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  • Posts by your "favorite posters"?

    Does vBulletin have a "Favorite Posters" list that could be used to help sort through the latest posts?

    I know that we can easily look for new threads or sort by the latest posts to the threads. But is there a way to subscribe to or search for all of the latest posts of our favorite posters? I know that I can find posts by using the "Advanced Search" feature for one poster name at a time, and of course that's cumbersome for more than one poster.

    The vBulletin feature I'm looking for would be a user-built list of "Favorite Posters" that can be used to generate a screen of "Latest posts by favorite posters". Does vBulletin already do something like that? Can it be set up by a board admin, or is that a feature that'd have to be coded by vBulletin's open-source group?
    Youth may be wasted on the young, but retirement is wasted on the old.
    Live like you're dying, invest like you're immortal.
    We grow old if we stop playing, but it's never too late to have a happy childhood.
    Forget about who you were-- discover who you are.

  • #2
    Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

    I don't think this a good idea. Will remind me too much of the ill fated chiclet thing.
    I'm still here. Are you?

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    • #3
      Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

      I can think of two ways to do this. One is to "friend" people whose posts you want to keep up with. Then in your User CP you can check out the list of your friends when you log in and click each person's "find all posts by _____" search.

      I am not sure (and I can't check now because I'm in a hurry), but I think each of those searches generates its own RSS feed, so you could copy the feed into your feed-aggregator (such as Google Reader) and keep up that way. However, you'd only be seeing the posts from that friend and not the other posts in the thread that might give it context.

      Since nobody will know that's what you're doing unless they bother to go through your friends list (which seems silly), I doubt it would escalate into the chiclet wars.
      But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
      GrouchyTeacher.com

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      • #4
        Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

        Oh, I thought of another way to do it. In one tab, start a new private message to yourself. In another, do a "find all posts by ______" search.

        If you do a "find all posts by craigwatanabe" search, for example, you get taken to this URL: http://hawaiithreads.com/search.php?searchid=1646822.

        In your private message to yourself, just create a list of links that looks like
        craigwatanabe
        scrivener
        tutusue

        (or whatever). Your list will be links to the "find all posts by _______" searches of your favorite HT posters. Send the message to yourself and don't delete it. You can now go to that message when you come to HT and just go right to those people's posts.

        Or you could just bookmark each of those URLs.

        I run phpBB for my English students and have to check every day to see what they've posted online. In a private message board area that only I see, I have a list of links that looks just like this. So if I want to update so-and-so's grade in my gradebook, I just click on the student's name to see what he or she has submitted.
        But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
        GrouchyTeacher.com

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        • #5
          Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

          A "follow" feature. I'd be surprised if it's not in the works. There's a huge update to vBulletin coming... though I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to implement it.

          Scrivener has good suggestions, but one important point: vBulletin translates and caches every search you perform, so you'll note all the URLs that were posted above have a "searchid=" value. That is, your search for all posts by {x} is converted into a saved search with a number, which helps performance, but those searches expire. After a while, the links as used above won't work.

          You need to capture the URL that executes the search. So, to find all posts by scrivener, always, you should save this link instead:

          http://www.hawaiithreads.com/search....=finduser&u=93

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          • #6
            Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

            You know, that explains why I can never bookmark the Latest Posts search properly. I should have been able to figure that out.
            But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
            GrouchyTeacher.com

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

              Originally posted by pzarquon View Post
              A "follow" feature. I'd be surprised if it's not in the works. There's a huge update to vBulletin coming... though I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to implement it.
              Yeah, that's the word I was looking for. Thanks.

              Another feature question would be a "follow" subscription for keywords. For example, getting an e-mail notification from the board (or a summary) every time any poster uses the word "chiclet"...

              I'm asking the questions because another vBulletin board that I browse was sold from its original owner to a for-profit discussion-board consolidator. So now in addition to piles of advertising (which is relatively easy to block) the owner works very hard on search-engine optimization. He's making a living out of it, or so he claims. Of course the advertising recession has not been kind to his efforts and has led to certain regrettable marketing decisions.

              The SEO brings a huge amount of traffic from new posters (who may or may not stick around but who certainly raise the noise level) and attention from trolls/hackers. What used to be a few dozen posts a day has turned into over 50 threads a day, most of which are new posters asking questions straight out of the FAQs and archives. Which nobody bothers to read.

              The result is that a quiet little neighborhood bar has turned into Studio54 with three-foot disco balls, Godzilla audio, a gymnasium-sized dance floor, and all the attendant hassles for the security guys. And every once in a while the owner drops by to change all the menus & décor while promising that "Your business is important to us!".

              My "Ignore Poster" list on that board has ballooned from a couple names to over two dozen. But that's a rather negative approach and doesn't always achieve the desired results.

              I still enjoy hanging out there with people I've befriended over the years, but the atmosphere certainly isn't conducive to it. Most of us belong to other boards of similar intent, but those boards are either too small (ironically not enough traffic to maintain interest), or populated by trolls banned from the bigger board, or have their own antiquated-software challenges. Social groups are also good for a specific topic but just haven't worked well to recreate the neighborhood-bar environment. Yet.

              I've reluctantly concluded I can't change any of that, but I can change my behavior by spending less time sorting through the trash for an occasional treasure. A "follow feature" and a "keyword subscription" would help a lot.

              I know, I know... seems like a lot of whining about a darned discussion board. But after nearly six years & over 17,000 posts I'm resistant to change. The attempt is worth the effort.
              Youth may be wasted on the young, but retirement is wasted on the old.
              Live like you're dying, invest like you're immortal.
              We grow old if we stop playing, but it's never too late to have a happy childhood.
              Forget about who you were-- discover who you are.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

                If there is a follow only system that is viewable only to the member who establishes such a private list (via the user CP) for him/herself (similar to follow lists at Twitter for example) I'd be okay with it.

                I'd oppose anything that would subject each user to a public rating like the horrid chiclet system we once had.
                I'm still here. Are you?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Posts by your "favorite posters"?

                  Originally posted by scrivener View Post
                  You know, that explains why I can never bookmark the Latest Posts search properly. I should have been able to figure that out.
                  Heh. There was a separate thread on this a while back. As long as you save the actual URL the "Latest" link in the header points at, it's a savable search:

                  http://www.hawaiithreads.com/search....51,52,53,54,55

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