# Indication that you have contributed to a thread?



## soybean (Oct 26, 2007)

In the old interface, there was an indication that you had previously contributed to a thread. Is there still something like that? Perhaps I am just not seeing it. That was a very valuable feature.


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## bandmommy (Jul 4, 2007)

I think you have to 'follow' the thread now. Or wait for an alert when someone else comments. 
I know that I preferred that little indicator too.


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## Sigmund451 (Aug 8, 2003)

I think it’s possible in this software but the function is not turned on. I dont know if its in settings or if the administrator has to make that choice for everyone. Pete would know.


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## milandro (Dec 22, 2006)

in general you you have turned on this function, when you’ve contributed it says “ flollowing “ on the thread , you can follow also without contributing by clicking “ follow” on the top right .

I am not sure if there is any color change to indicate that you’ve read something (as we had before) even though you may not have followed it (will check)


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

Yes it's in your preferences to watch content you create or contribute to.


milandro said:


> I am not sure if there is any color change to indicate that you've read something (as we had before)


Unread is in bold, read is normal font


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## milandro (Dec 22, 2006)

Pete Thomas said:


> Unread is in bold, read is normal font


yes, it is very subtle on my screen but it is there indeed as you say, I can easily see how on a mobile device this may be overlooked


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)




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## rhysonsax (Nov 30, 2003)

But the little grey text saying "Following" is much less clear (and easier to miss) than the old way of indicating that you have previously contributed to that thread. Wasn't it shown by your own Avatar picture overlapping that of the thread starter ?

Rhys


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## milandro (Dec 22, 2006)

the contemporary platform is not the old one and there are only certain adjustments that can be done, on top of this, I understand that such fundamental adjustments can only be (within the limits offered by this software) made by the VS administrator.

He would only respond by direct contact (whomever it is that administrates this account now)








VSadmin







www.saxontheweb.net


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

rhysonsax said:


> Wasn't it shown by your own Avatar picture overlapping that of the thread starter ?


I don't think so, that is what this software does by default (as on the Vietnamese forum Cafesaxopho  )


milandro said:


> the contemporary platform is not the old one and there are only certain adjustments that can be done, on top of this, I understand that such fundamental adjustments can only be (within the limits offered by this software) made by the VS administrator.


Yes, VS used a heavily customised template, and I believe "corporate" dictate it must be the same on all of their many forums so there is a uniform look.


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

Here's a link to a thread I started on this very topic shortly after the changeover and received completely unrelated information and instructions from vsadmin who basically chose to ignore the actual question posed. The short answer to your question is no, that feature no longer exists and it won't be coming back. The best/ closest thing you can do is choose to follow every single post/ response you make from now on and turn off your notifications so you don't get an email and alert every single time someone posts on a thread you follow. Of course this does nothing for the posts/ comments in your history as a member.
https://www.saxontheweb.net/threads...commented-do-u-miss-it-2.380409/#post-4238462


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

swperry1 said:


> who basically chose to ignore the actual question posed.


Looking at his answer, I can't see what is wrong. Seems he did answer.


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

Pete Thomas said:


> Looking at his answer, I can't see what is wroing. Seems he did answer.


He didn't answer the question at all. He completely avoided it and gave info on the follow feature, which I clearly said was not my question in the OP and at least one follow up. ?‍♂
Prior to the switch any thread you'd ever commented on had a green indicator letting you know that at some point you'd contributed. You didn't have to follow or subscribe and never received any sort of notification that there was activity on the thread...it was just nice that, for example, if one of the 2500+/- threads on finish or reed maintenance popped up in the new or you went digging in a particular subforum it was easy to see which thread(s) you'd participated in. Now unless you follow a thread there's no way at all of knowing, and unless you go through all your previous posts and follow them there is no way of ever knowing which older threads you've commented on.


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

swperry1 said:


> Now unless you follow a thread there's no way at all of knowing, and unless you go through all your previous posts and follow them there is no way of ever knowing which older threads you've commented on.


I am confused now because it works for me as it should based on automatic following and manual following.

