Search Forum Threads by Last Post Date?

[kwilford]

Gary,

I usually log in and immediately hit the "View New Posts" button on the home page. But if I have logged in and then out BEFORE I remember to do that, I can't view a search of all the posts I haven't read. I think the forum "remembers" when I last logged in, and that search turns up all the threads that had been posted to since that time. And the new program doesn't let me do something the old one did, which was to do the "View New Posts" search, and then save the search URL. I think it formerly used the last-viewed post ID as the criteria for the search, but now it seems that the search uses some other criteria. Hmm, I also noticed that the new program seems to "know" if you have looked at a thread, as if it has a "cookie" to tell it that. But then it seems to "forget" that, and will suddenly show all or most of the threads as "read". Funny things, these computers.

So it would be REALLY nice to have a standardized search button, similar to the Photo Gallery, when you could call up all new threads (or rather, threads that have new posts) by "Most Recent Post". Perhaps for the "Last Day", and "Last Two Days", "Last Three Days" and so on. Maybe a user configurable date?

Is that do-able?

[Gary]

In the Welcome Panel on the main page there are 2 links. New Posts and Today's Posts. The menu bar has a link to New Posts since your last visit. I'll try to set up something in the Left menu box. The main page is a temporary one so I'm not going to do a lot of modifications to it.

There is a setting for the "time period" for marking posts as read. I'll increase it.

[kwilford]

Gary,

The search feature for new posts has been getting "flakier", and I think the "cookie" memory (or whatever the program uses to determine if a reader has looked at a thread) sometimes loses its mind.

When I first log in, the "View New Posts" search will perform correctly, and show all the threads that have had new posts since I last logged in (if I have been away for more than a day, it's the only way to catch up to new posts, so I can do the "moderator" thing). So I click on the new threads from the search results, and use the "back" button on my browser to return to continue the process. But if there are a number of threads in the search, or it has taken me a while to read them all, it will start showing the threads as "read", even though I haven't read them all. Then, and this is REALLY annoying, sometimes when I hit the back button, the search result page will show "No Match", and I will have lost the search. And I can't see a way to perform a "search by date", so it takes a bunch of hunting and poking through all the forum headings to read the new posts.

Can we just put set up a search that gets all the new posts/threads since a stipulated date? So when I get back from being out of town, I just type in "search since 04-06-02" or some such thing. Sorry to keep on beating this dead horse, but the search feature plays a key role in being able to moderate effectively.

[kwilford]

This is a "Bump". Sorry to bug you Gary, I just wondered if you had a way to make this happen easily. If not, no worries

[Gary]

You can use the string: http://opelgt.com/forums/search.php?do=getdaily to read the posts from the past day. (It is also in the drop down menu in the menu bar)

The mark posts as read "Cookie" time has been increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

[kwilford]

Sorry to be pain, but that doesn't work if I have been away for more than a day. And if I don't have time to read the entire search results of a "View New Posts" search at one sitting, the search results get "lost". I haven't found a way to "re-create" the search, and I don't get to moderate (or read) all the posts since my last visit. With the last program version, I could save the View New Posts search result URL, and just copy it in the address bar later, and it would go and search out all the new threads/posts since the earliest thread/post of the search result. But this new program doesn't seem to work the same way, and, short of going into EACH forum heading, I miss a bunch of threads/posts.

So, I guess you are telling me that there is no way to simply do a search by date? Pity.

[Gary]

Let me research it a little more..

[kwilford]

Gary,

I was away for the last four days, and I see some changes. Is there still a "Search Last Day Posts"? I don't see it anymore. If so, could it be used as the basis for searching for new posts from a certain date?

The reason I ask is this. I did a "Search New Posts" when I logged in, and got 76 thread hits (208 posts, three pages worth!). Then, halfway through reading them, and answering, as well as moving a number, I accidentally closed the page. POOF! The search was gone! All the search comes up with now is two threads. This is REALLY frustrating, as now I have to go through each of the forum headings and look for posts newer than 4 days.

Sorry for venting, but it is pretty time consuming to moderate even when I can easily search out all the new posts. When the "Search New Posts" function changed, it significantly increased the time to moderate. Frankly, I think I am about to do a RallyBob temporary disappearing act...

[Gary]

scratch that last post. It was a duplicate anyway.

OK Keith... there is now an "Active Topics" drop down in the menu bar. It will show all posts from the past 1- 5 days. I can set it to other time frames if necessary!

[kwilford]

Thanks Gary. I didn't seen the choice in the drop down. It used to be on the front page, along with the "Get New Posts" auto search.

I see why I accidentally closed the search. It used to be that when you clicked on a photo thumbnail, a new page opened up. But now it opens the photo on the next page. Which works fine, I just hadn't noticed, and instead of closing a separate photo page, I shut the session down.

Hey, while I am bitching, I now get an error when the home page opens up. It is a dialogue box, and says:

"A Runtime Error has occurred. Do you wish to debug?
Line: 1
Error: Syntax error"

It is only a single box, so I just have to say either yes or no, and the box clears and the page opens. Similar to the Ad Board errors (and former Photo Gallery errors, but that seems to be fixed!) but it only gives a single error message. Speaking of which, have you had any luck in getting rid of those nasty error dialogue boxes that only show up on a few users computers?

Oh wait, I have one more (small) beef. When in a forum sub-heading, the heading at the top says which forum you are in (and gives a sort of "path" to the source forum). But each forum subheading used to have the path URL embedded, but now all of them take you back to the main forum index. No biggie, but it made navigating somewhat easier, especially if I were moderating. When I moved a thread to a sub forum, I used the path to return the last forum heading.

That's all for now...

[kwilford]

Originally Posted by Gary scratch that last post. It was a duplicate anyway. OK Keith... there is now an "Active Topics" drop down in the menu bar. It will show all posts from the past 1- 5 days. I can set it to other time frames if necessary!

Wonders! Yes, that works TERRIFIC! Any chance of making it a user defined time, so that if I am away for, oh say a week or two or three, I can (over time) catch up to missed threads? Or maybe make the menu choices:

two days (already have a 24 hour search)
four days
One week
Two weeks
One month
Two months

Thanks!

Oh, and I "moderated" your last deleted thread, by physically removing it. Maybe we could make that power available to the other moderators as well, as it gets messy having a bunch of thread remnants

[kwilford]

OK, I have been using this feature a LOT. Even up to earlier tonight. But suddenly, there it is, GONE!
What's up?

[Gary]

I was working on the nav bar and chat area last night had a few problems and then it got late and I ran out of gas. I'll get back on it later today. It will return!!

[kwilford]

Um, the "Active Topics" links are gone again...

They're coming back, right boss?

[Gary]

Originally Posted by kwilford Um, the "Active Topics" links are gone again...

They still here but they were moved to the "Quick links" dropdown. http://www.opelgt.com/forums/news/4987-site-update-future-plans.html