So, will the "later / unread messages" option ever return?

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I don't want to rush things in any way, but I'm rather missing it (as are other folks too, from what I gather).

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Probably around the same time Poxy Fule comes back.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

If I can figure out a way of doing it without completely killing the server, then yes.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't think of a sane way to implement this :(

― LSD ARISTOCAT (ex machina), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 23:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Create a primary key as a hash of the user and thread number (a string) concated together? Something similar to what was sort of done (but not completed as a hash) for the link log.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

One idea is cookies, so the client does the work.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I dont understand what this later function even did! I never used it and I dont miss it as a result. My settings as they are now tell me how many new msgs there are and the timestamp of the last one posted, thats all I need to know really.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

it was nice how you'd be taken to the first message you hadn't read when you clicked on a link...I'm adapting but I still miss it.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

wouldn't that be a lot of cookies?

― LSD ARISTOCAT (ex machina), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 05:52 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.greatestcities.com/0831pic/499/CP10499.jpg/CookieMonster.bmp

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 09:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Even before the "later" thing was implemented, didn't the system remember the last message read and jump you to the #messageid?

How did it used to work?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

With great difficutly. Every user and every thread stored in a table. And with all those users clicking refresh refresh refresh things started SLOWING down. No key, no nothing to speed the query along.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

didn't it "expire" after you hadn't read a thread in X days?

― LSD ARISTOCAT (ex machina), Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

that was my impression, maybe the X could be adjusted downward. Following the 80/20 rule though that would only reduce 20% of the load, but perhaps I'm talking out of my ass.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

yea good idea!

how about not showing the unread messages count and instead just return you to the last answer you saw when you view a thread?

― LSD ARISTOCAT (ex machina), Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

What about changing it to a "new messages since the last time you looked at the New Answers page"? Less intuitive, but it might encourage less refreshing (esp. since you'd have to use the "back" button a lot to really get it to work right). Then you'd only have to keep track of the last time each user logged in, and how many messages there were then. That might not save much effort, actually, but it might!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 20 January 2005 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

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