Question: 'Today's Posts' redundant?

[Decagon]

Does Today's Posts serve any purpose that New Posts does not already achieve? It seems to just do a search of threads with posts made in the last 24 hours, which is already included in New Posts, and there are generally enough varied threads in a Today's Posts query that the thread subscription is better suited to fulfill normal needs.

[relentlessflame]

You know, I don't ever use either of those myself. They're part of the default templates that are built-in to vBulletin, and I'm not really sure why they have both of them either. I guess because some people are looking for the one, and others are looking for the other, so rather than having to explain to people how to use one option to do both, they figure "hell with it, let's just put both options". (This is how poor design decisions are made... )

Anyway, it looks like it's possible to remove it by editing the template... but I can just imagine that if I did I'd then have a bunch of people going "WHERE DID TODAY'S POST GO? THAT'S AN AWESOME FEATURE I USE IT EVERY DAY DON'T REMOVE IT". (This is why large groups and organizations move slowly on any change... )

All that to say I do agree that it's weird and probably redundant, and I'm not sure why vBulletin did it that. It's possible to remove it, but I'm not sure of the actual usage and impact.

[Revelation]

I don't think this is much of a problem at all, but what's the difference between them anyway? Today's Posts show the most recent thread with a post in it, and New Posts just show the same thing excluding ones you've already read?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Golden Dream

I don't think this is much of a problem at all, but what's the difference between them anyway? Today's Posts show the most recent thread with a post in it, and New Posts just show the same thing excluding ones you've already read?

Yeah, basically "Today's Posts" is all threads that have had a new post within the last 24 hours, and "New Posts" is all threads that contains posts you haven't read (within the cut-off window, which is a few weeks). Once you read a thread, it will disappear from "New Posts" but stay in "Today's Posts" as long as it's been updated within the last 24 hours.

(And, no matter how you look at it, "New Posts" and "Today's Posts" are both slightly inaccurate titles, since it lists threads, and "today" is not a rolling 24-hour block...)

I guess the only reason I can think of for wanting "Today's Posts" (and it's a bit of a stretch) is if you want to go back and look for a thread you read or commented in within the last day and hasn't had any new posts since. Sort of like "what was that thread I read again?" That's a pretty niche use case, though... for most other purposes, I would think that "New Posts" would be better (unless you just don't care about anything "old").

The other thing I guess I can say from a technical perspective is that the option to remember which specific threads/posts you've read (and to what point) hasn't always been around in vBulletin, and it's even something you can turn off (because it adds a bit of load and a bunch of extra data to the database). So it's possible that "Today's Posts" was the old version of "New Posts" before they had this thread-tracking in place (or for people who don't use it).

[felix]

I use Today's posts; I have it as the bookmark for the forum, and have my browsers not remember other addresses, so each time I type an address it's always the bookmark that gets selected, in the case of animesuki http://forums.animesuki.com/search.php?do=getdaily.

As I recall xris uses/used it when moderating, or so he said.

I suppose if you visit mostly western style forums you wouldn't know what it is. It's basically an alternative view for the lobby page (you know the one with categories). Instead of categories you just see all threads in chronological order. Some forum software actually have this view as default since a lot of small forums don't really have categories as more then just basic filters. Kind of lame vB does such basic functionality though a search API but ohwell.

The reason for New Posts is so that when you don't have to backtrack (as much) when you've read though most of the posts in Today's Posts. By filtering to only unread that basically solves that (somewhat). Of course this forum runs sufficiently fast enough and has enough volume in the discussion that the option seems useless. I usually refer to Subscribtions lists which is basically filtered version of New Posts. Still, I think I click New Posts more often then Today's Posts when I'm not just calling the bookmark or using the Subscription feature.

In vB4 the option for New Posts won't be present on the bar and instead you'll just have a "What's New" option which will also contain besides Today's posts and option for viewing Daily Group Message and the Mark as Read option. Basically the big bar at the top of vB4 forums is meant as a view switch. You have Home (landing page, announcements, etc), Forum (current view), What's New (merged view).

[Westlo]

Step 1: Look at the currently active users section and notice that guests greatly outnumber members.
Step 2: Log out of your Animesuki account
Step 3: Try and click on New Posts now.. oh..

Of course it is redundant when logged in, like Felix mentioned other forums have "What's New" instead of Today's Posts + New Posts for members.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Step 1: Look at the currently active users section and notice that guests greatly outnumber members.
Step 2: Log out of your Animesuki account
Step 3: Try and click on New Posts now.. oh..

Ahh... I've never spent much time on this or almost any forum as a guest, so that didn't even cross my mind. Makes sense now.

Still, speaking only for myself, I think (agree?) that this Forum is way too big to want to see a view with all updated threads in a single list... but I guess more power to people if that works for them. I also use Subscribed Forums/Threads almost exclusively to make my own "mini-list" and browse around the other categories from time to time. But of course, Subscriptions also only work if you're a member. I honestly don't know why you'd want to visit a forum regularly as a guest given the limited functionality (to any guests reading this, feel free to register! You can still lurk if you want! )

[GHDpro]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Step 1: Look at the currently active users section and notice that guests greatly outnumber members.
Step 2: Log out of your Animesuki account
Step 3: Try and click on New Posts now.. oh..

Nailed it.

Originally Posted by Westlo

Of course it is redundant when logged in, like Felix mentioned other forums have "What's New" instead of Today's Posts + New Posts for members.

It is indeed somewhat redundant for registered users, but I'm sure there are some who appreciate the feature. A default feature that is.

Anyway, I don't see to much point in this thread so I'm closing it.