You set your preferences so that you automatically follow (or "watch" threads that you start or contribute to ("interact with"). That way you don't have to manually click on follow all your threads.

Maybe something got corrupted with your account, because it works for me that old thrrads I contributed to are still brought up in my alerts. But did you check that your preferences are set so you get alerts for threads you started or replied in? If so then it really has to be a bug, and I/we cannot help because we don't have access to the forum admin features any more like we used to and could fix such things.


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## nvilletele (Dec 16, 2014)

Pete Thomas said:


> I am confused now because it works for me as it should based on automatic following and manual following.
> 
> You set your preferences so that you automatically follow (or "watch" threads that you start or contribute to ("interact with"). That way you don't have to manually click on follow all your threads.
> 
> Maybe something got corrupted with your account, because it works for me that old thrrads I contributed to are still brought up in my alerts. But did you check that your preferences are set so you get alerts for threads you started or replied in? If so then it really has to be a bug, and I/we cannot help because we don't have access to the forum admin features any more like we used to and could fix such things.


i think maybe you misunderstood the point. You are certainly correct that by using the feature available in the preferences, one can get an alert saying there was a new message posted in a thread which, by having clicked the applicable check box in preferences, you are automatically following.

But that is somewhat different from the indication that appears on a thread, either in a forum listing, search list or list of new posts, that shows that you had once contributed to that thread. This feature is (was) a constant, and was not related to receiving an alert of a new post.

That's what it seems to me to be, in any case.


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

nvilletele said:


> i think maybe you misunderstood the point. You are certainly correct that by using the feature available in the preferences, one can get an alert saying there was a new message posted in a thread which, by having clicked the applicable check box in preferences, you are automatically following.
> 
> But that is somewhat different from the indication that appears on a thread, either in a forum listing, search list or list of new posts, that shows that you had once contributed to that thread. This feature is (was) a constant, and was not related to receiving an alert of a new post.
> 
> That's what it seems to me to be, in any case.


Yes! It was also not contingent upon "following" or "subscribing" to a thread whatsoever...if you'd posted, there was a green indicator. No notifications or alerts, just a simple little green indicator that made it easy to see which threads you'd participated in on a page full of posts. 
For the new interface in order for what vsadmin and now Pete are saying, I'd have to actively go to every single post I've ever made and follow it and also turn off notifications to avoid emails and alerts every time there's activity on a thread I'm following. 
I get it, the feature is gone and somehow only a handful of us even remember/ understand what Soybean and I are talking about.


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## nvilletele (Dec 16, 2014)

swperry1 said:


> Yes! It was also contingent upon "following" or "subscribing" to a thread whatsoever...if you'd posted, there was a green indicator. No notifications or alerts, just a simple little green indicator that made it easy to see which threads you'd participated in on a page full of posts.
> For the new interface in order for what vsadmin and now Pete are saying, I'd have to actively go to every single post I've ever made and follow it and also turn off notifications to avoid emails and alerts every time there's activity on a thread I'm following.
> I get it, the feature is gone and somehow only a handful of us even remember/ understand what Soybean and I are talking about.


A couple of potential corrections, if I have it right.
First, it seems you meant to say "it was also NOT contingent . . ." in your first line, but the "not" was inadvertently omitted.

Second, regarding having to do something separately for each post you had made, I don't think that is how it works. My understanding is that you can go into preferences, and by checking one box you can automatically "follow" any thread you have participated in. If you check the box, you get an alert every time there is a new post in the thread. However, I am not certain if it works retroactively or only prospectively. My guess is that it should work retroactively, but just a guess.

(Also, there is a separate check box if you also wish to receive an email notification of new posts in such automatically followed thread.)

In any case, it is different from the old feature, which does not involve following or receiving any alerts, and which I also really liked and would love to see again.


