back at the home page, you can click on "Today's Posts". That operation finds all of the subjects that have been active, across all forums, during the previous two days, and displays them chronologically. Clicking on any of the "Today's Posts" will take you to the full thread discussing that subject and let you join the discussion. The subject will remain on the "Today's Posts" list as long as replies are active, but will fall off if activity ceases for two days. Frequently, someone will find a need to reply to a very old subject, and that subject then shows up on the "Today's posts" list until there is no more interest, at which time it goes back into hibernation on its home forum until it is accessed again.

Neo Bri has pointed out to me that Trombone Chat has a similar option that allows you to access only "Unread Posts."
That's a good thing, but it is mostly a listing of dead subjects. The "Today's Posts" option plugs you directly into active conversations, which is really what chatting is all about. If it is reasonable to create a "Today's Posts" page here at Trombone Chat, I think it would help to streamline Trombone Chat, making visits more appealing, and maybe even helping to get the membership up a little more quickly.

https://www.smokstak.com/

Thanks for listening.
Charlie

Another option would be to just hit the "mark all topics read", which will make your unread topics list current.

[CharlieB]

Thanks for your time, Matt.
As a non-ITT guy, I wasn't sure if this was a big request or a quickie.
Sometimes there's a big gap between possible and reasonable.
I'll just continue to appreciate the many improvements you've made to this site already.

Charlie

[Matt K]

Thanks for your time, Matt.
As a non-ITT guy, I wasn't sure if this was a big request or a quickie.
Sometimes there's a big gap between possible and reasonable.
I'll just continue to appreciate the many improvements you've made to this site already.

Charlie

Related:

[CharlieB]

^^^

[ghmerrill]

Thanks for your time, Matt.
As a non-ITT guy, I wasn't sure if this was a big request or a quickie.
Sometimes there's a big gap between possible and reasonable.
...

Yes, and even if something is "possible", the real issue may be about how that can be persisted over time and through changes in support personnel and in upgrades to the basic forum software (in this case phpBB). If you make a change that was "possible", where does that go? And in Southern parlance, "where does it stay?". And who knows about it? And how does it get retested (and possibly debugged and fixed) with every upgrade of phpBB, which may break that change you made in the previous release? Especially when that system is itself a kind of collaborative effort (and I've created and run a phpBB forum myself for a while not very long ago -- it's a very good product, for what it is).

In situations like this, you should always wonder "If the guys making this work today suddenly disappear, what degree of trauma and chaos will fall on us in getting people to replace them?" Local modifications (e.g., adding code or changing the code base, rather than fairly simple configuration changes) will make the trauma and chaos hideously more severe -- and possibly, at some point, force you to start over from scratch.

So even possible things can be dangerous to make actual. And "feature creep", "design by committee", or "design by the addition of nifty features" will, in the end, corrupt even the most dedicated professional effort. Resist the siren call.

Disclaimer: I'm a long time champion of improving the user experience, UI, and feature set (at least when consistent with reasonable design/implementation goals and methodology). And my wife was a UI/UX designer/consultant for about 20 years (including some big projects we worked on together). But in cases involving a forum like this, caution is in order as a trade-off for reliability and continuity.

It's fine to ask for stuff (and in fact should be encouraged). But don't be surprised if the answer in a lot of cases is along the lines of "Yeah, we COULD do that, but it wouldn't be smart."

[Matt K]

That's all correct (and indeed, I've said those very words for some requests! ).

That said, one of the reasons we chose phpBB over other software is for the popularity of its codebase.... and is one of the reasons why the TTF was difficult to work on even if we would have had the backend opened up (it used some other, older software). So we do have more options with this software for support, etc. And sometimes a feature already exists, we just have to flip the proverbial switch. But we'll look into it either way and see what can be done!

[BarryVarie]

Well it lets everyone get to know you and you build a reputation, also it gets people involved in the community rather than just show up and sell frags every month... 200 posts is easy round here, post some pictures get a swap thread going, bit of banter and 200 soon comes round