New Feature: Search for New Postings

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The Search for New Postings feature has been installed, and I think you're going to like it.

Search criteria can be set for all unread posts or within a certain time frame. And best of all (I thought of you, Ringo, the minute I noticed this), when you click on an unread post in an individual topic, you'll be brought directly to that post in the topic! No having to scroll through posts on the page that you've already read.

Enjoy!

[RingoCollins]

(I thought of you, Ringo, the minute I noticed this

LOL!!!   Thanks for the thought!  [and the feature!]  cant wait to try it out!

[Josette]

Hi MB, I don't know if you saw my response on the old thread which you moved to Testing.  I discovered that you already had it set up and tried it before you posted this announcement.  It didn't seem to work.

I tried again when I first arrived a little while ago.  It takes "forever" for it to find the new posts.  I think the reason why is that all of those old posts, that haven't been viewed for a while and regain their "new" tags, are apparently included.

So, that not only slows down the process, but one has to wade through all of those small listings to find the ones that really ARE current.  Even then, it seems to be a bit slow in bringing up the actual posts.  For now I think I'll do better sticking with the old way.

Is there any way to get it to recognize the difference between the really NEW ones and the old ones which it re-lists as new?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hi MB, I don't know if you saw my response on the old thread which you moved to Testing.  I discovered that you already had it set up and tried it before you posted this announcement.  It didn't seem to work.

All I can say is that it worked perfectly for both Midnite and myself last night as soon as I'd installed it.  :-/

I tried again when I first arrived a little while ago.  It takes "forever" for it to find the new posts.  I think the reason why is that all of those old posts, that haven't been viewed for a while and regain their "new" tags, are apparently included.

It's odd that it should take so long for you because it finds the newest posts in well under a minute for me - even when more than 200 posts came up the first time I tried it.  :-/  However, if your modem's connection speed is under 50K and/or your computer's CPU speed is significantly slow (say, under 400MHz), those would certainly be factors that would contribute to the slowness of almost any of the forum's features.

As far as topics regaining their "new" tags goes, that problem was corrected about three weeks ago when I installed a fix that YaBB had just released.

If for some reason you're still seeing a "new" tag on older topics, then what you should do once you've caught up on all the latest posts is go back to the BoardIndex, scroll down past all the categories, and then click on "Mark ALL Posts As Read".  

So, that not only slows down the process, but one has to wade through all of those small listings to find the ones that really ARE current.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here by having to wade through others before you find the current posts. If you're using the default setting: "Messages I haven't seen before", this feature not only lists topics from the most currently updated to the oldest one containing a post or posts you haven't read, but it begins listing posts in each topic starting with the first one made since the last time you've read that topic. Posts that had already been opened in a topic are completely omitted from the listings.

For now I think I'll do better sticking with the old way.

Well, certainly feel free to view topics and posts in whatever way you feel most comfortable. After all, that's why the forum offers a variety of features.  

[Josette]

That's interesting about what you said that topics shouldn't be regaining their "new" status.  If I do the "mark all topics as read" as you suggested, will that also cancel all the "new" tags for the Archives?  I generally don't have time to go there, and have been hoping to keep all those indicators intact until I get there.

What I meant about wading through them was that the listing included lots of old Luciaphil and Robin - going back for months - all in small print, so it was necessary to glance at all of them to come to the ones that were truly new.  At that point it didn't seem worth it.

Maybe once I get rid of those old ones it will work better and faster.

[Josette]

There's really just the 4 categories that I would be searching, so I just marked each of those 4 with "all topics read" and I'll see if that fixes it.  Of course, now there are no new ones to test it on, so I'll have to wait for tomorrow.    I'll let you know how it goes.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If I do the "mark all topics as read" as you suggested, will that also cancel all the "new" tags for the Archives?

