New threads to have bold while old threads non-bold feature

One great hack I did on my old board was to make it so all new threads would appear in boldface while old threads appear regular. This is an excellent and quick visual indicator to users which lets them know what is new and unrread.

If I were to hack this into aspg do you have any pointers on where to start? Are you doing all read tracking on the client side?

yes, read tracking are done on client side. You can take a look at the showArrow function in js/showtime.asp to see how I do it.

I'll check it out but you might also want to incorporate this in a future release. It is the best indicator I've seen for new posts on a forum :) REgular posts are plain while the new posts are bold

Aren't new posts indicated by an arrow already? Also, if the style for links (the A element) is bolded already, this will not work.

ORIGINAL: FreddyD

Aren't new posts indicated by an arrow already? Also, if the style for links (the A element) is bolded already, this will not work.

the link style would have to be changed back to regular and then the unread posts would appear bold properly. This feature is killer. Users have seen our beta forum and complained loud to me to bring this back as I had it in my old forum (one of my own hacks in vb). It makes it very easy for users to spot what is new and what isn't. The icon is subtle and people look at the thread title first so looking at an icon is another step making the brain work harder.

i think i agree with rcuniverse on this one
although i've made a cool icon that clearly shows new messages, bold font for new topics would be a good enhancement. the following might be considered sloppy code (because i have no closing </b> tag), but here's a quick fix for what you might be looking for, rc universe:

1) change the .c2 tag from your admin panel > style configurations > dynamic css by deleting the word bold

2) open /forum/js/showtime.asp with notepad, go to line 139 and change this:

document.write (" <a href=\"<%= modifiedDir %>fb.asp?m=" + threadid + "&go=newest&lastvisit=" + escape(linkDate) + "\"><img src=\"<%= modifiedDir %>image/newestmsg.gif\" alt=\"<%= ttNewsetMsg %>\" border=0 align=\"absmiddle\"></a>")

to this:

document.write (" <a href=\"<%= modifiedDir %>fb.asp?m=" + threadid + "&go=newest&lastvisit=" + escape(linkDate) + "\"><img src=\"<%= modifiedDir %>image/newestmsg.gif\" alt=\"<%= ttNewsetMsg %>\" border=0 align=\"absmiddle\"></a><b>")

(i.e. simply add the <b> tag after the newestmsg.gif icon appears)

let me know if it works!

success!!! thanks!

marc

I enjoy and find helpful what's going on in this topic, people are coming up with ideas about the look and feel of pgd and posting code snippits explaining how to get it done. However, I'm a little concerned about suggesting that these preferences be included in future releases. It just seems to me that most of these topical changes are better left to individual webmasters, especially since the code we have to work with is well designed for customization. Personally, I'm spending my design time removing clutter and I'd sincerely hate to have even more icons and bolded text to remove, but I would!

There, I've gotten it off my chest. Opinions are like... well, you know!

i'm usually for any feature that enhances the usability of the forum such that it caters to the most "computer-illiterate" user. bolding threads is more useful than a small little arrow beside a new message. it's an easy change for me whenever the package is updated so it doesn't necessarily need to be included in future releases.

speaking of clutter, you know what i don't like? the "joined" date under the username on every post. i always confuse that with the post date for the respective message. who cares when a user joined any way? it's something neat to have in the user profile, but it only clutters thread messages.

I totally agree with the comment about the joined date! This has always bugged me. I think that it would be okay if the post date were much more prominent, so that I wouldn't confuse the two. But down at the bottom like it is, it's hard to catch it. A lot of times the first thing I want to know is when something was posted. The first date my eye finds is the joined date. For my own forum (if I ever get my site going!) I was planning to move the posted date to the top somehow.

hey guys, don't get hypersensitive about the join date! It is very simple to remove if you don't like it. I like it though because it gives your members an idea how "creditable" (roughly) the current poster is when seeing the joined date + the post count beside the name. It is just personal preference IMO. It does not actually "clutter" the interface since it is just so small down there. If it indeed bothers you, the simple style in the profile will fix it.

haha
now now
no one is getting hypersenstive here. we're just making comments. it's good to see that i'm not the only one who feels this way about the joined date, though!

as for getting your site going, paulwoods--don't worry! we've been developing our site for almost a year now and we're still not ready to launch to the public. we're actually waiting for the .NET port and photo gallery implementation. meanwhile, we're learning a lot about the code and finally getting the hang of customizing it. it'll probably be another half year before we're confident that our site (and forum) is ready for launch. how does that saying go again? good things come to those who wait.