Tweaks and Refinements to the Forums Home Page

[peter]

I made a number of tweaks to the forums home page today, including:

– Bolding forums categories

– Putting each forum and subforum on a separate line for better readability

– Displaying the most recent post title (excerpt) on the right-hand site of a forum / subforum listing

I had removed the descriptions for each forum category from the forums home page, as I thought it was making things look a bit text heavy. I can bring that back if the majority found it helpful. Please let me know what you think.

 

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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1

[Release]

Haven’t been here for a few days but I am absolutely LOVING that there’s a “Latest Topics” link now.  I’d love to see a “Mark Topics Read” button on that page too but I can definitely live without it.  This was on my “must have” list with any forum…..so… great job Peter.

As someone who checks in from time to time at work, this is such a great feature so I’m not jumping all over the place trying to catch up…. or just bailing all together because it’s too difficult.  Really helpful to see everything in one place.

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[peter]

Release wrote:

Haven’t been here for a few days but I am absolutely LOVING that there’s a “Latest Topics” link now. I’d love to see a “Mark Topics Read” button on that page too but I can definitely live without it. This was on my “must have” list with any forum…..so… great job Peter. As someone who checks in from time to time at work, this is such a great feature so I’m not jumping all over the place trying to catch up…. or just bailing all together because it’s too difficult. Really helpful to see everything in one place.

Thanks much for the feedback and kind words.

You’re not the first person that’s asked about the ability to mark topics read manually. I had shared that the only plugin that is known to be safe and stable that does that is part of a plugin that costs $250 by a developer who’s rock solid (there is an abandoned open source plugin built for an earlier version of the platform, but using that entails a good deal of risks with security and various potential conflicts; earlier this week, I tried one of those and it literally brought the site down) — I’m using a number of his plugins on the site, but I exceeded my budget ($1,000) and have already committed to functionality that doubles my budget. So, what I’m going to do is put up a contribution button. I’ve already had people offer contributions of more than $100 US, I just told them to hold off until I have time to put something up. But I will ask contributors and once I hit $250, I’d like to get that plugin. It also would allow us to edit our signatures using the same editor we use to make posts (it’s called TinyMCE — it’s part of WordPress, but ridiculous as it seems, the forum platform developers didn’t make that part of the core functionality — and yeah, this developer is on that team, so you can see that there may be a reason this functionality isn’t built in –$$$).

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[peter]

@release Wait, I just spent time testing a “mark as read” plugin that I’m hesitant to keep on the site due to it being really outdated and potentially causing scripting and security conflicts, but it struck me, why do you think you need this? You’re not the only person who’s asked for it — there have been multiple requests — but after I was testing it, it struck me why anyone would need it.

The way the current system works is that when a page is loaded, it automatically changes the graphic from U (unread) to R (read). Doesn’t that do the trick? Because this is really just duplicating what already exists otherwise. The only use case I can imagine is if someone has a habit of clicking links and not reading a page and wants to go back to them.

Sorry, I may just be slow figuring this out! It wouldn’t be the first time! So I’ve set it up. But I can use some insights on why people are asking for this when we have an automated system that does the same thing.

 

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[Release]

If it causes any issues or conflicts, please don’t worry about it, really.

Here’s an example of what I was thinking:  If I load up the new “Latest Topics” link, I was hoping it would filter out the topics I’ve already read since….technically…..  it’s not new to me anymore.  But now I’m thinking that’s probably more of a personalized filter setting on some super expensive plugin than a global aggregator for everyone on the site.  I guess I was looking for more of a “new since your last visit” kinda thing.  But this addition as it is now is fantastic so please don’t worry about it.

As it is now, Latest Topics pulls up…. the Latest Topics….as it should.  So thank you.

[peter]

On Release said

If it causes any issues or conflicts, please don’t worry about it, really.

Here’s an example of what I was thinking:  If I load up the new “Latest Topics” link, I was hoping it would filter out the topics I’ve already read since….technically…..  it’s not new to me anymore.  But now I’m thinking that’s probably more of a personalized filter setting on some super expensive plugin than a global aggregator for everyone on the site.  I guess I was looking for more of a “new since your last visit” kinda thing.  But this addition as it is now is fantastic so please don’t worry about it.

As it is now, Latest Topics pulls up…. the Latest Topics….as it should.  So thank you.

Ah. so what you would like to see is simply the threads you’ve already read removed from view, right? Which I agree would be ideal. However, I’m not aware of a plugin for this platform — or any other — that does that.  There’s definitely no plugin that does that. I’m certain it could be programmed, it’s really just personalization,  but I’ve yet to see it done on any forum platform, and it definitely doesn’t exist for bbPress (made by Automattic, the developer of WordPress, which is what we’re using on this site).

Okay, so understanding that is what you were hoping for, I’m going to remove the plugin that lets people check “mark as read” — as it only duplicates what is automatically done on the site already (shown by the U and R graphics). Self hosted and SaaS forums really haven’t advanced all that much in the last two decades, largely because their use has been steadily, then dramatically declining largely due to platforms like Reddit and Discord. The most useful functions you might check out are the ways the platform sorts views, like the Latest Topics View you mentioned. Some other sorts you might appreciate:

Topics Freshness
https://linkedmusicians.com/forums/view/topics-freshness/

Most Popular Topics
https://linkedmusicians.com/forums/view/popular

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[Release]

Love it!  Thanks.

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