Suggestion for a feature I can't remember the name of...

[chuckskull]

This should go well

On various forums I've inhabited over the years, a couple have had a feature where if the thread was updated, between you loading the thread and posting a response a little box would appear showing you the new posts.

I can't remember if it had a specific name and couldn't even think of a way to summarise it to make the thread title(yeah I'm useless), but I liked it.



Thanks

[Saracen]

I have no involvement in site programming, but I can add a couple of thoughts to that proposal. These are my views, not a Hexus position.

First, that sounds like something that might have a significant load in terms of database queries. If so, feasibility will depend on factors like the number of users and the hardware the site is running on. What is practical for a site with 10 concurrent users might well not be feasible for one with much heavier usage. Alternatively, a site with a large income stream may be able to afford hardware other sites cannot.

Second, Hexus does have a fair bit of customisation, and every time you add features like that, you have to think about the impact of that on other aspects of the site. I'm not at all involved in site development so I have no idea if this would be an issue, but it does strike me as a possibility.

[chuckskull]

Both fair points Saracen. I've meant to throw a thread up about this a few times, co-incidentally it was actually cross posting with you, that reminded me.

I'm not a coder and my knowledge of that side of things is limited to using the UI to change things or finding a coder to do it for me

Although it shouldn't be massive load in my distinctly amateurish opinion, it only checked if the thread was updated when you clicked the post reply button, then loaded the text. Not something that was 'live' for lack of a better description. Now you mention it though, I've never seen it on a really large forum, so maybe load is an issue. Could be a case of death by a thousand cuts in terms of load I guess.

Still, if you don't ask you don't get. I appreciate it even being considered.

We shall see what the powers that be say.

[Saracen]

I have a programming background, and in fact did it as part of my living for a while, but it was a long time ago. I have some familiarity with PHP, MySQL and certainly vBulletin, but again, I'm no form of expert on any of them. So I'm certainly not contending it would cause problems, but I can see how it might. vBulletin is certainly quite well-known for how certain apparently simple propositions can actually result in a lot more database activity than might be expected, because one simple request can cause multiple queries to update all relevant information. If you think about some of the information that is simply displayed, let alone that which isn't, like permissions and so forth, you can see how this can happen.

I guess all I'm saying is that, from an Admin, let alone site owner, perspective you have to be a bit careful about what you enable and what you don't. I don't know enough to know if this would be a problem, merely enough to know it's something that would concern me, and that the effects aren't always intuitive. Fortunately, I'm not the one that needs to know, and I'm sure that those that do need to, do.