Ma. Look. My threads gone global........

MazDan

MazDan

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Messages
16,745
In this day and age, is there anything left that cannot be done?

Well Im going to put that to the ultimate test.

Is it possible for a single thread to be "global"? ie appear in all selected sub forums simultaneously and complete with all posting abilities etc? As a poster from within any of the sub forums adds to the thread, it would automatically update in the other sub forums.

A mirror thread, or thread of mirrors even.

What an excellent tool such a thing would make.

In fact as part of the ultimate test, I even have the perfect thread to be given the distinction of being.......... well..........first. The ultimate guinea pig.

It should be the "Folding @ Home" thread which currently resides in the Science department, which actually makes a lot of sense, but not if we want to have it seen by the greater masses. Sitting in the Science lab its basically preaching to the converted. (OMG I just managed to marry Science with religion)

I want to see it preaching to the masses, for Science, not preaching to Science for the masses.

SOOOOOOOOOO In summary, In this day and age, is there anything left that cannot be done???????????

Stay tuned fellow bluelighters and someone will keep us all updated as the drama unfolds @ home.
 
that's a great suggestion but i don't believe xenforo supports the concept. nor did vbulletin. i think, of the more popular platforms, only phpbb offers it out of the box.

but you could use a notice and achieve the same goal (i think).

alasdair
 
How can it not be? Even free forum platforms offers a large variety of colors. It is possible but if it wasn't done by now means that the BL team knows why. It's possible anyway, talk to @TheLoveBandit
 
alasdairm said:
that's a great suggestion but i don't believe xenforo supports the concept. nor did vbulletin. i think, of the more popular platforms, only phpbb offers it out of the box.

but you could use a notice and achieve the same goal (i think).

alasdair
Click to expand...
Ohhh wow. Cheers mate, I have no idea about this stuff but it seemed logical and a perfect answer for many admin type things and the prob of rotating that F@H thread.

Yeah I asked for a notice up the top on the main page and CFC and TLB were able to arrange in lightening speed but its not quite the same as having a thread put right in front of you. PLUS you can imagine all the other possibilities my head is inventing.

Well Im not giving in just yet until the fat lady sings, maybe its just a matter of being a bit imaginative with the way the thread is coded?
 
MazDan said:
In this day and age, is there anything left that cannot be done?

Well Im going to put that to the ultimate test.

Is it possible for a single thread to be "global"? ie appear in all selected sub forums simultaneously and complete with all posting abilities etc? As a poster from within any of the sub forums adds to the thread, it would automatically update in the other sub forums.

A mirror thread, or thread of mirrors even.

What an excellent tool such a thing would make.

In fact as part of the ultimate test, I even have the perfect thread to be given the distinction of being.......... well..........first. The ultimate guinea pig.

It should be the "Folding @ Home" thread which currently resides in the Science department, which actually makes a lot of sense, but not if we want to have it seen by the greater masses. Sitting in the Science lab its basically preaching to the converted. (OMG I just managed to marry Science with religion)

I want to see it preaching to the masses, for Science, not preaching to Science for the masses.

SOOOOOOOOOO In summary, In this day and age, is there anything left that cannot be done???????????

Stay tuned fellow bluelighters and someone will keep us all updated as the drama unfolds @ home.
Click to expand...

No, basically, as ali says. There are a large number of add-ons for XenForo, and you can even make add-on requests which occasionally get answered, but last time I checked there wasn't anything suitable that did this type of thread promotion.

We've always wanted the ability to have several select threads promoted like that in all forums simultaneously though, or to at least have that option when we wanted it. But all we have are various forms of notices out of the box, and nothing actually integrated into the standard subforum lists. You can achieve a "sort-of" effect by manually creating a sticky re-direct to the thread from every forum, but it won't look the same (and most people barely notice stickies anyway).
 
CFC said:
No, basically, as ali says. There are a large number of add-ons for XenForo, and you can even make add-on requests which occasionally get answered, but last time I checked there wasn't anything suitable that did this type of thread promotion.

We've always wanted the ability to have several select threads promoted like that in all forums simultaneously though, or to at least have that option when we wanted it. But all we have are various forms of notices out of the box, and nothing actually integrated into the standard subforum lists. You can achieve a "sort-of" effect by manually creating a sticky re-direct to the thread from every forum, but it won't look the same (and most people barely notice stickies anyway).
Click to expand...
OK well Im pretty chuffed that someone else has seen the advantages. Love it when people are on the same page.

I dont claim to be a coder these days, I was around in the days when if you didnt know basic then you couldnt program your computer, but that was then.
However that experience along with spending many hours playing with different things on our previous VB makes me wonder if it may be possible to examine those phpbb threads that Ali mentions and see if we can make it work here for xenforo?

Anyways just a thought.
 
The way we did it in the past was to move the thread into a forum, then move it to another forum leaving a redirect link behind. This gives the 'ghost' of the thread across multiple forums and anyone clicking on any of those gets taken to the current active thread. However, that link expires after a set amount of time (we can manually set that), and falls off the front page of any given forum (it doesn't get bumped by replies).
 
