the recent posts list

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I'm still really confused about it so I decided to create this thread.

I can ignore the Trolls, see through the Disinfo posters, deflect political baiting, call out Ad Hominems and Straw Men, and not get bothered by the ads at all.

These are non issues for me, as they are natural aspects of internet message boards.

However, there is one thing about ATS that really annoys the living daylight out of me,
and often leaves me frustrated thinking 'there must be a better way'...

I am talking about wasting a significant percentage of my time on ATS searching through threads for my last post.

Then yesterday I stumbled upon the "recent posts" list!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d16933680d7f.jpg[/atsimg]

Unfortunately, none of the supplied links to the thread or post do what I deem is the most important thing about such a list: take me to my recent post.

You can go to the thread, see your post in isolation, or see all your posts from that thread in isolation, yet no link take me to the actual post in the thread, or even just the page it is on.

Please ATS, add a little link in that list that will take me to the page number that post is on, and I will forever keep my mouth shut about new features. If it is already being worked on as part of the new design and site overhaul, then feel free to dismiss this thread or even nuke it.

Or, if anyone knows a quick work-around I would love to hear about it.

reply to post by Conspiracy Pianist


With over 8,000 new posts a day that, as well as email notifications of replies, just isn't feasible with the current db technology that's available.

Springer...

reply to post by Springer


OK, thanks for the response.

I guess I will just have to deal with it for the time being, spoiled brat tham I am...

Surely isolating and displaying a single post is more complicated that just going to the thread? I guess changing this set up is the hard part.

reply to post by Springer

With over 8,000 new posts a day that, as well as email notifications of replies,

Why on Earth would you do that? Thank goodness, I'm not getting any such notifications. How am I avoiding that, is there a profile setting I was smart enough to disable? Sure glad I did that, emails are a total waste of band width for this purpose.

Personally, I'd like to see a list of threads that have been posted since my last session as a higher priority.

You record the last session time right? This could be accomplished with something like

select from threads where lastpost-datetime >= lastsession-datetime.

This, of course, finds threads that have been updated since the last session, but not unread threads that haven't been changed - that might require a cookie - except that you seem to record other stuff about the users history).

just isn't feasible with the current db technology that's available.

That is, frankly, a cop out answer. The 'current db technology' isn't to blame, its the way 'current db technology' is being used. It is you who chooses to spend your time and effort elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with that business decision, its your business and your decision, however, there is no reason to deflect and blame it on 'the computer'.

If you don't want to do it, just say so, that is fine, and the OP said as much. But please understand that lots of other forums have no trouble doing such a basic task.

If you can position to the last post in a thread, why can't you position at a specific post in the thread? You do record the posts for the user, and you can display the post in isolation, why can't you display the thread and position the page?

If I understand it, you are hunting your particular post in a thread. Perhaps try the following. CTRL+F and that will bring up find. Type your name in and start browsing. I do it quite a bit and while not completely great it is a better alternative than going in and trying to look it up.