Searching for "report new" in a given topic finds new posts, and nothing else

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I have discovered that searching for report new in a given topic finds posts tagged as new, and typically nothing else! I tested this with Firefox.

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SueW, HiFlyer, Elly

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This tip is useful in conjunction with finding which topics have had recent replies by browsing https://www.askwoody.com/forums/view/topics-freshness/, which is also available by clicking the “Recently active topics” link on the right side.

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Searching for rt new should be good enough in most cases.

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AlexEiffel, SueW, Purg2, Elly

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Excellent revelation there MrBrian.  I have confirmed this loverly technique & am thrilled to see it in action.  Thank you for going the extra mile.  It really makes a difference in some of those long threads where the word “new” appears more than a few times.

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/ms-defcon-3-yep-its-time-to-get-patched/
Down to 11 from 27.  Very cool.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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MrBrian

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You’re welcome :).

If I may ask, are you also using Firefox as your web browser?

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MrBrian wrote:

You’re welcome :). If I may ask, are you also using Firefox as your web browser?

Yes, but an older version, not 57.  I should really go try it out on Chrome & IE just to be sure.  Ambles off to give it a whirl.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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MrBrian

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Works fine on Firefox ESR v52.

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SueW

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Chrome portable v61.0.3163.79 (Official Build) (32-bit) doesn’t like it.

IE is giving me fits, after force close through task manager a couple times, it’s just a white screen, so I’ll have to report back on that when it decides to play nice.

I suspect that most versions of Firefox will work.  Whereas the other two could be suspect, le sigh.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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MrBrian

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Thanks for the info :).

Maybe some other text will work for other browsers. I discovered the text for Firefox by copying the text around a “new” post, then pasting it to a text editor.

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MrBrian wrote:

Thanks for the info :). Maybe some other text will work for other browsers. I discovered the text for Firefox by copying the text around a “new” post, then pasting it to a text editor.

At least you’re on to something. 

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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Thank you for the explanation, MrBrian. It did not make immediate sense to me so I copypasted a section of comments to notepad, where it makes it obvious.

The ‘report’ or …’rt’ comes from the Reply|report text element to the right on the line where the word ‘new’ appears in the string. But graphically that element is dressed out and placed at the left of the line. Interesting.

My Pale Moon ver27.7.1×64, set to User Agent Mode ‘Firefox Compatibility’ mimics your result. As expected, I suppose.
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Edit to add: This would still yield a false positive if someone were to comment with sta’rt new’ or ‘report new’ developments. But it definitely strips away most.

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MrBrian

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Purg2 wrote:

/snip…..IE is giving me fits, after force close through task manager a couple times, it’s just a white screen, so I’ll have to report back on that when it decides to play nice.

IE finally decided to cooperate & the results were unfavorable.  It didn’t pick up the nifty variation you discovered.  Produced zero results in edit/find, no matches found.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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MrBrian

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Searching for rt n might be good enough in most cases.

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To clarify, the prescribed method will not work for anonymous site visitors.  Because the “new” tag only appears when viewing as a registered member.

Regrettably, the tags will display more thoroughly in the threaded/nesting mode.  In the non threaded mode, tags only display for the current page, advancing to the next page (if there is one) will not display the tag, despite being new posts.  Which might not matter much because of the linear aspect of that view.

Win 8.1 (home & pro) Group B, W10/11 Avoider, Linux Dabbler

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MrBrian

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My method has evolved after mishandling page navigation a couple of times, and losing the ‘new’ tags. In a [CTRL]+[F] launched search bar, I use a varying length string of ‘month date,’

That is, today I started with ‘er 23’ to catch all comments up until midnight CDT, then ‘er 24’ to check for any more. This has a hazard for the 20th of each month triggering many false positives in the sidebar. On that day, adding the trailing comma ‘er 20,’ is more effective.

This method also works when not logged in.

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