No - the archive is run by a completely separate set of scripts. However, clicking "Mark ALL Posts As Read" on the BoardIndex will stop the "New Posts" icon from displaying in front of the four categories in the gateway until an actual new post has been made in one of them. Unfortunately, though, until I get a chance to coordinate the two systems, people will have to "Mark ALL Posts As Read" on the main forum after reading any new posts made in the archive to remove the "New Posts" tags in front of the four categories in the gateway.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

There's really just the 4 categories that I would be searching, so I just marked each of those 4 with "all topics read"

Well, I'm not quite sure how well that might work. You really should have clicked on the "Mark ALL Posts as Read" rather than marking the individual boards as read. But I suppose you'll see...

[Teresa]

Hey,
How cool, I love this feature
Teresa

[Josette]

Hi MB!!  B-I-G IMPROVEMENT!!!

When I do the search, I just check those 4 categories, so I suppose the individual "Mark as read" in those 4 did the trick.  Anyway, it came up pretty quickly today and it was just the current stuff, not all of those long ago items.  I'm in the midst of going through everything now, but it seems to be working just fine. THANK YOU!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

it seems to be working just fine.

Glad to hear it.

[kuanyin]

It seems that I am the only one that it isn't working well for?   I know that I inadvertantly marked all posts as read a few days ago when you first put in the new feature and it had brought up every single post on the whole board for me. So, today, it no longer brought up EVERY post, just all the ones that had been made since I had cleared the board, so to speak. It didn't matter than I had read them and it certainly didn't take me to the point of the unread responses, which SOUNDS great.

So, is it going to continue show all posts since I last marked all as read?  Do I have to read them THROUGH that feature for it to recognize that I did actually see them?  ?!?

I guess if it works for everyone but me this is a moot point, but what about a nice little color change indicator of posts read and unread?

[kuanyin]

Uhhh, this is making my head hurt. OK, since I marked all posts as read tonight, I have left the board and come back. I did the new post search. This "New Feature: Search for New Postings" discussion came up under the unread posts but without an unread posting popping up underneath it.

A couple of new unread posts DID pop up under their headings. I read them. I redid the search. The headings still come up without anything underneath them.

Surely, this is not how it is supposed to work? I am sorry to rate the new feature cumbersome and creaky. And to think I wasted my vote for it! Next time I vote, DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO ME, OK?  

[Mysterious Benefactor]

So, today, it no longer brought up EVERY post, just all the ones that had been made since I had cleared the board, so to speak.

That's what it was supposed to do. However, you do have the option of searching individual boards. To do that, simply uncheck the "Check All" box and click on the box(es) in front of the board(s) you want to check for new posts.

It didn't matter than I had read them and it certainly didn't take me to the point of the unread responses, which SOUNDS great.

It definitely jumps to the first post made in a topic since the last time you opened the topic. I honestly have no idea why it should work differently for you or why posts you may have read the last time you opened a topic may have come up. All I can say is that it doesn't work that way for me.

So, is it going to continue show all posts since I last marked all as read?

I have absolutely no way of knowing how to answer that.

Do I have to read them THROUGH that feature for it to recognize that I did actually see them?  ?!?

Definitely not. I just read a few posts that had been made since the last time I'd opened a few different topics, and then I ran the search new posts feature, and none of those posts came up as not having been read.

I guess if it works for everyone but me this is a moot point, but what about a nice little color change indicator of posts read and unread?

I'm sincerely sorry you seem to be having problems. However, there's really no way to change the color of read posts unless I were to set the boards to only one post per topic page - and even at that it would require way too much rewriting of so many of the system's scripts.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The headings still come up without anything underneath them. ... Surely, this is not how it is supposed to work?

Actually, it is. The feature compiles a lists starting with the latest updated topic on a board and ending with the last topic with a new post and sorts them in the order they were last updated. Topics without new posts that place in between those two topics simply have their titles listed. However, it will only do this if you come to the forum, read some posts and then decide to run it. The actual point of the feature is to run it when you first visit the forum and have it find the new posts for you. If it's done that way, there won't be any topics listed which don't have new posts in them.