Keeping up with responses?

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I use the Recent Replies list quite often to see what threads have gotten responses. That list is of course limited in size, and sometimes when there is furious posting on one or two threads, the time span it shows is pretty short.

Unfortunately, I often miss when one of my older posts gathers a question or response.

I know about subscribing and getting eMail notifications, but I post enough that I don’t really want to subscribe to every thread I post to.

Any suggestions you might have to ensure one doesn’t miss important responses would be welcome.

I guess ideally it would be cool if the forum could provide a way to see responses to your posts. I know you can have it show you a list of your own posts.

Thanks.

-Noel

3 users thanked author for this post.

walker, AlexEiffel, ch100

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Replies

The only way I know of is what I just did on this post, click the Subscribe button.

It is not perfect. More advanced Forums have, you guessed it, more advanced Tools. As Woody has pointed out, THAT COSTS MONEY! I, like probably you and others, Noel, see some excellent and fairly unique advantages having this Forum the way it is. I don’t find anything as comparable to this approach and layout, so I will put up with a few inconvenience in my Email Box.

As much as I have learned from the people on Patchmangement.org, the Email list is extremely limited and is wanting in even more ways and one still has the volume of Email in there Box. On top of that we can handle a multitude more topics along with Patching. If one is registered on this site and one keeps there conduct between the ditches, one has absolutely no problem with their comments getting screened out by the SPAM filters for no good reason. On a LIST, it becomes difficult to get ones comments through, to the point the Mods can’t even get them through. I speak from experience, yet Posts like I post here went through 99% of the time. Don’t ask me why???

I hope that provides some understanding and some reasons why I find Woody’s Site, SO SPECIAL!!!! 😀

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1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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1 user thanked author for this post.

ch100

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As much as I have learned from the people on Patchmanagement.org, the Email list is extremely limited and is wanting in even more ways and one still has the volume of Email in there Box.

I worked around this issue by opting in for the Digest format and browsing directly through the threads of interest.
What I find more complicated there, is the mechanism of posting to the list, not so much reading the threads.
Any idea?

1 user thanked author for this post.

PhotM

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The fundamental problem, IMHO, is that patchmanagement is a listserv, which has a very fixed format. Listserv has been going for 30 years.

The fundamental problem here is that we’re using bbPress, which isn’t the most capable bulletin board software. But, for what we do, I’d take bbPress over listserv hands down.

3 users thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer, PhotM, ch100

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ch100 wrote:

As much as I have learned from the people on Patchmanagement.org, the Email list is extremely limited and is wanting in even more ways and one still has the volume of Email in there Box.

I worked around this issue by opting in for the Digest format and browsing directly through the threads of interest.

Sorry that wasn’t a complaint, CH100, just a fact. I don’t know what their Digest is like BUT I like the way Gmail ‘Digestifies’ the Topic Threads(as long a people don’t change the subject line), so quantity per topic is quantity per topic…

What I find more complicated there, is the mechanism of posting to the list, not so much reading the threads.
Any idea?

[/quote]

This is the point I was eluding to, BUT not so much the ‘Posting’ but getting them safely through the defenses. The last I commented, 5 of my comment in a row were screened out. They were appropriate and I was told by the SMod that they were noticed and put through, however I never saw them, ever…..

I was there to help said Mod not to cause extra work every time I wanted to say something… like I said:

yet Posts like I post here went through 99% of the time. Don’t ask me why???

I then realized, I wasn’t helping anybody very effectively like I can here….

Be advised CH100, I am not putting anybody down on the patchmanagment.org list site, I highly respect them. It is just a very antiquated system.

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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re: post 102587

“This is the point I was eluding to…”

Your allusion eludes me 🙂

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I tend to have the same issue 🙂

1 user thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer

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Given the options available, other than subscribing, have you been trying these links (from the right hand panel)?
1) New posts since last visit
2) Recently active topics, or
3) Latest Topics
(I’m not sure there’s much difference between 2 & 3.)

3 users thanked author for this post.

JohnW, PhotM, Noel Carboni

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2) shows topics sorted by date of last post. 3) shows topics sorted by date that topic was created.

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

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Thanks anon – my bracketed comments were also noting that on some occasions, both seem to give very similar results. However, on checking it just now, of the top seven results in both links, only three appear in both lists.
🙂

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Thank you, Kirsty, somehow I had not spotted the “New Posts Since Last Visit” link before now.

