Would anyone else be interested in new threads list?

Hello,

I posted about this before but decided to ask the question in the title. Here is the original thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/883805/ What I would like is something like "The latest posts at DG" but for new threads only. Anyone else interested in this?

I would like that. Sometimes I have difficulty remembering out which threads I decided weren't my cup of tea.

Thanks for thinking of this,

Maggie

If only we could get more interest...

Frankly the "YES!" column telling me if there are new posts or not on a forum is pretty much useless to me. All the forums are so busy, and for the most part, the new posts that really interest me are on threads on my "watched" list. I'd much rather use that column to tell me if there are new THREADS on a forum on my favorites list.

Similarly, changing the "latest posts at DG" to the "latest new threads at DG" might bring up more interesting stuff also... but I can argue that one either way, because "latest posts" also tends to bring "hot" threads to my attention, and that's a nice thing.

With the increasingly long list of forums I'm watching, I actually find it much more annoying that useful to have the list re-ordered each time there's a "yes!" new post on the forum. I would be able to find my favorite forums much more quickly in an alphabetical list than on a list that kept changing. And using the list of forums on the Community page isn't really a good option -- there are so many that it takes me just as long to find the "recipes" forum there as it does to scan down the list on my home page to see where it has moved to now.

For me, the ideal thing would be an alphabetized list of my watched forums, with a "YES!" flag for the ones that have had new threads added since the last time I visited.

critterologist - I generally agree with what you're saying. I would also like my watched forums to stay in alphabetical order.

One of the discussions from the Plant ID forum made me think of this thread. We were talking about how the large number of unsolved threads there make it difficult for people to help figure out what the plants are; having to sift through it all. How about making it something where you could search for new threads started within a certain time-frame or in a certain forum or a combination of the two. Something like plantfiles but different...

Hope this makes sense.

Sounds great to me! You could just add a new tread function to the Searching the Dave's Garden Forums.

Like:

What are you searching for?

Limit to threads in which forum:

Search through:

Show only posts by the following user:

Limit to threads started after:

zhinu - that's a good idea - I forgot about the current search - I don't use it much and I have to admit I probably wouldn't use a new one much, just thought of this one when posting on the other forum.

i like the idea of an alphabetized list of the threads I am watching...and forums I am watching.

With threads I'm watching, it seems to work fine to have them pop up in order of most recent activity. Having my "favorite forums" list essentially randomized is what throws me off. I don't go to my home page thinking, "I wonder which of my favorite forums have new posts?" because almost all of them have new posts within the past few minutes. Usually, I scroll down the forum list thinking, "I think I'll see what's new in the African Violet forum," and then I have to search up and down a couple of times before I spot the forum title in the list so I can click on it.

critterologist - Not all of my favorite forums update that quickly, but I've resorted to find several times to locate a forum. My watched threads are ok randomized, though it would be nice if you could do either or.

If there are any changes made to the order in which favorite forums display on the home page, I'd love to have it as something you can choose in your preferences--for me personally I like it better the way it is with the ones that have newest activity showing up on top. I can understand why some people might like it the other way so I'm all for offering it as an option, I just wouldn't want to see that become the only choice.

I agree... and I know just having it change would be unwelcome to some folks. But I'd sure love the option of an alphabetized list of favorite forums. I know I'm only talking about a time savings of a few seconds each time I go to a forum from my home page... but for me, those seconds add up during the time I spend on DG, and it's especially annoying if I find myself scanning up and down the list repeatedly because I'm just not seeing a forum title.

I know I could just start jumping to my favorite forums from the communities / discussion forums page... but the listing of all the forums has become so huge that I'm not sure that would end up being time saving, either.

ecrane3 - That was why I purposed something like "The latest posts at DG" but for new threads only. That wouldn't effect anything else. Most of the other suggestions, unless made either or, would affect other people's viewing styles.

critterologist - I still end up using find quite often in Discussion forums, I can't remember which section what I'm looking for is in.

I like the "find on this page" tool also, but it'd be quicker to have an alphabetized list of favorites than to use "find" on the global communities/forums page.

I have added the "Newest threads" feature to the DG homepage. You will have to enable it, though, by going to "My Tools", "Preferences", "Customize Homepage" and enable the "Latests Threads".

Addendum: I went ahead and enabled it by default, so everyone should be seeing it unless you disable it.

Thank you! That should make my life much easier.

Looks the same as the latest posts - it's not showing just new threads.

Mine was different for a sec. but now it's back to being the same.

Scroll down!

No I have both in the same basic area, position 3 and 4 and they list the same threads.

Nine do too now?? Strange!

They're both the exact same - just says Latest Threads, but it's the same.

As I said mine was different for a second.

Forum and subject is switched.

Yes, the presentation is different, but it's the same info. New post shows up, not new thread.

Okay, I updated it to show only brand new threads, not recently replied threads. It dawned on me that this is what you were asking for in the first place.

So how do you like it now?

I like it... but, I'm still wondering if there's a way to give us some options for our "watched forums" list..

Could the "New? Yes!" column be made to reflect new threads rather than new posts on the forum?

Could we please have the choice of listing our watched/favorite forums in alphabetical order? It's confusing to me to have the order change constantly... it worked when I was just watching a few forums, but now it actually keeps me from adding forums to my list of favorites because I just don't want a longer list to search through.

Thanks, Dave! I appreciate the way you keep making additions and improvements here -- DG just keeps getting better -- and I appreciate your patience with our requests for more changes, more features, etc. :-)

OK... actually, I don't have any trouble just ignoring the "YES!" column if I don't find it useful, it's the re-ordering of the forums that gives me trouble. A new thread sounds like a good idea! :-)

The new threads list looks good! Thanks for the effort.

I'd ask for two additions. First, have the time they were started on the side, like on the new posts list. Second, either be able to click on a "see more" link or, as was suggested earlier, add a "search by time started" link to the search threads.

Thanks again,
Laura

I think the "New Thread" is good, but most of the time I have looked at it it is full of Plant files. I do look at plant files often to see new pictures added but if I want to catch maybe a new conversation thread such as a Swap, or co-op the plant files over power the other threads.
Maybe the Plant files could be blocked from showing up there?

Edit, I should clairify it's the Plant File Pictures

This message was edited Aug 19, 2008 8:13 AM

PF entries show up in "latest posts," also, I think... Do you think they'll be relatively fewer during the day when more people are posting and being chatty?

Jill You have a point there. I also have Plant file pictures in my watch forums. The new thread is just a repeat and most often then not even though we enjoy seeing the new pictures, the pictures do not get much feed back, so its a one time deal.
And I have a habit of doing a quick look at DG in the morning before going off to work while enjoying my coffee. : ^ )

I think the Plant Files pics all show up in a bunch at a particular time of day so I think most of the time you should see regular threads there.

I think thanks goes not only to Dave but also to Melody... with her on the DG admin team now, I'm guessing Dave has more time to implement nice little additions like this!

Thanks, Dave! (and thanks, Melody & the rest of the team too!)

I ditto critter's post. Thanks all for making this a special site.

I went ahead and made it disabled by default,so if you want this feature you'll have to add it in through your preferences.