filter new posts and subforums

[Nightbird]

Hi [H]ard|Forum,

I have a feature to wish for, and I know whether it is implemented will depend on its feasibility and benefits.

I spend a lot of time clicking on the new posts link here, as reading various discussions breaks up my work day. As with everyone, there are areas that interest me and areas that don't, so I'd like to see a filter you can set up in your User CP to remove unwanted sections and new posts, i.e. design your own version of [H].

Programming difficulty and server performance:

There are two ways that I see this can be done (there will surely be more):

1. After saving user preferences (to a cookie or the like), every time a user visits the forum or hits new posts, the server will apply user preferences and generate a unique page if necessary (with PERL or any language that does dynamic page assembly).

2. The webpage itself will contain some simple code (Javascript I know can do this) that will run on the client side and knock out sections of code (properly IDed) from a generic version sent from the server, thus having the same end-user effect.

With any change, the server load needed to implement a certain feature is a big deal. 1 may negligibly decrease total data transmitted, but increase server HD IOs and CPU loads. 2 will increase total data transmitted a little, but no additional stresses. For these reasons, 2 may be preferable to 1 but unfortunately requires some Javascript.

As far as new posts goes, if people can limit the sections from which threads are displayed, they may hit this button fewer times since the scrolling effect can be lessened drastically. (If I can get rid of the sales/hotdeals threads for example, I get rid of half the threads)

Lastly, this would be an optional feature, and has to be enabled in CP. So for the normal user, no change is visible. For the people that want it and would benefit from it, the additional server load may be neutral.

Thanks for reading,
Wayne

 

[Nightbird]

A sample of list of what I would filter out:
Hotdeals, For Sale/Trade, Apple Products, General gaming

This would filter out 10/15 of the new posts list I just got though at times, the amount bumping in the sales threads and hotdeals would make it like 13-14/15 displayed.

 

[Oldie]

It's not exactly what you're looking for but you actually can create a bit of a custom view of the forum. If you subscribe to a particular forum, it shows up at the bottom of your UserCP like this:

I can't think of a way to emulate the "new posts" button functionality, but you can limit searches to subscribed forums only in the advanced menu:

There's no limit to the number of subscriptions you can have, you just go to the main page of the subforum and hit the Forum Tools button to add the subscription.