Enhancement Request: View since on the forums?

It's my experience that any post I haven't read is marked "unread" until I read it, no matter how often I visit...your #2 above is what I experience as the default behavior.

John

Sounds like you need to use RSS like I do. I read every post, and that's how I do it.

Mark

ITILImp,

I have the same problem as you using Internet Explorer 6/7. I've long since given up and just use RSS.

However, the one drawback of RSS is that there's lots of duplication. Each time there's a new post to a thread, the feed also posts the previous posts in the thread. One quickly learns how to read just the new posts, though.

CC

[quote="ccleveland"]However, the one drawback of RSS is that there's lots of duplication. Each time there's a new post to a thread, the feed also posts the previous posts in the thread.[/quote]

What are you using to read the feed? I don't have that problem with Google Reader.

Jael, thanks for pointing that out. I've been frustrated by posts being marked read when I haven't actually read them. I use Google a great deal, but hadn't quite been ready to make the jump to a reader.

I'll play around with it this week and see how it goes!

Folks,

Until we move to a different platform, we're unfortunately stuck with the current limitations. My hope is to address many of the RSS issues with the new site implementation.

Although I've engaged someone to migrate the site, I can't commit to a date at this point (I knew you were thinking about it though :-)

Mike

Mike,

Would it be possible to present the sort capability provided by "View posts since last visit", but without the"last visit" part? In other words, sort threads by date of last post.

That would be a boon to me, as almost all of my forum reading is done via "View posts since last visit". Often I can't get through all of the postings in a single visit, so I have to go a-hunting.

Whether it's possible or not, thank you for your dedication in keeping the forums up and running!

- Paul -

[quote="juliahdoyle"]I use Google a great deal, but hadn't quite been ready to make the jump to a reader.

I'll play around with it this week and see how it goes![/quote]

I subscribe to an insane number of feeds and have been very pleased with Google Reader. Before I switched to Reader, I used Bloglines. It was fine, but I like Reader's interface better. It just seems cleaner and more organized to me.

I have my feeds organized by topic into "folders" and read them by feed. I seldom ever use the All Items "river of news" feature because that's just too confusing to follow.

Under the Feed Settings tab, I have it set to Sort by Oldest, and in the left frame just under the Add Subscriptions link, I have it set to Show Updated. I read using the Expanded View tab, and under Settings in the Preference tab, I have the box checked for "In expanded view, mark items as read when you scroll past them."

Using those settings, I see the messages in timestamp order and as I read them they're marked as read and disappear when the screen is refreshed. If I want to see them again, I just change it show All Items. I think Google caches about 30 days worth of traffic.

It's not threaded, of course, as the messages are shown in the order that they're posted, but traffic here isn't so high that I can't keep track of the discussions as I go. When I see something that I want to respond to (like this), I just click on the title of the message, and it brings me to that message in the forum itself.

Hope this helps!

Jael,

Beautiful! I had no problem 'jump starting' into Reader. I do like the interface and it's very easy to adjust to. Thank you for a great walk through of what works for you. I only keep up with a few sites, but it's definitely easier to keep up this way. I also like that I can check it from anywhere without messing it up somewhere else (yay Google).

[quote="jael"]What are you using to read the feed? I don't have that problem with Google Reader.[/quote]

I've been using Newgator. On you recommendation, I'll try Google reader for a couple of weeks. Thanks for the suggestion, Jael!

CC

I use the Google reader but still prefer read the posts from within the forum. It's easier to be able to refer back to the original posts.

It also feels more personal when seeing your pictures and emoticons.

Hi itilimp,

You might want to try using a different feature, "watch this thread for replies."

It's located at the bottom left of your screen when you're in a thread. It will send you an email when someone adds a post. The system is also set to do this automatically for any thread to which you have posted.

If you don't have time to read a given thread but it looks interesting, click "watch this thread" and you'll be reminded next time someone posts a reply. Of course, this doesn't help much if no one replies.

I have tried Google Reader, but I agree with ramiska that it feels more personal when I log into MT.

R.

After a couple of weeks of trying Google Reader, I've stopped using NewsGator altogether and switched to Google Reader for M-T feeds as well as others. It's faster, cleaner, and elminates most of the redundancies in the feed. It's very easy to click on a "post" to open it up in the native M-T website.

If I could just mark an entire "thread" as read, it would be pretty much perfect.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jael!

CC

rthibode

Click the thread to watch it when you want to read it again, or remember to reply.... that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?!

Thank you :-)

Wendii