-Noel

1 user thanked author for this post.

PhotM

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I believe that link doesn’t actually show all new posts since your last visit. Instead, it shows all topics that had new posts since your last visit.

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Like you Noel, I am just seeing “Search for Topics”. O.o 🙁

I have tried clicking on a few, some are empty, other I am trying to wrap my head around on how to use them???

In short this is going to be a NEW work in progress….. 🙂

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

-----------------

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Kirsty wrote:

Given the options available, other than subscribing, have you been trying these links (from the right hand panel)?
1) New posts since last visit
2) Recently active topics, or
3) Latest Topics
(I’m not sure there’s much difference between 2 & 3.)

I had started using them a couple of weeks ago, and I am finding I am using them more and more, recently.

I wished the Forum List was also active links. It would become much more useful. If there was a Recent column, then it would become very useful.

I have a problem with deluge Emails on one topic too. Gmail really helps to keep the thread together but it is still daunting to go through at a time AFTER one is busy for awhile.

That said, once one gets to a topic, at the top, if it is a complex topic one can’t identify which comments one has read already and which comments are new since one was last there???? So the only way to keep sorted out is to go through the thread in Email(Gmail’s way) which will point one to that comment precisely. When there are 30 new comments stacked up there, on one topic, it is very daunting. If I am tired or not feeling well, I find myself, archiving the Email, saying forget it.

An alternative to that is look down the list of comments(Gmail’s way) to try to identify what I might have commented on, that they are responding to. The big problem with that is I can’t see my own comments, ever, they are not sent to me, only everyone else’s are…..

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

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It would be nice to have a list of all posts sorted by date of post.

3 users thanked author for this post.

walker, Noel Carboni, PhotM

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Add time to that, just in case that wasn’t obvious….

--------------------------------------

1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB

SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64

CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable

2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI

1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.

-----------------

1 user thanked author for this post.

Noel Carboni

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I use the “Recently active topics” link as my AskWoody web browser bookmark. For a given topic, I see which posts are new by searching for a specific date in the web browser.

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Can the second and third links mentioned in post https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/keeping-up-with-responses/#post-102454 be added to https://www.askwoody.com/forums/ when not logged in also?

Those seem very helpful as short of subscribing to topics, it becomes tedious to figure out where in a thread a new post may be since they are not listed in order of latest post whenever one replies to a specific comment (since the post will appear after that comment rather than in order of post time).

Or as an alternative. Thoughts on posts that are made by clicking reply to a specific # post automatically quoting the replied post # but appearing as the last post in a thread sorted by post time rather than them appearing immediately after the replied post?

That way posts are not scattered throughout a thread for easy browsing (since anyone not subscribed to a thread would have to scan the entire thread every time in order to ascertain if there are any new posts since last view).

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anonymous wrote:

Can the second and third links mentioned in post #102454 be added to https://www.askwoody.com/forums/ when not logged in also?

Those links are on every page, logged in or guest 🙂

anonymous wrote:

appearing as the last post in a thread sorted by post time rather than them appearing immediately after the replied post?

That was tried in beta testing, and was abandoned fairly quickly as it was not very helpful.

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I’ve seen other forums that automatically back-link to the post replied-to, AND provide a box that could be expanded to see that post… Hm, maybe that was the Microsoft Answers forum I’m remembering? That actually seemed to solve the context problem.

I’m not suggesting it be done here. Just pointing out that the problem is not unique to AskWoody.

It’s still quite easy to miss responses here. I found some questions today that were asked specifically of me in direct replies to my posts that I had missed for a week or more. It’s just a fact of life that it’s impossible to keep up with everything.

-Noel

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Yep, I’ve got the same problem….

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“Those links are on every page, logged in or guest ?”

Not visible for me so something must be getting blocked somehow on my end. My only guess, does it require https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.3.0/css/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.3.0 and https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.7.0 to load in order to be viewable?

The “Sort topics by votes” link is viewable for me in each individual forum though. If https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/topics-freshness/ and https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/latest-topics/ could be added on https://www.askwoody.com/forums/ the same way “Sort topics by votes”, https://www.askwoody.com/forums/forum/askwoody-central/?bbpvote_sort=score_desc, is listed in each individual forum “Home › Forums › AskWoody Central Sort topics by votes”, I think that would be useful.

eg. https://www.askwoody.com/forums/ Home › Forums and then Recently active topics (https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/topics-freshness/) and Latest Topics (https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/latest-topics).

