[matthewk]

Originally Posted by Vaempyr

1) A "Find my posts" button that's viewable on all forum pages; much easier than going into one's profile and clicking the link. Or is that just being lazy? !

Something like in Whirlpool where pages with your own posts is marked somehow would be great. Maybe by making the pages bold or underlined. This would probably necessitate showing more pages for say a 60 page thread. I mean these numbers:


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

And on the "recent topics" section on the left sidebar it'd be great if it skipped to the last unread post, instead of the first page.

[froggy]

Originally Posted by decryption

I don't think it will be unwieldy - it will be sorted neatly with all the suggestions I think we can implement.

I was thinking of the work involved for you. I can read it, no trouble, but was worried about the work that it would/could create for you. If you're not worried, then I'm happy

Originally Posted by decryption

think we can easily make something to do that - a part of your UserCP that lets you tick which forums you would like to see in an RSS feed made for you. How do you think it should work? Do you want an RSS feed of new posts made into that thread, or an RSS feed just of new threads?

With vBulletin 3.7, all new threads need to be tagged, so we could even have a forum wide RSS feed based on tags that you set

I'd prefer an RSS feed of new threads into a forum area. I can keep track of threads that I'm interested in using the thread tracking tools already in place.

Thanks for your consideration of my idea!

Cheers,
Andrew

[Byrd]

I've been thinking for a little while about requesting a subforum for "Old World" Macs, ie. beige G3s and below. There are quite a few members on here with a keen interest in older Mac hardware (particularly rare models), and those questions asked often get lost in the other forums never to be seen again.

I think it'd make a good addition to the site, we could feature and discuss an old Mac each week or something!

JB

[matthewk]

Originally Posted by Byrd

I've been thinking for a little while about requesting a subforum for "Old World" Macs, ie. beige G3s and below. There are quite a few members on here with a keen interest in older Mac hardware (particularly rare models), and those questions asked often get lost in the other forums never to be seen again.

I'd agree with a possible need for this, but suggest that Old World be defined as PowerPC. Intel has been with us now for 2 years, and as time goes on more an more people will be replacing PowerPC models with the newer Intel models. And while I know quite a few still have G5's, in the future the definition would need to be changed. Might as well have put all of the threads for old macs in one area.

[Byrd]

I'd consider "PowerPC" to be too broad; there is little difference in later G3, G4 and G5s over Intel as they essentially run the same software. Nor are some PowerPC machines very old.

I'm talking about the really old stuff

Thanks

JB

[Mohawk]

I was just reading somebody's post in another thread and thought of something.

With the release of the iPhone, we are seeing lots of threads reaching well over 100 posts very quickly. Now I come to Mactalk a few times a day, depending on my workload. Despite my ever growing interest in the iPhone there is something that stops me from clicking on them.

Mess... with every new thread there grows incredible amounts of mess, random posts, leading off into other topics and bad Jokes (guilty). How about allowing regulars to mark relevant/informative posts as 'important/relevant' and then have an option for people to click on 'only show informative posts' that way, if you wanted to see if there was any new information on plans from Telstra, you could click on that, and you would (hopefully) find what you want without having to click through 10-20 pages of chatter.

Essentially like Digg, but without being able to digg a persons post into obscurity (we'll leave that up to the Moderators) Instead you would promote an important post, or lower its importance by withdrawing your vote or voting it back down to normal.

The there could be safety nets like, being unable to vote in your own thread/post, Limits on the amounts of votes per day/week, Moderator warnings, etc...

Just a thought

[Maticks]

I had a thought of a digg type setup not that it would be hard to setup.
The word ZOMG is used here i would say it exists in every second post if not in the article in the reply of each thread.

If we like an article or post we can press the ZOMG button at the top the thread, setup a new forum section for ZOMG so anyone who wants to quickly click on this forum.

It will then sort the last weeks articles with the highest count of ZOMG's so the funniest and best articles are at easy reach.
Might also add a little bit of extra fun to mactalk forums

[decryption]

I haven't forgotten about this thread! Just been busy mopping up all the drool in the the iPhone forum. It's starting to calm down (whew) and I can get back to the improvements we plan to do, as well as replying to your suggestions!

[dinoo]

How about auto tagging of threads to appear in the side bar?

Example, how you normally see WTB or FS. How about this for other threads? eg Mac for hardware, or OSX for software and iPh for the iPhone forums?

Just a thought.

[bullrout]

On head-fi when you mouse over the post title (after a new post search) you get a few lines of the first post in a window. Is this feature possible here?

