some questions regarding forum threads, notifications display and other stuff.

[de5_Roy]

i have some questions. apologies if these have been posted already.

i'm using firefox 19.0.2.

1. is there a way to permanently resize the top-right forum post notification box in "tracked threads page" to always display higher number of notifications? or to set how many notifications show up (currently i see total of 4 links)? i know that the main section in the "tracked thread" page already shows updates in bolded titles (with detailed stats), but i think that one works differently. because, in the notification box i can select "unread answers only" to view links to only unread threads (that i am tracking/contributed). hypothetically, if i set the box to a persistent size e.g. 5-10+ links, i could view the same number of "unread" links without refreshing the page or repeatedly hovering my mouse pointer over the far-top-right notification...er.. slide-down panel.

2. is there a way to search for forum post, or post content (words, phrases etc), or a user, or search by date (in multipage threads like stickies) from within a forum thread? i use the main search box, but the links don't lead to the specific result(s), instead lands me on the first page/post of the thread. exception: turns out, that happens only if the thread has over 2 pages and if the result is on a page other than the first page. i can get to the search result (post/forum id) right away in single-page threads. i set post count to 200 iirc, so any thread under 200 posts shows up as single page.
...
...
okay now i can't find where i set that limit. is there a way to change it (increase it to 300)? iirc it was in the account settings before the forum updates.

3. is there a way to see the correct renderings of the badges and other icons/buttons instead of weird characters? i just saw a glimpse in ssdx's thread and they look awesome. if the issue is on my end, do i have to update my browser?

4. is there a way to automatically scroll down to the latest unread message in "question" threads? when i click on the (bolded) notification link i get sent to the top of the thread. this doesn't happen with discussion-type threads or article comment threads. i have auto-scrolling enabled in my browser, if that's relevant.

5. where can i find my bookmarked threads?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

1) Unfortunately, not that I know of. But the 'More Updates' button is helpful in that it forces the box to reload.

2) Haven't really tried, I tend to use google with the site: filter.

3) I'll have to check this, but I believe that those are actually a custom font, not images. So if you've done any messing around with User CSS, that might break it. Supposedly hovering over them can fix it.

4) That sounds like a bug; Joe or one of the devs should see it here.

5) Would you be referring to Tracked threads? If so, that's what the box in the top right is.

 

[de5_Roy]

1) Unfortunately, not that I know of. But the 'More Updates' button is helpful in that it forces the box to reload.

2) Haven't really tried, I tend to use google with the site: filter.

2) google with site: filter sometimes gets me more accurate results than toms own search if i'm looking for specific term(s) in anywhere in toms. but the function i was looking for was for searching terms/user ids in a specific thread. for example, if i was looking for something i (or someone else) posted in the haswell rumors thread, i'd click on the search box, enter the id or keyword, get the results from the haswell rumor thread only i.e. thread-specific search function. i use the main search box as alternative... and it does deliver close to the specific result i'd be looking for. except when i'd click the "last message" link, the one with #<number> at the end of the link, i'd get dropped at the begining of the thread, if the thread has more than one page.

when i was looking into that, i found that the option to set specific number of post to display in a thread (i set mine at 200) was gone from display options.

3) I'll have to check this, but I believe that those are actually a custom font, not images. So if you've done any messing around with User CSS, that might break it. Supposedly hovering over them can fix it.

ahh. font - makes a lot of sense now. i don't think i've knowingly modified user css.... but i did change some css related settings. this may have changed things. thanks. i'll try changing those settings next time.

4) That sounds like a bug; Joe or one of the devs should see it here.

5) Would you be referring to Tracked threads? If so, that's what the box in the top right is.

5) no, bookmarked threads. i bookmarked several threads when there was a bookmark button on top right of the opening post of a thread. and we had a "bookmarked threads" tab/page where the bookmarked threads would show up. the main diff. with "tracked threads" is that before - all the "tracked threads" were the ones i'd post in (or click "track this thread") and those would show up at the top of the main list when updated. and "bookmarks" were the ones i'd track, but not necessarily post in e.g. tutorials and stickies, and show up in a different section. i assume - after "tracking" went site-wide, all tracked threads got lumped together and the specific bookmarks were gone.

