This topic was marked solved by its starter, on April 1st, 2014, 08:07 PM
[Poll] Board status icons: what's the point?
Poll

Fix or remove the "unread" status?

Fix!
3 (17.6%)
Remove and replace with what you suggested!
13 (76.5%)
Remove everything!
1 (5.9%)
Total Members Voted: 14

Bunstonious

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Re: Board icons: what's the point?
« Reply #15, on March 28th, 2014, 11:05 AM »
Quote from Nao on March 28th, 2014, 09:29 AM
Don't bother, I just don't like other tools for bitmap editing... Not even recent versions of PSP. This one's something like 10 years old, maybe more, but I just like it better.
Awww, no witty banter? Doesn't matter to me what you use, whatever makes you feel happier.
Quote from Nao on March 28th, 2014, 09:29 AM
I could have used a vector arrow for my screenshot, PSP7 has these, I've used them before, but it would have taken a couple of minutes to get it right, and my goal was to just point at the icons.
Meh, they are fine.
Quote from Nao on March 28th, 2014, 09:29 AM
What's the problem with my funny arrows..?
They're "funny"! lol

Seriously though, doesn't bother me, was just a curiosity.

I use GIMP and Inkscape because they are free, but it's your choice.
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Pandos

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Nao

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[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #17, on March 28th, 2014, 11:14 AM »
Apparently, getting rid of topicseen and boardseen would also allow me to get rid of the log_boards table... Hmm.

It's interesting how all of these log_* tables are unclear in what they're supposed for help us with. (log_boards, log_topics and log_mark_read, most notably.)
[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #18, on March 28th, 2014, 11:15 PM »
Just wanted to point out...
Code is close to finished locally; I've taken the liberty to upload the files here, so you can see the board index in action.

So, basically:

.boardstate_day mixes .inline-block

.boardstate_week extends .boardstate_day
   opacity: .9

.boardstate_month extends .boardstate_day
   opacity: .75

.boardstate_year extends .boardstate_day
   opacity: .6

.boardstate_old extends .boardstate_day
   opacity: .4

.boardstate_redirect extends .boardstate_day
   opacity: .2

So, anything posted within the last day has an opacity of 1, anything posted between 1 month and 1 year ago has an opacity of .75, and anything posted before you were born has an opacity of .4.
From what I can see, it's a fair representation. It's not perfect though, and I'm willing to change this if anyone has something better to suggest. I can also remove one class or more, if it's too 'specific' or not enough.

Also, removing this whole system will save you one SQL query per topic read (one per board; if reading multiple topics within the same board, that's still just one query.)

Removing log_boards felt good, too..! I'll need to update the upgrader to remove it automatically, will be cool.

A classic SMF question that I'll adapt to Wedge, though...: should the main boards (those with an icon) display their age according to their own content, or based on their content + any of their children's contents..? Right now, I'm doing it based on their own content, although it costs me an extra timeformat() per board processed.

Bed time.

PS: I *do* have GIMP 2.8 installed on my PC, I just never launch it because it takes 20 seconds to initialize. PSP7 takes less than a second... And yes, I have a SSD drive and a Core i7 processor...

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[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #21, on March 29th, 2014, 08:46 PM »
Okay, I've been working on this since yesterday, reviewing the whole stuff for commit, and then it occurred to me...

What would you prefer, now that the "unread posts in this board" thing is removed?

Would you prefer the board status icon to tell you:
1- "This board's latest post is 1 day/1 week/1 month/1 year/+ old" (current solution)
2- "This board's latest post was made after your last visit" (it'll stay turned on until you log out or just leave the forum for 15+ minutes)
3- "This board's latest post was made after your last post" (it'll stay turned on until you post anywhere again)
4- Give a user option to choose between these..?? (Overkill, probably!)

(1) has the advantage of being already written, ah ah. It also encourages you to post in old forums. The main drawback is that the various visual "levels" can be confusing. Which can, of course, be "fixed" by reducing to a couple of levels (new posts today, no new posts today.)

(2) has the advantage of using last_login data, which is free. Or id_msg_last_visit, also free, dunno which would be best for now. Although, if I don't use this, it means I can remove the id_msg_last_visit column from the members table, because I can't think of a good reason to keep it. (It was used in SMF to determine unread posts "for this session", but Pete removed that, although he never removed that item from the table.)

(3) would require recording your message ID to the members table everytime you post something. That's an extra query per post action, although maybe it's already done, but I don't know where.

Please discuss!

[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #22, on March 29th, 2014, 09:07 PM »Last edited on March 29th, 2014, 09:14 PM by Maxx
If I could code I'd place the date like a blog does, if this can be done ( on day/month ) with out a big hazel. We have too many " new" red  icons, that I can't stand for board post and like everyone has mentioned, the real handy tools is the unread and recent links!

Not to mention  you can see who posted last on the board index. Or just place a text "!" in there. and for child boards maybe a small green dot like would work?

What would it take, to put a text counter on the recent or unread link side... sorry Bro but I get carried away!
But if you simply remove it, I will not complain. But what to do with the DB ( that cell )?

Hope I'm too far off base!

regards,
Maxx
[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #23, on March 29th, 2014, 10:19 PM »
With the removal of the "unread posts in this board" you destroyed the useabillity of the software.
Using the "unread posts" is extra work and you jump in a unlogical manner through the topics and posts.
Wedge just lost a big part of his value. At least for me.
[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #24, on March 29th, 2014, 10:59 PM »
We talking about the left side icon on each board Category, (only) Not the unread post or replies! and with possibilities of something other than that icon or elimination of it!

regards,
Maxx

Nao

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[Poll] Re: Board status icons: what's the point?
« Reply #26, on March 30th, 2014, 10:59 AM »
Quote from Johnny54 on March 29th, 2014, 10:19 PM
With the removal of the "unread posts in this board" you destroyed the useabillity of the software.
Hmm... If i had, I'm sure poll voters would have said so.
You chose to vote for the option I didn't vote for and that was in the minority. As such, you should have made a strong case for your choice. You didn't.
Quote from Johnny54 on March 29th, 2014, 10:19 PM
Using the "unread posts" is extra work and you jump in a unlogical manner through the topics and posts.
You're free to use the Unread Posts links next to the board names. The only difference between now and before is that the board ICON will no longer give you a BUGGY unread status for you. It will tell you whether there have been new posts recently. If you're following a few boards only, then it'll be just the same to you. Or just use the general unread posts link and make sure to add specific boards to your ignore list. Dunno what the problem is.
Quote from Johnny54 on March 29th, 2014, 10:19 PM
Wedge just lost a big part of his value. At least for me.
Judging from your lack of participation after Pete left, I'd say you've been thinking that since that day.

Again, Wedge is my vision of great forum software. I'm making decisions to improve usability. You may not agree with them, but if you don't then if you feel concerned, you should participate in discussions instead of contesting my decisions after I made a democratic poll about them.
You could even ask for a Plugin to restore this. Or even a per user setting. Just because I removed that crappy SMF code doesn't mean I can't put a better replacement in.

But no... You have to be aggressive about it. That's not the way to get what you want. Nuff said.

@everyone else, I'm listening to suggestions on the few alternatives I made yesterday. ;)

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Bunstonious

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