Edit:


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

[bennyling]

Originally Posted by Maticks

I had a thought of a digg type setup not that it would be hard to setup.
The word ZOMG is used here i would say it exists in every second post if not in the article in the reply of each thread.
If we like an article or post we can press the ZOMG button at the top the thread, setup a new forum section for ZOMG so anyone who wants to quickly click on this forum.
It will then sort the last weeks articles with the highest count of ZOMG's so the funniest and best articles are at easy reach.
Might also add a little bit of extra fun to mactalk forums

Originally Posted by dinoo

How about auto tagging of threads to appear in the side bar?
Example, how you normally see WTB or FS. How about this for other threads? eg Mac for hardware, or OSX for software and iPh for the iPhone forums?
Just a thought.

ZOMG!!!

(the more exclamation marks, the better )

[dolbinau]

Can we reduce some of the stickies in the iPhone forum? It's getting quite annoying :P

[Currawong]

Some FYI's about some of the suggestions. In summary though, updating to VBulletin 3.7 + a new MacTalk skin will bring about many of these suggestions. We're just using a skin that's 2 years behind current.

Originally Posted by bullrout

On head-fi when you mouse over the post title (after a new post search) you get a few lines of the first post in a window.

It's a VBulletin feature that wasn't built into the MacTalk skin. I want them too. You'll also get a quick reply that doesn't have to load a whole page just to make a post.

Originally Posted by tintinaujapon

Is there no way to add a "friends" list to MTAU personal settings...

In the software, they are called "Buddy lists". They weren't coded into the MacTalk skin either, but will appear in the new forum skin. I'll change them to "Friends lists" though.

Originally Posted by sendai

This one is a really teeny suggestion/request. Subscript and superscript, we want them (or specifically, I want them!) The HTML for them is ridiculously simple, so even if there isn't a plugin to enable it, it'd be really easy to code (though I doubt it'd be necessary.)

P.S. I like to reference my posts/comments with links. I prefer to ₁ and link the reference after my post/comment rather than link them inline.

Edit: Uh, what. The HTML for subscript worked. Never did before! Ah well, teach me not to preview ;p

Hmm, you shouldn't be able to do that. I'll look into the BBCode in a bit to see what I can do.

Originally Posted by Galumay

a couple of points, decryption you missed the suggestion for a member's profile as discussed in the other thread....

Member profiles in VBulletin 3.7 are considerably different and have considerably more features. It's possible to add extra "boxes" to profiles. I don't think there are that many members who are interested in filling out a lot, but it would be a nice idea if people did. I set new signups to put in their location as a requirement. I certainly don't have any plans to force anything else in people's profiles though.

Originally Posted by froggy

I wonder if in the RSS that is being implemented, it could be for specific forums.

I think that's available in the built-in RSS, which the forum skin didn't have the links to at all.

Originally Posted by BLINDER

A simple article on teaching people how to search on MacTalk.
So much valuable stuff on here!

I'm setting up Google search for the forums as well, as in some cases it's a lot better than the forum search unless you do thread titles only. People do a lot of searches though, the search page is in the top 5 in the stats.

Originally Posted by Vaempyr

2) A "View first unread post" button for each thread. Again, makes life much simpler, especially in long threads.

That functionality exists in the forums. The default VBulletin skin has them in useful places and I'm aiming to have them in useful places in the new skin.

[sendai]

Originally Posted by Currawong

Hmm, you shouldn't be able to do that. I'll look into the BBCode in a bit to see what I can do.

*laughs* Glad to have uncovered a bug

Thanks Curra

[Currawong]

[sub]subscript[/sub]Normal[sup]superscript[/sup]

sub and sup, same as the HTML codes...done!

[yellow18]

how about a bit less of the iphone fan boy club? sure keep me informed but who cares what color Joey the 14yr old wants for school.

[mwot]

for problems/queries that people post, it would be neat to have a "problem solved" option for the OP to check once the issue has been resolved.

this would then append the word "RESOLVED" to the thread's title. so when the thread appears in searches, those with similar issues will likely read solved threads before posting new ones. is also a mark of courtesy to those who contributed to the thread that their input was helpful to the OP.

would also mean that the thread is closed (without Admin intervention) when the OP marks it as RESOLVED.

i think the Wordpress forums have something of this kind?

[Currawong]

mwot, 3.7 has "tags" for threads, which might cover that. It's definitely something that will be investigated.

[bennyling]

Great work, Currawong! Applause all round!

One thing I do have to add, though, is there any reason we don't have thread-quote, or the quote-a-quote. You know the drill - someone has quoted someone else, but when you go to quote them, the deepest quote disappears!

Even if we only had this feature to quote only 2-deep, or something, that'd still be useful in some respects.

[Rasta]

Can I suggest that the posts in the iPhone thread are treated as the Orange Sofa and not counted.

The iPhone fans are spilling over into MobileMe threads and I've never seen so many people members for two weeks with so many posts - 120 posts in two weeks can't be all quality as the number might imply!

Post count doesn't mean everything, but it must mean something otherwise Orange Sofa posts would be counted.

Just a thought....