If not, thanks for the consideration and replies.

Oh wait, nevermind. I believe you mean those links are on the right side panel under the Search for Topics.

Search for Topics

Most popular topics
Topics with no replies
New posts since last visit
Recently active topics
New posts: Last day
New posts: Last three days
New posts: Last week
New posts: Last month
Topics with most replies
Latest topics

My complete mistake and oversight. I typically ignore glancing at the whole side panel after thinking it was largely duplicated info. Embarrassed.

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Here’s a method that always works:

1. Open each topic (in a new tab) that appears in https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/topics-freshness/ whose last activity date/time is newer than your last visit.

2. For a tab opened in step 1, search for the earliest date since you last visited this site and read all the matching posts. Example: If you last visited this site on March 24, then search for “march 24”, read the first matching post from March 24 (if any), and then press F3 until you’ve read all posts from March 24.

3. Repeat step 2 but with the next day, and so forth until the current day. Example: Do step 2 for “march 25” and “march 26”.

4. Close the tab.

5. Repeat step 2 for the next tab opened in step 1 (if any).

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Registered users have it much easier than guests when logged in, thanks to new features recently installed.

The Lounge Forum topics list now shows unread topics, and topics with unread/new posts, with a link to the first new post:

 

On the topic page, new posts are also highlighted.

 

If you are debating registering, please read this very helpful post from @elly.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, EyesOnWindows, satrow

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Is “First new reply” really that helpful given that hierarchical comments are allowed here?

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It’s a start!

By taking you to the first (newest) new reply, you can then use your browser’s Find option (ctrl+f) to search for “new” or by date format, for other new posts on that page.

Also, it doesn’t intuitively know if you have actually read those posts, only that you have loaded the page once since they were uploaded.

However, this does only apply when users are logged in (as mentioned).

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HiFlyer

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If “First new reply” takes one to the oldest unread post in a topic (does it?), then one can easily miss new posts above the oldest unread post, due to the hierarchical nature of comments.

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What I would find quite useful is where the article has the link to comments for the number of comments to be shown in parenthesis next to the link. Ideally it would be bold if there were new posts since you last read the comments, feint if not.

Doubtless it would be difficult or impossible to organise, but it would be a quick way to spot whether there were comments and if so whether they were new.

On the subject of responses generally, I’d much prefer to do away with the ability of people to comment anonymously. I find it frustrating when reading such comments not knowing whether they are from established posters or new ones, or indeed whether they are all from different posters or the same one. There is no shortage of comments as a whole, so I don’t think enabling people who don’t want to register from adding to the comments would really lose anything. It must take up moderators’ time vetting anonymous comments and I can’t see that it serves any real purpose.

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Thanks for the suggestions, but…

1. I looked into that, and the developers want a lot of money to implement it.

2. I know anonymous posts are a pain in the posterior – but I want to keep them. People post anonymously for all sorts of good reasons. I want to keep AskWoody open to all, with the quality of their posts more important than their identification. That’s why several folks here spend so much of their time vetting anonymous posts….

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Noel Carboni, Elly, HiFlyer, EyesOnWindows, Seff

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I may have discovered an issue with the “new” label. Currently for me post #113816 at https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/critical-elevation-of-privilege-vulnerability-in-various-intel-firmware/, dated May 9, 2017 at 10:28 pm, shows the “new” label, which is probably correct. However, in that same topic, post #113798, dated May 10, 2017 at 12:22 am, does not show the “new” label, but I believe it should have.

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Does the algorithm for placement of the “new” label rely on the dates of posts, or the post numbers?

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Here are some ways that one could miss unread posts:

1. If “First new reply” takes one to the oldest unread post in a topic (does it?), then one can easily miss new posts above (in page order) the oldest unread post, due to the hierarchical nature of comments.

2. After posting in a given topic, you need to also check for other “new” posts if you rely on the “new” label.

3. Refreshing a topic in browser will cause the “new” label to be lost on posts that had it before the refresh, if I recall correctly.

4. Issue in post #113931.

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