[Partially solved] Followed topics can only be ordered by start date, not most recent reply

[Syntaxvgm]

https://linustechtips.com/main/followed/

this is a BIG issue. If I didn't want notification on replies (I don't want thousands of notifications) I used the "content I follow" list. ('Subscriptions' on most forums)

It sorts by most recent reply by default, and allowed you to sort how you want

NOW if a topic started a month ago gets a reply, good fucking luck even knowing about it cause it's back 20 pages. 

This needs to be fixed, subscription lists are pretty basic and a fundamental forum feature, and without it it's hard to use the forum effectively. 

[Moondrelor]

I thought it was always sorted by when the thread was originally created? And it would just be in bold text if it had a reply on it that you haven't read yet.

I could be mistaken  

[Syntaxvgm]

Just now, Moondrelor said:

I thought it was always sorted by when the thread was originally created? And it would just be in bold text if it had a reply on it that you haven't read yet.

I could be mistaken  

By default it was sorted by most recent reply. It still bolds unread ones. Ether way it used to let you chose. 

This is how I...you know...participated in discussions. 

In fact, I avoid forums that don't let you have a subscriptions list. (Very rare)

I've never seen a subscriptions list that doesn't....let you track what's happening in your subscribed topics. 

[Moondrelor]

1 minute ago, Syntaxvgm said:

By default it was sorted by most recent reply. It still bolds unread ones. Ether way it used to let you chose. 

This is how I...you know...participated in discussions. 

In fact, I avoid forums that don't let you have a subscriptions list. (Very rare)

I've never seen a subscriptions list that doesn't....let you track what's happening in your subscribed topics. 

Yeah. I see what you mean. I tried to search around and see if I could find a sort menu, but I can't see one either.
(however um *cough* I unfollow anything that hasn't had a reply in 3 days *cough*)

[Syntaxvgm]

Just now, Moondrelor said:

Yeah. I see what you mean. I tried to search around and see if I could find a sort menu, but I can't see one either. (however um *cough* I unfollow anything that hasn't had a reply in 3 days *cough*)

lol I'm never that organised, and I still like to know if someone's posted on an old topic I care so deeply about. 

[babadoctor]

2 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

lol I'm never that organised, and I still like to know if someone's posted on an old topic I care so deeply about. 

something we can all agree on

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO LINUSTECHTIPS?

[Syntaxvgm]

Just now, babadoctor said:

something we can all agree on

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO LINUSTECHTIPS?

Well at first I was happy about some of the steps forward, but for some reason in IP board 4 there's some missing essential features I've began to realize. It's like a few great steps forward, several stumbles back. Ignoring the temporary stuff like the broken shit.

So at first I wasn't on the "everything's fucked" bandwagon, but I'm slowly approaching it 

[babadoctor]

Just now, Syntaxvgm said:

Well at first I was happy about some of the steps forward, but for some reason in IP board 4 there's some missing essential features I've began to realize. It's like a few great steps forward, several stumbles back. Ignoring the temporary stuff like the broken shit.

So at first I wasn't on the "everything's fucked" bandwagon, but I'm slowly approaching it 

slowly..

i have been really avoiding LTT altogether

 

[pagani123]

we just need to get used to the new format hopefully they may make some changes to make things easier. but eventually we will all wonder why we liked the old forum in the first place. but i do think this is an issue that needs to be addressed. personally i like the instant updates or auto refresh that let you know if someone has replied to a topic that way you dont have to click refresh 

[Syntaxvgm]

11 minutes ago, Maybach123 said:

we just need to get used to the new format hopefully they may make some changes to make things easier. but eventually we will all wonder why we liked the old forum in the first place. but i do think this is an issue that needs to be addressed. personally i like the instant updates or auto refresh that let you know if someone has replied to a topic that way you dont have to click refresh 

Well I've been working with IPS v4 a bit myself, and at first I was excited for this, but using it in practice.....I mean I can't even see new topic replies. that's a pretty big issue. IPS v3 is still my favorite forum suite if you add some things like a lightbox to improve the experience (but still a lot less work to make it perfect than say PHPBB), and I really feel Invision dropped the ball a bit on 4. Some great things were added, but they forgot what made 3 so great. 

A friend wants us to make our own CMS, particularly a forum suite among other parts, and some day we might take the time. 

[Syntaxvgm]

I made my own fix

Here's a custom link

https://linustechtips.com/main/followed/?type=forums_topic&sortby=last_real_post&sortdirection=desc

Since it uses the same functions as viewing forums, I amended the sort by and sortdireciton commands. Bookmark this link

This still needs to be fixed for people that....aren't IPS power users. 

[colonel_mortis]

So basically, you want a sort by button on the followed content list? That list is intended to be used just to edit your follow preferences, and not to actually view topics that you follow. This activity stream is more what you're looking for - it still doesn't allow you to change the sort order, but it is sorted by last updated rather than started or followed.

I think you'll find that the activity streams have most of the features that were covered by View New Content, and similar views, but are also way more extensible. You can create your own activity feed to show you exactly the content you want (well, it could do with a couple more options, but for the most part it's great).

We will hopefully make the activity feeds more visible in a future update.

[Syntaxvgm]

2 hours ago, colonel_mortis said:

So basically, you want a sort by button on the followed content list? That list is intended to be used just to edit your follow preferences, and not to actually view topics that you follow. This activity stream is more what you're looking for - it still doesn't allow you to change the sort order, but it is sorted by last updated rather than started or followed.

