BleepingComputer.com: See Member Counts On A Post Before Viewing It

Hello all,

I was thinking about having the below implemented on this site... it's not a suggestion, nor is it a must have, but I thought it would serve in many ways to everyone as a common viewer to the threads.

The suggestion came to mind some time ago when I looked at a thread, and then noticed that at the bottom of the page, it displayed how many people were reading the thread, and their usernames. The usernames aren't important, but I thought it would be nice to see how many people are looking at each thread even before clicking on the thread.

It's nothing fancy, but the point is to see when others are viewing other threads, or even the one you just posted.

The icon next to the time is a basic members icon, and the number next to it is the amount of people currently looking at the thread/post.



Just a thought..... hoping that anyone would deem it to be useful.

I'm not getting into the specifics of implementing it, but the picture says it all. It would be very nice to have here.

What do you think?

This post has been edited by Walkman: 01 March 2007 - 10:52 AM

I think it would be a nice thing Walkman.

sounds good to me

The short answer from my perspective is it is an unnecessary burden on our dialup users. As suggested it is the same information as actually being in the post and seeing the same information at the bottom of the post. In that regard it is nothing more than mass replication of information that already exists and adds clutter to the forums. This additional resource to load for our dialup users along with all the animated avatars etc. is forum unfriendly in my lone opinion.

Going further into this direction... What about :

If 2 members are simultaneously posting into 1 thread that the one who is last to hit the "add reply button "gets a message that somebody was posting at the same time to avoid double or conflicting postings?

fozzie, on Mar 6 2007, 03:02 PM, said:

I agree this is something which should be looked at.
You know who's on the Thread as Animal stated,but no way of knowing whether they are actually posting or not.If you are the one that hits the button last,agreed it could be in conflict with the previous Poster.

DSTM, on Mar 5 2007, 08:33 PM, said:

You know if someone is posting to the thread you are on if the name has a ...... line under the name. So It's a matter of who pulls "the trigger" first, to get your post added as a reply before the other.

Animal, on Mar 6 2007, 04:09 PM, said:

Thanks Animal,I saw the dotted line under the members name,but the bells didn't ring.

As far as taking up more resources, I don't see how that'll happen when the data is dynamic. I work with databases almost everyday, and dynamic data too, and I don't see how it would bog down anything. Besides, for the dial-up/slow connection users, that's what the Low-Fi Version is for. Even if that's an issue, you could always leave out the image, but display the data.

Since the data is dynamic, all one would have to do is add that {database field} to the output of the template just once, and it's a done deal. It's not like you need a team of experts to do it, nor will it take hours to do. The same with the image too, it can be dynamic, in the output... and again, you only do it once, and it's good to go.

Personally, I don't see where it serves any purpose.
I don't care how many people are viewing a thread, before I click on it.
if it's of interest to me, I'm going to click on it, no matter how many people are looking at it.
I just see it, as more stuff to clutter up the board.

Walkman, on Mar 5 2007, 11:14 PM, said:

Additional load time for the member on dialup if they are already having issues. Thats what I am referring to. Members already have issues with how slow the forums load. Why add yet more data.

Quote

Most "new" members do not even realize what that means or of what benefit it is for speed.

Quote

Then we have everyone asking "Whats that number out there all by itself mean?"

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I do not disagree at all on this point. I just do not think it's worth the effort to begin with. It's a duplication of existing information and unnecessary clutter to the forums.

While this may be nice to have, I think it important to remember that the number of people able to do the actual work to achieve this compared to the already lengthy"to do" list at BC is very small.
Remember too, with every update to the IPB board software, this enhancement would have to be tested, and if needed, additional coding would be required; this process would certainly complicate and delay the update of the board software.
Regards,
John

tg1911, on Mar 6 2007, 02:30 AM, said:

I agree with you on that one. For me, what is important at times is knowing who is reading or posting to a topic, and I can already see that information on the bottom of the post, unless I am already posting and others have opened the topic after I have. Sometimes after I finish a post, I've seen 1-3 others have posted while I was composing. Why I like to sometimes know who is reading or posting is if I recognize that someone with more knowledge on a topic than I do is already posting, then I refrain from posting at that time.

As a dial-up user, tt surprises me sometimes to see how slowly some of the buttons load up. While I know that I can use the lo-fi version to speed up the loading process, I often choose not to do so. In many instances there are images that add to the content of a post or tutorial, and not seeing these eliminates a lot of important contextual information. Not for nothing was it said: A picture is worth more than a thousand words.

Orange Blossom

Well, it would appear that this thread should be closed since the idea doesn't fit/work well. It no longer serves any purpose to post comments on this subject.

It was just an idea.

Since this idea got shot down too, a good idea would be to just close out the suggestions/ideas/comments threads once a moderator give his/her objectionable input about it. It's just the same as saying, "no further discussion on this matter", which means it should just be closed. What other support comment pertaining to a rejected one from the staff could change the reply?... nothing.

Just so I don't have to create any more suggestion threads that get kicked down, I would like to say this much: .........One Man's Opinion

I know this site is here to help the members and others that come here for computer help, and with that said, I feel it only fair to allow just the regular members only comment/reply on suggestions only, and not the moderators. Any moderator on any site can and does influence other members opinions, in many ways. And if it's just a suggestion/idea, and if any moderator is going to comment on the idea, it would be fair to say either it's an idea that will be looked into or if it isn't something they'll consider, then they should then close the thread. Why even want to have anyone posting in a dead issue thread anyway? if an answer is no?

The way I see it.... if a member makes a suggestion and any moderator likes the idea and posts it, many members will follow the moderators opinion, and many will try to even enhance on it some more. The same way is if a moderator started a thread in suggestion thread, many would follow on the idea of what the moderator posted, whether it's to do something or to not do something.

But if just members posted to the suggestions only forums, no matter which member starts the thread, I think it would bring a more balanced opinion of said subject at hand. But if a moderator replies to it, with a "We'll look into it" then the thread should stay open until the next moderators post of either a yes or no..... that's just my opinion, but just let the members give their opinions.

I know the work involved in implementing anything on a forum board. I agree with all the posts about the testing and such to be done. I've thought of those factors before making the thread, and I also do modifications to my forum boards too.
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I would guess that the idea of a person not wanting to have their username displayed on a thread when they are currently reading it would be a bad idea.... I know they can choose a setting to show they're not online when they are, but what if they want to be seen online, but not their usernames on the pages they're currently looking at? I just threw that one out there, just to get a point across.

Just to not make any more threads on suggestions, have anyone asked/suggested the idea to allow them to go into their control area, and select the forums that they don't want displayed? That would be nice too. I don't like seeing all those HJT posts when I can comment in them anyway. Why even see them?.. just another one I threw out there.

But everything is fine, and nothing is broke.... just utilizing the suggestion box since there is one, and I had some ideas.

Oh... what about a sort feature for the headings like:Topic Title | Forum | Topic Starter | Replies | Views | Last Action for those that like to sort that way? ascending/descending..... just another one of those ideas.

I put them here just so I don't have to make suggestion in many threads, and have them all rejected, like they have been.

But it's all good. I just thought some of my suggestions/ideas would help out, but I wouldn't know if I didn't post them.


Keep up the great work BleepingComputer.

Thanks for the suggestion, but there is one reason and only one reason why this will not be done. It puts too much stress on the server to compute how many people are in a topic for every topic on a page for every person viewing that page. If there are 20 topics per page, each page view takes 20 mysql queries compared to the 1 when you only show the amount of users when viewing a topic.

Topic is closed.