"New Posts" Forum

With 195 forums, it's impossible to keep up. I find myself more isolated all the time in my 35 favorites.
A "New posts" forum showing the latest 50 or so posts could open the entire site at a glance.
List the thread title, forum, poster and time.
Maybe a tab rather than a forum would work.
Andy P

This message was edited Oct 20, 2006 8:54 PM

Andy P,

You're a thinker.

That's kinda the way the forums were listed before Dave went to the new format of the forums being listed in catagories under Garden Talk and Home Talk. I do miss having them all listed on one page and being able to see what had just been posted to and by whom.

Go to the NEWS tab. Select Todays Newsletter. Scroll down to Forum Activity. It is a list of Forums sorted by the amount of activity the previous day. Hope this helps! I think it's fun to see which Forums we are posting in!

Thanks for your support Dwdruley and MGH.
GrammysG, That page is interesting but not what I'm looking for.
I find myself visiting DG less and less and I just added another year to my subscription.
If I have a question or idea I'll visit a specific forum (when I can find it).
A "New Post" page would give each forum full exposure. I occasionally cross post with a Hyperlink, invariably there will be a follow-up post saying "I didn't know there was a Forum for that!"
Most every other site I frequent has a New Post page and they are free.
Andy P

I think this is a good idea, Andy. I know that there are a lot of good posts that I miss just because I'm not familiar with the forums. When I have the time, I do go poke around, but by the time I run through my favorites, there's rarely time left.

gram ~a girl~

I don't mind paying for Dave's - it's not much $$$ and I need to learn so much! But I agree. I only ever go to the updated threads I'm watching, some of which I started. If I have a specific question, I first look to see if there is a forum for it, and if there is, spend a lot of time reading through old posts and not finding what I'm looking for. Then I'll start a post which asks my question.

Like right now, I'm wondering if people do planttrades of annuals, and if so (they must!), how? (I've only ever done it with perennials.) It's not really an interesting enough question to start a whole thread! And would I post on 'plant trading' or 'annuals' or one of the specific threads, like 'coleus' or 'foliage plants' or 'morning glories'? Maybe the categories could be grouped in smaller sub-categories, like (I'm just looking behind this page to the page behind it) it seems as if 'bug ID' and 'BugFiles Pics' would go together. When I went to the 'Shady Gardens' forum a month or so ago, mine was the first new post in a long time. 'Hostas' and 'heucheras' each have their own forum, as do 'ferns' and 'gingers'. Often there are so many forums it's hard to know what to post where and what to look for where. Let me rephrase that. Often there are so many forums it's hard to know where to look for what you want. Although I have rooted for certain particular forums myself, I take it back! This place is getting out of control.

xxx, Carrie

Carrie we do alot of Coleus trades because they are easy to root and can be wintered over. Often we trade cuttings in the fall.
Andy we miss you in the daily weather. Isn't there an old camp song that says, "Make new friends but keep the old, some are silver, the others gold."
Sidney

Andy's recommendation would be a plus on this already wonderful website!
Dave

I would agree with this recommendation, it could be put in a forum or tab of it's own to be watched if wanted to I guess.

I suspect it would cause a lot of server strain to keep an up-to-the-minute list, but I agree that (along the same lines as the newsletter's digest), a list of "yesterday's [10, 20, 50...some number] most-active threads" would be pretty nifty. If Dave agrees, it could probably be a feature we can opt to show or hide on our personalized home page, just like we see "watched" threads and favorite forums.

Andy, I am new to DG and I just look at a few threads because there is so much going on here... but I agree with you at least if I could see the new threads I may be interested and not keep bothering you, gram, al, zuzu and steph with questions... you guys deserve a break from me...

on the other site I used to go before I discovered you guys they had that feature...

Andy,

How does this look?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/latest_posts.php

dave

Neat - how do I make it show up on the home page?

It's just a test page to see if it's what we're looking for. If we like the idea, we can put it on a homepage box option.

dave

That would be neat, if you could restrict the # that pop up. For example. somebody might want to see the most recent 5 threads with updates, while others would want to look at the most recent 15.

I like the example from dave's post. I, too, am spending less and less time here because it's getting so huge. I think we're losing some sense of community here, and maybe something like that would help.

I like it! That seems like a great way to see what posts are hoppin'....and probably get a lot of us to at least stick our heads in on forums we don't keep on our "favorites" list.

I really like this idea! The test page looks good to me!

Looks good to me, too.

Ann

good idea

Really like it !

Dea

I've added it to the homepage! It shows the 10 most recent posts.

dave

Oh, Dave, I just noticed the new adition to the home page and I LOVE it!!! Thank you very much!!! :-)

Thanks Dave! And thanks also to sarashkeeper (Andy) for suggesting it!

This is great - Thanks, Dave.

Paula

Cool, Dave!! Thanks so much!!

Thanks! Excellent idea and works for me.

Thank You ever so much, Dave. I really appreciate this.
Yes, it will entice me to visit a wider variety of forums and help me keep in contact with old, scattered friends.
It's exactly what I was hoping for.
Andy P

Attention!!! Dave is an enabler!!! I spent th ewhole morning on DG!!!

Ann

I just saw it on my home page. I LOVE IT. It is great.


THANKS Dave. You are the greatest.

Dave, thanks so much for the quick response on this. It looks great. and thanks Andy, for the suggestion.

gram ~a girl~

I love the top ten. The location is good, down below out of the way unless I want to scroll down and see it. Good way to see where all the activity is and where people are hanging out. Thank you all!

Thanks again, Dave.
I spent a long time floating around this site last night. Something I haven't done in months.
After perusing the 'latest 50', I just hit Refresh and had a bunch more new posts, very cool.
Andy P

This message was edited Oct 24, 2006 3:30 PM

i for one think this is too much information.. I love being on here but maybe it is just me - I love the forums I love and stay out of the otheres.

No problem, Mitch. Just disable that feature from your homepage. It's a nice thing to offer extra stuff for those who want it, and allow folks to take stuff away that they don't want.

But didn't we already discuss that issue in another thread?

Dave

I think it's great to have that there for the people who want to see it, and if you don't want to see it you don't have to look at it, or you can go into your preferences and get rid of it. I personally probably won't use it too much, but since it's at the bottom of the page that in my opinion makes it very unobtrusive and easy to ignore it if you don't want to use it. And since it's something that a lot of people wanted and it doesn't interfere in how the website functions I don't see the problem?

Maybe temptation...lol.
I had no idea the jokes forum was so popular!

I like it. I found myself going to forums I never go and saw that some folks I didn't think where still on DG where still here, just never in the forums I check out.

Thanks Dave, I love it. This will be my "downfall" this winter, and the DH will be yelling, where is dinner? I will just say "ask dave". LOL