I think you'll find that the activity streams have most of the features that were covered by View New Content, and similar views, but are also way more extensible. You can create your own activity feed to show you exactly the content you want (well, it could do with a couple more options, but for the most part it's great).

We will hopefully make the activity feeds more visible in a future update.

that's not the same thing..at all. List of topics I follow, in order of last post. Really simple and almost all forum systems allow for this and do it in that order by default. 

Thankfully just making the custom link is good enough for me until (maybe) the feature is added. 

[Unhelpful]

4 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

don't want thousands of notifications) I used the "content I follow" list. ('Subscriptions' on most forums)

It sorts by most recent reply by default, and allowed you to sort how you want

NOW if a topic started a month ago gets a reply, good fucking luck even knowing about it cause it's back 20 pages. 

This needs to be fixed, subscription lists are pretty basic and a fundamental forum feature, and without it it's hard to use the forum effectively. 

Shhh the forum looks (arguably) prettier now, that's totally worth losing some fairly important and basic  functionality.

[colonel_mortis]

16 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

that's not the same thing..at all. List of topics I follow, in order of last post. Really simple and almost all forum systems allow for this and do it in that order by default. 

Thankfully just making the custom link is good enough for me until (maybe) the feature is added. 

To turn it into a list of topics, click the condensed view button in the top right:

 

[Syntaxvgm]

4 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

To turn it into a list of topics, click the condensed view button in the top right:

 

(That just makes them look different)

Even with customization it's not the same thing. It's close with making a new stream.

To be clear, I'm not mad at you staff at all, I'm really mad at the way Invision set up IPS 4- they have great steps forward, then stuff from their old suite missing completely. This issue is in no way your fault. 

[colonel_mortis]

3 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

(That just makes them look different)

Even with customization it's not the same thing. It's close with making a new stream.

To be clear, I'm not mad at you staff at all, I'm really mad at the way Invision set up IPS 4- they have great steps forward, then stuff from their old suite missing completely. This issue is in no way your fault. 

What exactly are you looking for that the feed doesn't provide?

[Syntaxvgm]

16 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

What exactly are you looking for that the feed doesn't provide?

first, to just get it to work like a subscription list anywhere else, I had to make a custom activity feed. Then, to get to it, I assume the dropdown on the top left is the only way of getting to the activity feed. From there, I have to click the "My activity streams" and slect the cusotm one all the way at the bottom, because I try to save over the "content i follow" it doesn't work. Click the condensed list button again, and presto-

sort of similar to a simple subscriptions list.

 

I have to do that every time. 

Oh, and it only has a few things, doesn't go back further than a couple of days. 

 

OR

https://linustechtips.com/main/followed/?type=forums_topic&sortby=last_real_post&sortdirection=desc

like it was in 3.x

and vbulliten

and PHPBB

and XenForo

and overclock.net, whatever they hell they used before they switched to wikia, did. (I think vBulliten) The same shit for 10+ years. Still does a subscription list like that, just checked. 

It's the first thing you see int he main menu!

Forum system as far as I can remember, back to 2005 and earlier had this. First version of IP Board. 

And not IP Board 4. 

[colonel_mortis]

If you click the tick next to the feed title, it will be set as default, and you then get a direct link to it just under the nav. We are looking into ways of making it easier to get to though.

It only going back a couple of days is because the upgrade is still rebuilding content and indexes, and it will be fixed once the rebuilding is finished (eta maybe a week).

[Syntaxvgm]

3 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

If you click the tick next to the feed title, it will be set as default, and you then get a direct link to it just under the nav. We are looking into ways of making it easier to get to though.

It only going back a couple of days is because the upgrade is still rebuilding content and indexes, and it will be fixed once the rebuilding is finished (eta maybe a week).

the content I follow list goes back to eternity right now. 

What I really think this is is they forgot. Everywhere else, including their previous iterations, it's sorted by last update for "Content I follow", kinda useless otherwise. Probably absorbed in making the much better notification system. 

[colonel_mortis]

1 minute ago, Syntaxvgm said:

the content I follow list goes back to eternity right now. 

What I really think this is is they forgot. Everywhere else, including their previous iterations, it's sorted by last update for "Content I follow", kinda useless otherwise. Probably absorbed in making the much better notification system. 

"Content I follow" works completely differently to that feed, so it's not affected by the rebuilding.

I'll suggest to IPS that they change it to default to sorting by last update though.

[Syntaxvgm]

1 minute ago, colonel_mortis said:

"Content I follow" works completely differently to that feed, so it's not affected by the rebuilding.

I'll suggest to IPS that they change it to default to sorting by last update though.

the fact it changed at all is why I'm butthurt. It's missing sorting options and it's supposed to sort by most recent. I think it was literally in the link on 3.x, and the sort bar was there as well. Minor change really. 

[colonel_mortis]

2 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

the fact it changed at all is why I'm butthurt. It's missing sorting options and it's supposed to sort by most recent. I think it was literally in the link on 3.x, and the sort bar was there as well. Minor change really. 

The activity feeds are supposed to have replaced that page.

What have you changed in your custom activity feed to make it better for you? (Could you post a link?)

[GlassBomb]

Here is the solution that I am personally using. Not the most graceful solution maybe, but it's something.

@Syntaxvgm You know that you do not have to go to the activity feed through all of the loops in order to get to the main one that you want to use, right? You can change whatever feed you want to become your default one. And then it's just one click away to get to it.

Arrow to the left is where you set whatever feed that you want to use as your default one.