Is there a way to know the date a topic originated without having to open it up first? I was in the Short Story Humor forum and was going to reply to a thread, but then realized that it originated in January. I'm not implying that the originator of the thread won't still be involved, but I was interested in reading a fresher piece of writing.
probably not, but it doesn't take all that much time or trouble to click on it, check the start date and then hit the back button, if too old to interest you, does it?... that said, if you only check the start date, you won't know if the piece was rewritten and reposted later in the thread, will you?...
You can't know the date of the original post without opening the thread. However, the second column when viewing a forum shows the last post date (last post of last reply).
Thanks Daniel, but why would I care the last time someone other than the author posted? I'm not as interested in what others are saying about the piece. I'm interested in having the author read it. Though, the last post date is good for the author to know when a new reply is put in their thread. In a forum like the Game room I can see where the last-poster applies. The problem seems to be that a new story could be buried in like page 5 or 6, for example, because the top-most threads are in that position because they've had the most recent posts; although, the top-most threads could've started last year. I'm not gonna go searching through pages of threads and clicking links just to find the newest stories. Good point mammamaia. Daniel. How about install a button that the orginator of a thread can push to update their thread so it remains towards the top when they post a new draft of their story. So, in other words, the threads that are the freshest remain towards the top of Page 1? Also, the feature on the right that shows last-post can remain, so the author can view it for updates.
If you are responding to a post, you have the date of that post right there to respond to. A new story only gets buried to page 5 or 6 if no activity has taken place on it for a couple days. With the traffic on this site increasing, it could eventually become more of an issue. If you are looking for work that has not yet been reviewed, we do have a pane showing the most recent unreviewed posts in the Review Room on the WF home page. What we don't want is to provide a mechanism for bumping threads. It's already an issue we have toi deal with too frequently, when writers post "oh, and by the way..." posts periodically to bring their threads back up to the front, ahead of everyone else. Admittedly the present system isn't perfect, but I don't see that the changes you are suggesting would make it any fairer.
I am not sure how this board works for changes. But the board I own it is a sort of long drawn out process. Why would Daniel want to make more work for himself. If enough people wanted it then I am sure he would attempt the change but I figure if it isn't broken don't fix it. When you have time go through the back pages to see what others write. It really makes for a fun way to spend an hour or two. I do this but if it is over 6 months since the last post I don't make a comment since sometimes the author is no longer here. You are very new so why not take a week or two and get to know the site and the members. Discuss their solutions to problems and maybe you could come up with something you would be comfortable with.
I considered the *bump* process too. Wait! How about posting the date the thread was originally posted without having to open the thread up? Put it to the right of the threader's name. That's a whole bunch easier, and it doesn't allow for bumping. lessa, if no one said anything there would never be enough people to change (anything). And alot of people never say anything about things they'd like to see changed, so broken things go unfixed all the time. I do say something, even if I'm the only one. That doesn't mean I'm wrong or unnecessarily causing work for someone. What I'm doing is discussing a solution with members by posting my thread in this section of the forum, reading their replies, and replying back to them to reach a finality on this matter.
Changes such as you're suggesting require time-consuming programming, so they are less likely to take place unless there is a really compelling advantage. You'd really need to make a much stronger case that the change would make a major improvement in the site's usability.
I program web pages too. I know effort goes into it. The only case I can make is that it would make it easier for a user to know the original date the thread was posted, so the user can go to the newer posted threads without having to take time clicking upon links. This would save the user time and effort, and generally products that are easier to use and are more efficient attract customers.
Because, generally, most reviews/replies are made a few hours/days after the original post. It wouldn't do any good for short term, but if you look at the last reply and it was two weeks old, you'd know the original post has to be more than that. It's not anything extremely helpful, but it is a general guide to go by. I think it may be nice, but I'm still not convinced it's worth the effort. I mean, all it takes is one additional click to see the start date of the thread. That's not very much work or effort at all.
I started this thread because I was in a section of the forum where the first 3 or 4 threads were started on November or December of last year. It was a short story section. So I assumed that the authors weren't active with them, because that means a two or three paragraph story is still being commented on 6 months after the fact. 6 months just seemed like it was too long for such short stories to be still being worked on, so I didn't bother to read all the way through the threads. I started this thread because I didn't find it worth the effort to click links to discover they started last year. That's why it would be more efficient if the viewer could see the original thread date before opening it up. The user wouldn't have to experience wasted click time. I like this site, but I'd appreciate it more if I could spend more useful time on it, instead of being given the run around by clicking here and there. I was figuring since the script is written that runs the date, that all that would have to be done is for it to be called up at wherever it is repositioned (or duplicated). I know some Javascript. Is that what you're using? How laborious is it to program? What language?