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

nvilletele said:


> A couple of potential corrections, if I have it right.
> First, it seems you meant to say "it was also NOT contingent . . ." in your first line, but the "not" was inadvertently omitted.
> 
> Second, regarding having to do something separately for each post you had made, I don't think that is how it works. My understanding is that you can go into preferences, and by checking one box you can automatically "follow" any thread you have participated in. If you check the box, you get an alert every time there is a new post in the thread. However, I am not certain if it works retroactively or only prospectively. My guess is that it should work retroactively, but just a guess.
> ...


Sorry, I did leave out "not" in that first sentence, just edited it in for ease of other readers. 
Yes, The follow feature is the new version, and as far as I can tell it is not retroactive, just follows from when you change settings onward. In the linked thread I took a screenshot proving that posts made prior to changing the setting would not show up as followed. I know you can turn off the email notifications, but I don't think there's a way to avoid an "alert" on your profile header. We're not looking for an alert every time someone posts on an old thread we've participated in, just the nice old indicator of participation when scanning the archives or when an old thread is awakened and comes up in the "new" or "recent activity" thread. Like...now that every thread has "recommended reading" at the bottom, if a thread I'd commented on like ten years ago happens to show up on the list it would show me that I made a comment on it. 
It's really not a big deal, just one of the nicer features of the old format some of us wish had carried over.


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

swperry1 said:


> For the new interface in order for what vsadmin and now Pete are saying, I'd have to actively go to every single post I've ever made and follow it and also turn off notifications to avoid emails and alerts every time there's activity on a thread I'm following.


Well I'm obviously not understanding the issue as I don't have to go into every post I've ever made. In the old software it was called subscriptions, now it is called following or watching and those settings were supposed to be imported but I do get it that there could have been some issues (as there was with the attachments).

For me it's exactly the same, although there are now a lot more options in preferences to make it how you want it.

But it's all a bit moot, if something is wrong we (SOTW admin) could fix it. Now we can't - only VSadmin can fix it.


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

I'm going to dig through the settings and do some experiments later and perhaps I'll find this magic button that makes it happen, but yeah, based on this thread and the one I linked I really don't think we're on the same page and vsadmin is way off...I think that was the same week he sent @bandmommy to porn sites looking for ad block remedies ?‍♂


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

This is the only forum I’m a member/ user on...perhaps someone else who’s a member on a forum that uses the old platform we were on that can screenshot and share the indicator the few of us who seem to remember the feature are talking about? It’s definitely not the follow or subscribe features, as I’ve never once followed or subscribed to any post in my history as a member.


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## nvilletele (Dec 16, 2014)

Pete Thomas said:


> Well I'm obviously not understanding the issue as I don't have to go into every post I've ever made. In the old software it was called subscriptions, now it is called following or watching and those settings were supposed to be imported but I do get it that there could have been some issues (as there was with the attachments).
> 
> For me it's exactly the same, although there are now a lot more options in preferences to make it how you want it.
> 
> But it's all a bit moot, if something is wrong we (SOTW admin) could fix it. Now we can't - only VSadmin can fix it.





swperry1 said:


> This is the only forum I'm a member/ user on...perhaps someone else who's a member on a forum that uses the old platform we were on that can screenshot and share the indicator the few of us who seem to remember the feature are talking about? It's definitely not the follow or subscribe features, as I've never once followed or subscribed to any post in my history as a member.


First, I also did not understand the bit about having to go back to each post, which seems to have been some sort of misunderstanding of swperry1. Perhaps it relates only to the assumption (or fact) that checking the "automatically watch" checkbox only applies prospectively.

But he is right about the old indicator being different. And that it did not otherwise involve an alert each time a new post was made. It was an indicator of previous participation in the thread, not an indicator of ongoing following or subscription.

Here is a screenshot from tdpri forum that shows the style he was referring to. In the thread about Seldom Seen Old Pics About Famous Musicians, the avatar at the left has a smaller image placed on its lower left corner, which smaller image is my avatar on that forum, since I had once participated in that thread.


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

nvilletele said:


> And that it did not otherwise involve an alert each time a new post was made.


Alerts are optional though.


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## nvilletele (Dec 16, 2014)

Pete Thomas said:


> Alerts are optional though.


Ah, and so they are. I had not scrolled down far enough within preferences to see the other check boxes relating to alerts. Thanks for that clarification.

