thread starter and date

[SmilerX]

is it possible to show the thread starter and date in a column to the left of the last post column?

I find this handy so you can see just how old a thread is as sometimes older topics get bumped up and you don't know what the 'latest' topics are

[Harv]

Don't see what your asking for here the thread starter is shown under the column thread/thread starter on the New Posts Search and the date a thread was started makes no difference at all. If the content posted to a thread is meaningful and/or relevant to the original intention then there is nothing wrong with adding new posts to threads started years ago.

In fact this has happened recently with the addition of Lucky dip button which will pick out a random thread for you to read and if you want post and bump back up into existence

If you look at the first post in a thread it will tell you the date it was created too?

The latest topics are those at the top of the respective forum as when new posts are added this moves those threads back to the top of the forum underneath sticky threads and announcements?

Am i missing something is there something missing that should be viewable ?

[SmilerX]

I noticed the name on the left but problem is the 'natural' eye flow. I read the thread title (as you are halfway across the forum or more depending on thread title length) and continue to latest post date/poster naturally

I personally dislike opening a thread only to find it's old news (especially if online time is at a premium). I guess I'm used to the style of the 3 columns too much also and think the following would help improve the forum slightly

thread title
thread poster & date
latest poster & date

I don't know about others but on 1024x768 res but for example viewing this sub forum there's a huge gap between the thread title and latest post column. I find me eyes going left right too much to see the thread title and the date etc of the last post .. It's not so bad when you have slightly alternate coloured backgrounds for each thread listed so it helps the eye flow across left and right

It may sound strange but it's OK if you are here many times a day or sit refreshing the page every so often. I know this as I used to have my own forum many moons ago along with being in other forums many hours a day. I knew the threads inside out as you get to 'know' what's going at the time. Difference is with brief visitors (me here for example) is that they may end up wasting more time looking at threads they aren't interested in because someone has bumped an older topic up, therefore wasting valuable online time and having less time to actually post in a thread that interests them

p.s. it would help even more when you've got full internet on your mobile as that's also on the increase and again it's all about online time

[Detomah]

I can see what your saying with all this to be honest as I know ITL has exactly what your saying in place by default and it is very handy to have there, so I will say, I will definately look into the possibility of what your asking.

However and it is a pretty big however, I have no idea how logistically difficult this particular thing would be to do and wether it would mean some deep customising of the templates, because if it would take a lot of work, it simply would not be worth doing as it would add very little extra to the site.

You have to also take into account though, the type of forum that has that column in place are invision board forums and with them that particular thing is a default item, where as vBulletin does not have that item built in, but has a whole host of other features extra to make up for it.

On forums with only a few regular posters who all get along I know it is not detrimental to have it there, but on a forum with a huge amount of posts made, I can see something like this potentially meaning someone could be alienated though, as people would see that particular thread starter and just skip straight past those threads. On ITL we are particularly lucky that everyone has one similar core topic, so we all read every post just about.

[SmilerX]

Originally Posted by Detomah

I can see what your saying with all this to be honest as I know ITL has exactly what your saying in place by default and it is very handy to have there, so I will say, I will definately look into the possibility of what your asking.

However and it is a pretty big however, I have no idea how logistically difficult this particular thing would be to do and wether it would mean some deep customising of the templates, because if it would take a lot of work, it simply would not be worth doing as it would add very little extra to the site.

You have to also take into account though, the type of forum that has that column in place are invision board forums and with them that particular thing is a default item, where as vBulletin does not have that item built in, but has a whole host of other features extra to make up for it.

phpbb is also the same style as VB by the looks of things. I did a mod on my old phpbb forum to add this and I'm sure it was a real simple mod. I'm certain all it needs to do is call up the topic start date and you'd edit the template file to show that info

actually after a brief search I saw this mod which has some info regarding it and fastforward's comments are interesting as it seems to be a real easy modification if I'm on the right tracks. There are supposedly another 2 mods previous to this one but I just came across this one first

Page 2 of start date mod

Originally Posted by Detomah

On forums with only a few regular posters who all get along I know it is not detrimental to have it there, but on a forum with a huge amount of posts made, I can see something like this potentially meaning someone could be alienated though, as people would see that particular thread starter and just skip straight past those threads. On ITL we are particularly lucky that everyone has one similar core topic, so we all read every post just about.

the topic starter is already shown here though isn't it? , it's just under the thread title rather than in it's own column

no big deal if it's too much or you don't feel it required, just thought I'd mention my opinion . I know of very few people who don't want to know the start date of a thread once the feature has been added

p.s. I actually skip most of Sidney's posts at ITL but only if they are in the Nether forum , don't tell him

[SmilerX]

this looks like something along the lines of what fastforward was talking about in that previous link I posted

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=136551

the comments seem very positive and they also contains links to similar mods also

We've all experienced it... that user who finds threads 3 years old and resurrects them by posting a bizarre reply.

Other users usually fall for it too, and suddenly this three year old discussion is back from the dead, causing all sorts of confusion.

This product will insert the date of the original thread date in the threadbit plugin. This means that it will show up during searches and while viewing all threads in a forum.

In theory this will remove some of the confusion.

Included:

1 product - 2 plugins

Import the product and you should be ready to roll.

This product is not supported, and will only be updated if a confirmed bug is reported. Tested on 3.6.4 using the default threadbit template.

Brought to you courtesy of the folks at www.igusto.net

Changes:
1-15-2007

* Removed redundant plugin
* used native vbulletin date formating instead of php date formatting.

[Detomah]

Ok, i've added the date bit mod for you, that didn't require modifications, so don't mind that.

Only reason I don't like doing extra addons that require modifications is because every time I need to do package upgrades it takes longer and longer and becomes an even bigger headache.

[SmilerX]

Originally Posted by Detomah

Ok, i've added the date bit mod for you, that didn't require modifications, so don't mind that.

Only reason I don't like doing extra addons that require modifications is because every time I need to do package upgrades it takes longer and longer and becomes an even bigger headache.

cool and I like the Today,Yesterday part of it as you instantly know what the 'freshest' topics are from the last 2 days

thanks Detomah and I hope most people will find it useful

[stejefferies]

i noticed this the second i logged on today...

looks good Det =) nice addition to the forums