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Suggestion: Manually "blue-dotting" a thread

RandomEngyRandomEngy Registered User regular
Not everyone uses the subscription feature for threads, only the "blue dot" identifier for having posted in a thread. Thus we have the problem of people making junk posts in a new thread just to get the blue dot. If people could manually mark a thread with the dot without posting in it, I think this would help out everyone.

Apologies if this has been suggested before, search did not work for me and I checked a few pages back.

Profile -> Signature Settings -> Hide signatures always. Then you don't have to read this worthless text anymore.
RandomEngy on

Posts

  • Me Too!Me Too! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2008
    That one junk post isn't the end of the world.

    Me Too! on
  • RandomEngyRandomEngy Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Right, but it's annoying for the people reading the thread to have the first part littered with blue-dot debris and it's annoying to the people who keep track of threads with the blue dot to have to post in a thread to get it to show up.

    And it's rather unhelpful to disparage ideas just because they only make the forums a little more convenient to use.

    RandomEngy on
    Profile -> Signature Settings -> Hide signatures always. Then you don't have to read this worthless text anymore.
  • Me Too!Me Too! __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2008
    Except it's really not that big of a difference at all.
    So you have 10 posts in the first two pages that say "Postin' for mah blue dot." Whoo.
    That's 10 posts out of 50, assuming default post counts and such.

    And even if you didn't have to post in the thread, you'd still have to track it down in the topic list.
    The extra ten seconds to make a post aren't that big of a difference.

    Me Too! on
  • LaOsLaOs SaskatoonRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    I'm much more interested in being able to remove the Blue Dot once it's been pegged, but I'm pretty sure we already had this discussion here not too long ago...

    LaOs on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited January 2008
    Anyone who does "blue dot" junk posts should be getting infracted anyway. Junk posts are against forum rules. Report them.

    Tube on
  • FyreWulffFyreWulff YouRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    Maybe people should put an actual effort into contributing to the thread to get a blue dot instead of going 'blue dot'.

    Or, you know, subscribe to the thread and use the user panel like everyone else.

    FyreWulff on
  • RandomEngyRandomEngy Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Why should you have to post if you just want to keep track of a few threads while browsing a forum? For some it's easier just to notice the blue dot when looking at the thread list rather than specifically checking the control panel. To me it seems like a logical extension to call the blue dot threads "marked" then add a "Mark/Unmark Thread" option in the thread tools menu.

    Anyway, I'm glad you all are not on my software development team. "I'm so macho the software flaw doesn't bother me" and "You can already get this functionality in a less convenient manner, noob" are terrible responses to a feature request.

    RandomEngy on
    Profile -> Signature Settings -> Hide signatures always. Then you don't have to read this worthless text anymore.
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited January 2008
    Well if Ramius has the time and inclination he might implement it. Probably not though, because it's an insanely minor issue and he has better things to do.

    Tube on
  • PheezerPheezer Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited January 2008
    RandomEngy wrote: »
    Anyway, I'm glad you all are not on my software development team. "I'm so macho the software flaw doesn't bother me" and "You can already get this functionality in a less convenient manner, noob" are terrible responses to a feature request.

    Right, it's insanity for someone to feel that the "flaw" is completely minor and not worth "fixing" for you, or to feel that the current alternatives are satisfactory, given the importance level of this "feature".

    Do you ever read your posts to yourself to check if you've written something completely irrational before hitting Submit Reply?

    Pheezer on
    IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
    CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
  • Caulk Bite 6Caulk Bite 6 One of the multitude of Dans infesting this place Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    the most annoyance I've had over seeing blue dot posts, is seeing said guy getting involved in the thread less than five minutes later.

    It kind of irks me, but whatever.

    Caulk Bite 6 on
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  • RandomEngyRandomEngy Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    DrDizaster wrote: »
    RandomEngy wrote: »
    Anyway, I'm glad you all are not on my software development team. "I'm so macho the software flaw doesn't bother me" and "You can already get this functionality in a less convenient manner, noob" are terrible responses to a feature request.

    Right, it's insanity for someone to feel that the "flaw" is completely minor and not worth "fixing" for you, or to feel that the current alternatives are satisfactory, given the importance level of this "feature".

    Do you ever read your posts to yourself to check if you've written something completely irrational before hitting Submit Reply?

    Saying the feature would give only a relatively minor improvement given its cost to implement is a fine reason (See Cardboard Tube's post). It's something I accept. But that reason was not given at first. I was throwing an idea out there that someone could implement if they felt they wanted to improve the boards a little, but all I got were snarky comments implying I was a crybaby for implementing it.

    RandomEngy on
    Profile -> Signature Settings -> Hide signatures always. Then you don't have to read this worthless text anymore.
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Caulk Bite wrote: »
    the most annoyance I've had over seeing blue dot posts, is seeing said guy getting involved in the thread less than five minutes later.

    It kind of irks me, but whatever.

    Yeah, it really isn't that hard to find a post in the thread and come up with some semi-contributive reply, or just post in a contributive manner, to get the blue dot. If it means you have to wait an hour, or even a day, until you have something to say in the thread then so be it.

    I agree that being able to manually dot the posts would be an incredibly beneficial feature. I'd also agree that it's probably a low-priority issue, and that there are probably other features or issues that come first. But mostly I'd agree that both "junk posts are no big deal" and "just use the user panel like everybody else" were bullshit responses.

    mcdermott on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2008
    I don't see any posts like this in D&D, it might just be part of the culture there. Don't really know. I do know that I would have liked to add/remove blue dots for threads before. Current example: I'm not in the human soul thread in D&D right now but I did post in there a couple times. When I get to the forums, I open all the new posts in new tabs and I just go along and hit the ones with blue dots. Sometimes I catch myself but it would be nice to have the convenience of removing a blue dot manually.

    Satan. on
  • darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited January 2008
    The way I see it, if there's a solution that's easy to implement, then it'll probably get done soon enough (but I imagine Ramius and Alpha are probably busier fixing stuff like the slowdown that keeps cropping up). As it stands, if you reeeeeally want to see that little blue dot by a thread, it's not that hard to find something to contribute if you absolutely have to make a post. Really, it doesn't take a lot of thought to say something of relevance.
    edit: Basically what mcdermott posted. Can I have a button that makes me read the thread first?

    darleysam on
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  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited January 2008
    Is this the sort of thing that could be implemented with something like greasemonkey?

    MKR on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2008
    MKR wrote: »
    Is this the sort of thing that could be implemented with something like greasemonkey?
    That's... that's a really great point. My friend has a hard on for that extension, he makes shit for it all the time. I'll look into it!

    Satan. on
  • SquashuaSquashua __BANNED USERS regular
    edited May 2008
    Jailed == can't create threads == Squashua has to locate relevant historical threads and resurrect them to post the appropo comment in the appropo section...

    Enhancement Suggestion:

    If I'm viewing a thread to which I'm already subscribed, I drop down the Thread Tools and it gives me the option of Subscribing (even though I'm already subbed to the thread), but there is no option for unsubscribing, which has to be done in the User Panel.

    Am suggesting enhancement:
    either
    1 - replace subscribe choice with unsubscribe choice in thread tool drop-down if thread is already subscribed
    or
    2 - add unsubscribe to drop-down

    Squashua on
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