RenaissanceFestival.com Forums

R/F.com Updates => Ask the Admin => Topic started by: SleepyArcher on December 24, 2010, 06:19:50 AM

Title: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: SleepyArcher on December 24, 2010, 06:19:50 AM
when i post in a thread it comes up in the new replies to your posts, anyway of unsubscribing it?
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: meauho on December 24, 2010, 03:18:35 PM
Profile (on the top bar)
Notifications and Email (left navigation bar)
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: Merlin the Elder on December 25, 2010, 09:19:23 AM
I think he meant for pruning the "New Replies to Your Posts" list, something that I'd like to do myself for some threads that I'm no longer interested in keeping up with.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: meauho on December 25, 2010, 11:28:46 AM
You can go to each individual thread that you are getting replies from, click "Modify" on your post, drop down the "Additional Options" at the bottom, and unclick "Notify me of replies".


I find it easier and faster to prevent the board from sending me any notifications, and (when I log in) clicking "Show unread posts since last visit", so I see everything that has new posts.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: Merlin the Elder on December 25, 2010, 03:14:14 PM
Thanks, meauho, but it's not the email notification I'm talking about. I don't subscribe to any threads. I appreciate your attempt to help.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: SleepyArcher on December 26, 2010, 03:08:46 AM
Quote from: meauho on December 25, 2010, 11:28:46 AM
You can go to each individual thread that you are getting replies from, click "Modify" on your post, drop down the "Additional Options" at the bottom, and unclick "Notify me of replies".


I find it easier and faster to prevent the board from sending me any notifications, and (when I log in) clicking "Show unread posts since last visit", so I see everything that has new posts.

the second part is what I am asking about. I want to "unsubscribe" from some threads so when I do click on the "show unread posts since last visit" I dont get all the threads I have posted in that I am not interested in anymore. Make sense?
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: Merlin the Elder on December 26, 2010, 08:18:18 AM
I'm following you, Sleepy...that's what I want to do as well.  It doesn't appear to be an option, at least that I've been able to find.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: SleepyArcher on December 27, 2010, 05:00:14 AM
well how hard can it be to fix that?  :-\
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: Escarlata on December 27, 2010, 07:04:03 AM
If extra voices in the "Me Too" category will help, I'll throw mine in. Just in case, what I'm asking for is to be able to select which threads appear when I click the "Show new replies to your posts" link at the top.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: meauho on December 27, 2010, 07:21:02 AM
In order to write such a feature, you would need to change user interface at the core level to change the interactions with every single thread.  To activate the feature, users would have to individually deselect every thread they don't want to be part of - by either first posting within the thread or completely removing their ability to even see the section that the threads are in (like removing the TRF section so you don't have to see updates in the camping thread).

In order to make such a feature work properly, without massively slowing down sever processors and constantly crashing, it would (unfortunately) not be a simple add-on feature*, but would instead require an entirely new type of forum program to be written, with this being an intentional feature in the base code. 

*If you ever admined forums, you will realize that some add-ons are anything but simple to implement, requiring major code rewrites and can take hours to implement)

Even being written correctly, it would also make notifications an opt-out feature instead of an opt-in feature - so that users would have to specifically tell the forums that they don't want to receive updates rather than requesting that they do receive them.


The only other option - which, as difficult as it may seem to you now, but isn't any more time consuming for users to implement than what you are asking for - is for individual users to subscribe to every thread you are interested in, and unsubscribe when you are no longer interested.
#Not trying to sound snarky here; I'm actually serious about the time requirements that such a feature would require, even after completely rewriting the php code for the forums.




Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: Merlin the Elder on December 27, 2010, 08:39:09 AM
While some what you say is true, meauho, some other boards do have significantly more advanced options, but those other boards aren't free. The software that this board runs on is available at no cost.

Frequently, free software (unless written under the GNU General Public License by the programming community) can be somewhat limited in scope and features.  This isn't due to poor programming or lack of interest, it's simply a matter of resources. When you're giving something away, an individual can't donate 100% of their time without some source of income, like a grant.

Programmatically, it's just as easy to unmark an entry as it is to mark it. ...and yes, I am a forum administrator/programmer for a couple of sites, so I'm not just blowing smoke. Board software can be quite complex, but there are communities of programmers who just like to make these little add-ons.  I don't run this software myself, so I don't know what's out there in options.

As a forum administrator, I can also attest to the fact that some add-ons/plug-ins are not so hot, and their authors sometimes lose interest and stop supporting them. It's a double-edged sword. I am slowly weaning my board off of almost all plug-ins that were installed when I took it over. This would be a nice feature for SMF to add themselves, and it may be in the later release.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: SleepyArcher on January 11, 2011, 04:58:06 AM
I am on other forums and in those other forums I DO have the option of unsubscribing from them as I please and then they don't show up like they do here.
Title: Re: can i unsubscribe from a thread i have posted in?
Post by: meauho on January 19, 2011, 01:32:30 AM
Quote from: SleepyArcher on January 11, 2011, 04:58:06 AM
I am on other forums and in those other forums I DO have the option of unsubscribing from them as I please and then they don't show up like they do here.

I seem to have people agreeing with me without understanding what I'm saying.

1. It can be done - yes
2. To do it here would require starting the forums from scratch.
3. Something similar could be implemented on the forums as they currently are.  However, everybody who doesn't want to use this feature would have to disable it on every single thread, whether they've ever posted there or not.



Finally, I was referencing the difficulties involved with some upgrades for forum Admins because that is something that many people who use forums are actually used to.  I am also admin on several forums - free and paid.  However, my primary function on those forums is as a php and drupal programmer.