So to sum up it seems we can (sort of) get the same functionality, provided we set our preferences to automatically "watch content that [we] create" and uncheck the box for an alert for "Receive a notification when someone replies to a watched thread."

Still, one difference is the all or nothing nature of this workaround to mimic the old functionality, as it would no longer enable a difference in handling between participated threads and watched threads. I imagine there could be some threads that one wants to more actively watch, i.e. with alerts, while still maintaining an indicator of participated threads. But time marches on, and to quote the Bard, "Things Have Changed."

Thankfully, this is not the most important issue of the day.

(And yes, I do have way too much free time.)


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## swperry1 (Aug 14, 2010)

nvilletele said:


> Ah, and so they are. I had not scrolled down far enough within preferences to see the other check boxes relating to alerts. Thanks for that clarification.
> 
> So to sum up it seems we can (sort of) get the same functionality, provided we set our preferences to automatically "watch content that [we] create" and uncheck the box for an alert for "Receive a notification when someone replies to a watched thread."
> 
> ...


I found the place to turn off alerts for followed content and plan to leave it on the setting so I see the posts I comment on as followed from this point on. There is no way I can see to follow (with or without alerts) retroactively, so there's nothing to indicate the posts we've interacted with previously without going through post histories and actively following each post.


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## PigSquealer (Dec 27, 2017)

Where do I find the refresh memory tab. I’m suffering from CSR. Can’t Rember .
maybe I’m just old. Updates no longer available. My chip is full. My processor is slow. I think I’m running on default settings.


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## bandmommy (Jul 4, 2007)

swperry1 said:


> I'm going to dig through the settings and do some experiments later and perhaps I'll find this magic button that makes it happen, but yeah, based on this thread and the one I linked I really don't think we're on the same page and vsadmin is way off...I think that was the same week he sent @bandmommy to porn sites looking for ad block remedies ?‍♂


Yeah... That little incident still gets my Granny panties in a twist. 
I lost any respect I may have had for those people. I won't ask for any site related technical help ever again that's for sure!


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

You sholuld already be following posts you interacted with (if those were your settings in the previous software.

This can also be useful:

*Participated posts list*

And just to summarise:

The new terminology for subscribed threads is watchded or followed threads.


To watch a thread manually click the watch button button
To automatcially watch thread you started tick the appropriate box in your account settings
To automatcially watch thread you reply in tick the appropriate box in your account settings
All of the above show in the list with the _Following_ badge.

By ticking the appropriate boxes you can be notified by any of the folloing methods:


Emails
Alerts
Push notifications (if you browser/OS supports them
So you can be following with or without any type of notification. This is the way it is supposed to work, if it isn't then something is wrong.


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## milandro (Dec 22, 2006)

I think that when you answer (unless you have set it differently) following becomes automatic.

If you simply want to follow something that you’ve read , top of the page right +follow -unfollow ( if you have contributed and don’t want to hear anymore).

I am fully aware that this forum is not the other, I spend some time trying to get used to it and not it works for me. It is only a matter of getting used t it. The only thing I really don’t like and I preferred the former is the search engine. I never had a problem finding things. Now, sometimes I do have problems.


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## Pete Thomas (Sep 12, 2004)

milandro said:


> I think that when you answer (unless you have set it differently) following becomes automatic.


Only if you have that option ticked


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## milandro (Dec 22, 2006)

ok, I should imagine I did at some point. You helped me a lot to set up and getting used to this forum when we migrated and I am happy the way it works. It is really impossible to go back to the old system and living with this system is the only thing that we can possibly do. I don’t like it or dislike it, it is what it is.


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## soybean (Oct 26, 2007)

Pete Thomas said:


> This can also be useful:
> 
> *Participated posts list*


 that is very useful Pete. Thank you. ...and thanks to all the other people who answered my question.


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## MartinMusicMan (Jul 13, 2007)

Pete Thomas said:


> ... (as on the Vietnamese forum Cafesaxopho  ) ...


I thought that was funny.


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