i bookmarked this thread before:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/322966-28-list-recommended-psus
it's still in "tracked thread" but since it doesn't get updated often, it's way down the tracked list. the bookmark helped me for access it without scrolling down to the bottom of the thread. i had more but i can't even find those anymore. some, i bookmarked but never posted in, so i don't think they're tracked. imo tracking is superior, but it lacks categorical divisions. if i try to seperate the above-mentioned thread from all tracked threads and click components from the "category" drop-down list at the top of the "tracked threads" page, i'd get all threads with "components" tag, instead of the ones i'm tracking/bookmarked.

i realize that my replies are a bit long winded, but i can't figure out if the options i'm looking for are gone with site changes or if i'm not looking in the right places, or something else. thanks for the reply.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

2) I don't think there's any way to do a thread specific search.

5) I think a lot of that stuff is gone due to site changes, but you can definitely separate out the tracked threads from a certain area or tag. Go to the category/tag, hit 'Type', and then select 'Tracked threads'. It doesn't look like you can set stickies as an option, but you can narrow it down to e.g. only tutorials, or only questions.

 

[jpishgar]

2. Thread-specific search or rather in-thread search isn't something we've got right now. Though we're always looking to potentially expand our search functionality.

4. We can look into it. The auto-scroll feature you refer to, is that always on? I do believe the notification takes you to the top of the thread naturally though.

5. Tracked threads is your best bet for keeping tabs on updates to threads you are keeping an eye on. This function has more features than the previous iterations.

 

[de5_Roy]

2. Thread-specific search or rather in-thread search isn't something we've got right now. Though we're always looking to potentially expand our search functionality.

4. We can look into it. The auto-scroll feature you refer to, is that always on? I do believe the notification takes you to the top of the thread naturally though.

5. Tracked threads is your best bet for keeping tabs on updates to threads you are keeping an eye on. This function has more features than the previous iterations.

4. yes, it is. i enabled auto scrolling from tools> options> advanced> browsing> checked the "use auto scrolling" box. i didn't know that was the default behavior. i figured that, in question-type threads, we'd start from the last read post. sometimes i click the notifications after others posted multiple times - which often makes it a bit difficult to find the (re)starting point if i have to start from the top every time, especially in fast moving threads.. in discussion-type threads, comment threads i can open them through notifications and start from the last read post.

 

[ssddx]

1. afaik there isnt a feature currently to allow the box for notifications (not the drop down menu one) to be resized. however, that box does have a scroll bar to scroll through the different updates. i can handle 10+ without any trouble with it.

2. as jp said its not currently something offered by the forum. the best we have is ctrl+f to find info on page (works if you have many posts per page) or just manually browsing through. to be honest that isnt a feature that i really thought about before as i wouldnt use it. normally threads arent so long as to warrant it (except perhaps the users rig photos thread)

3. did you mean a thread by me? (not sure if you made a spelling mistake or if you meant someone else). the badges are images i believe. the buttons (report, bbcode, reply, etcetera) are a custom font. i've had issues with the font acting up once in awhile and displaying strange characters and have reported it before. it didnt appear often though and i havent seen it in a long time.

4. if you click on the thread from your notifications area it should automatically scroll to the latest new response. i've had it stop working on occassion and instead start at the top of the thread but it appears to be working now. no idea why it works sometimes and why it doesnt work at other times. i havent had an issue with it in a long time though.

5. i didnt realize we had a bookmark option. you may be right that it got lumped in with tracked threads. you might be better off using the chrome bookmark if you want to access a page which doesnt get updates often but you still want to go back over and read a few times.

 

[de5_Roy]

2. as jp said its not currently something offered by the forum. the best we have is ctrl+f to find info on page (works if you have many posts per page) or just manually browsing through. to be honest that isnt a feature that i really thought about before as i wouldnt use it. normally threads arent so long as to warrant it (except perhaps the users rig photos thread)

i agree. most threads are not that long.. and likely won't necessitate such feature. it'd help with multipage threads like open stickies or gallery threads.

3. did you mean a thread by me? (not sure if you made a spelling mistake or if you meant someone else). the badges are images i believe. the buttons (report, bbcode, reply, etcetera) are a custom font. i've had issues with the font acting up once in awhile and displaying strange characters and have reported it before. it didnt appear often though and i havent seen it in a long time.

yes, it was in one of your threads about forum bugs. i mistyped your forum id earlier. that was the first time i had seen what they really look like.