Author List

[billl]

I think it'd be great if the Author List Forum ( http://www.online-literature.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17 ) or some other maybe even more convenient location had a list of the 10 or 20 most recent posts in all of the Author Sub-Forums. Something where, if I checked the list every day or two, I'd typically see all of the posts since my last check.

There are maybe 3 or 4 sub-forums where I have participated with a post or two, but I don't really know if there've been any responses, because the main Forums page (which I often rely on) only shows the most recent single posting from the sub-forums. I actually have trouble even remembering which sub-forums I posted in, at this point, but I imagine there might suddenly be a response sometime, and I'd maybe not notice for months, if ever.

I know it might be overkill, and the Author List Forum page is crowded enough as it is! Just throwing it out there, it isn't REALLY a big concern of mine.

Thanks for the great site, as always!

[OrphanPip]

Well there's already those little books and orange V-bulletin logos that tell you when something has been updated since your last visit. It might not be useful though if you haven't been on in ages. Also, you can subscribe to threads and such.

There's also the new posts feature at the top of the page. I think V-bulletin also contains some features for only looking at the unread threads. The interface can take some getting used to, but all the tools are there.

[billl]

Thanks OrphanPip! I'll check into it and see if some of those tools might be worth it for me.

The NEWPOSTS link might do the trick--I've been using the smaller list on the home page.

[The Atheist]

I think it'd be great if the Author List Forum ( http://www.online-literature.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17 ) or some other maybe even more convenient location had a list of the 10 or 20 most recent posts in all of the Author Sub-Forums. Something where, if I checked the list every day or two, I'd typically see all of the posts since my last check.

There are maybe 3 or 4 sub-forums where I have participated with a post or two, but I don't really know if there've been any responses, because the main Forums page (which I often rely on) only shows the most recent single posting from the sub-forums. I actually have trouble even remembering which sub-forums I posted in, at this point, but I imagine there might suddenly be a response sometime, and I'd maybe not notice for months, if ever.

I know it might be overkill, and the Author List Forum page is crowded enough as it is! Just throwing it out there, it isn't REALLY a big concern of mine.

Thanks for the great site, as always!

This is a good point, I think.

The front page can look a little cluttered and even the last ten then opening a page to the full list might work really well.


Well there's already those little books and orange V-bulletin logos that tell you when something has been updated since your last visit. It might not be useful though if you haven't been on in ages. Also, you can subscribe to threads and such.

There's also the new posts feature at the top of the page. I think V-bulletin also contains some features for only looking at the unread threads. The interface can take some getting used to, but all the tools are there.

I don't think there is a function which will do what billl's after.

To get a default to show the past ten in a sub-forum isn't an option in vBulletin, I'm pretty sure.

[billl]

Just to clarify, I'd just like to be able to see a list of the last 10 or 20 or whatever of posts in the Author List section (that is, from all of the sub-forums combined). E.g. 2 orwells, 3 austens, a twain, maybe a doestoevsky or 2, and a Dickens--all of the activity since two days ago, maybe.

So many of these sub-Forums go unchanged for months, and I've been keeping tabs on the section primarily by checking (and seeing 1 or 2 a day) on the one representative posting listed as most recent out of all of them, on the main Forum page. Sometimes nothing happens, but other times, there might be a burst in more than one sub-forum, and it was hard to catch those the way I was checking things on the Home Page and the Main Forums pages.

OrphanPip pointed me to the NewPosts listing, which is better than the 12 or so postings listed on the homepage, and maybe that'll be all I need. The drawback is that I had a rhythm where I would just click on a handful of forums when I got online (e.g. General Lit, Religious Texts, etc.), and see what had happened, often ignoring entire sections. Clicking on AuthorList didn't work so well in that way, and I just didn't do it, even though there was probably some stuff I might've wanted to participate in.

NewPosts is giving me everything, of course--which adds what I was hoping for (the sub-forums), but also a lot of other threads that I have to skim over and separate out. Just as an example, a hypothetical user who ONLY wanted to track the sub-Forums wouldn't be better off using the NewPosts link, at least not by much. But that isn't my situation (or anyone's, as far as I know). And I might be on the verge of getting used to skimming over NewPosts. Anyhow, it's pretty close--not what I'd wanted, but I'm fine just like it is, if changing is a lot of trouble.