MazDan said:
OK well Im pretty chuffed that someone else has seen the advantages. Love it when people are on the same page.

I dont claim to be a coder these days, I was around in the days when if you didnt know basic then you couldnt program your computer, but that was then.
However that experience along with spending many hours playing with different things on our previous VB makes me wonder if it may be possible to examine those phpbb threads that Ali mentions and see if we can make it work here for xenforo?

Anyways just a thought.
Click to expand...

Yes the sad reality is that we've never been lacking for fresh ideas here - everything something thinks of you can be sure we've probably already had discussions about ad infinitum for years and years. It's the implementation that causes the blockage. Programmers that would be happy to come up with new templates for free and then update them everytime XF does an update are hard to come by :(
 
Cheers CFC, Im actually doing some research and seems it is known as Crossposting and also Global posting and I have found a thread on xenforo where its being discussed, seems many others are also keen for it. Still reading through that and may take a while.
There is also a number of suggestions that it can sort of be achieved via a Global announcement in xenforo......... Im guessing sort of like your sticky idea but not a sticky?

Im sorry, I am obviously not familiar with the behind nthe scenes workings of these things.
 
CFC said:
Yes the sad reality is that we've never been lacking for fresh ideas here - everything something thinks of you can be sure we've probably already had discussions about ad infinitum for years and years. It's the implementation that causes the blockage. Programmers that would be happy to come up with new templates for free and then update them everytime XF does an update are hard to come by :(
Click to expand...

OK I may, may being the operative word, have something......... however I dont have access to all the xenforo areas so will need someone who has to investigate further.

This is the link and the real interesting stuff is nearer the bottom of page 3 and onto page 4.

I know, I know I know,.......... Im a fucking pain in the ass BUT....... if someone gets a chance then hopefully it would be a quick look.

Keep smiling yall.,

xenforo.com

Global Topics / Announcements

Why can't we make global topics with Xenforo? Is this a planned feature for the future?
xenforo.com xenforo.com
 
MazDan said:
OK I may, may being the operative word, have something......... however I dont have access to all the xenforo areas so will need someone who has to investigate further.

This is the link and the real interesting stuff is nearer the bottom of page 3 and onto page 4.

I know, I know I know,.......... Im a fucking pain in the ass BUT....... if someone gets a chance then hopefully it would be a quick look.

Keep smiling yall.,

xenforo.com

Global Topics / Announcements

Why can't we make global topics with Xenforo? Is this a planned feature for the future?
xenforo.com xenforo.com
Click to expand...

Yes, so you see the sliding ticker that shows up in most forums? That's a form of announcement. I can do all kinds of things with it's display, and change what it displays. But it doesn't integrate into the threads area. It also doesn't really get that much traction in terms of engagement (ie people don't really notice it) - not since the novelty of its first appearance wore off anyway.

The most effective engagement tool we have at the moment is that great big 8WAYRUN slider add-on that doesn't work fully for you on Chrome. And we already put it up there ;)

Reveal stats:
2zYIo8z.png
 
Yeah that graph is exactly what I would have expected.

Umm also that link I provided up there is only displaying the first post from that 3rd page and is not indicative of what I was hoping someone could look at however it will require someone to be a member of xenforo.
 
Maz - props for more legwork to show relevant efforts. Unfortunately, that link to the Xenforo efforts are from 2012. I followed it to this

Global Topics 1.0

But even that was not supported after v1.3 (we are currently running 2.x), and others are also requesting continued support but nobody is stepping up. @CFC, it looks like some template coding we could try out and play with on testlight, but I'm not thinking it works anymore. I'll keep checking the XF community (cheers, Maz!)
 
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MazDan said:
Yeah that graph is exactly what I would have expected.

Umm also that link I provided up there is only displaying the first post from that 3rd page and is not indicative of what I was hoping someone could look at however it will require someone to be a member of xenforo.
Click to expand...

I think it jumps to the most recent reply (something specific to each member, and when they last 'read' the thread). I'm not sure if we can code the url to go to the OP (or a specific post) every time, but we can check into that.
 
Next closest, which works with XF, is this

[TFP] Global Stickies 1.0.1

However, it functions by having a specific home forum for those sticky threads then shares it out to other forums....meaning any threads you want to have showing this way have to be stuck in a dedicated forum for them as opposed to out in discussion of the various forums. Still, we can give it a whirl.
 
TheLoveBandit said:
I think it jumps to the most recent reply (something specific to each member, and when they last 'read' the thread). I'm not sure if we can code the url to go to the OP (or a specific post) every time, but we can check into that.
Click to expand...

no no its OK mate, you must have got where I wanted you to get cos you mentioned the 2012 thing which I thought may or may not be a problem, my logical head says unless the actual code or syntax is no longer recognised then should still work but lol I live in a logical world of my design.

Umm I really liked the sound of the template coding on testlight but I also didnt want to cause headaches.

TBH I dont see it as that vital for F@H but I do see a massive advantage from the concept of getting any BL message across and making it simple to engage the vast majority, many whom very likely rarely leave the subby they feel most comfortable in as Im sure you know.

Anyways I dont want to cause grief so I will leave yous to it.

Keep smiling.
 
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