Hmmm, this is quite interesting Scream, and it brings up all sorts of things for me--but I'll try to keep this as short as possible []/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/].
You're definetly on to something with this new 'new' feature, but it begs the question "what is it that regular forum users
really need?". The answer is
simplicity. Underneath all the toys needs to be a solid, easy-to-use foundation, and w3t falls a little short.
For example, my forum client list is expanding to include software/hardware development companies and overwhelmingly the users of these forums want to be able to log in, find the new messages, reply to them if they want and get the hell outta' there. You just can't do this with w3t as currently you have to wade through the old messages to find the new ones.
Before you got too far with this latest edition maybe the thing to do is to find out what is really needed.
I'd suggest the following:
When a person logs in they should have the option of viewing only the new messages of any particular board. If they choose this option and view a 'new' message listed, and then return to the index for the board it should still list the new messages only. If the user then wants to view all the messages in the board there should be an option listed somewhere, i.e.
View All Messages. This should revert the users view to show all the messages of the board they are currently in.
The 'new' flags should remain persistant until the user 'logs out' of that board, clearing the 'new' flags. This way, regardless of how the user views the board, if they want to view and/or reply to the new messages later, the unread (or read) 'new' messages can be quickly found.
I imagine that this feature might be extremely difficult to code, but it is an essential part of the foundation of a good forum.
Given that, and since I know
nothing about perl/php and MySql, I've been tinkering with my old Miva script forums. I've been tweaking my Miva forums for a while now and and know them inside and out. While they are extremely simple, they are also extremely easy to use--but, they're ugly. Lately though I've been inspired by w3t to make them better looking.
I'm currently working on the layout of a demo Miva forum so that I can have that 'ease-of-use' and groovy good looks too.
This
Miva forum isn't nearly done yet (layout), but while it doesn't include markup, emoticons and such, it does have the ease-of-use that I mention above (and without using cookies). If you visit this forum please register so you can see what I'm talking about--I know you have a 'I don't visit other forums' policy, but this sample is essentially a w3t lite-lite-lite rip-off []/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/]. Also, please ignore the look of funky log in page--I'm totaly redesigning it to include a lurkers forum listing. []/w3timages/icons/crazy.gif[/]
I'm sure others here could add to my list of suggestions (or tell me to bug off entirely []/w3timages/icons/crazy.gif[/]) and I'm really interested in others views.
Socrates
ForumExperts
