Filters for forum indexes

[sudo]

I think it would be nice if you could filter by unread, no replies, hot topic, following topics, as an option next to the sort menu when browsing forum indexes.

It would save having to make up specific AS to cover different areas with unread as a filter option there.

[Matt]

I think you've found the solution, use the activity streams to do this. It would effectively duplicate the functionality.

[Simon Woods]

I agree with Matt.

It seems like a lot of people are trying to use  Fluid View to replace Activity Streams, which makes no sense at all.

[Joel R]

Even though IPS may think Activity Streams would be a more appropriate solution, I can see why this feature is requested.  Fluid forums already allows basic filtering by forums, so it's a natural extension to request unread, no replies, hot topics, etc.  

I can see this being requested again in the future as more people adopt Fluid Forums and the live filtering.  

 

[sudo]

6 hours ago, Matt said:

I think you've found the solution, use the activity streams to do this. It would effectively duplicate the functionality.

Yeah AS are nice but they do involve a bit more work and they are not as obvious to the end user. A filter when browsing a forum would be simple and obviously more limited in options but it could have an info bar prodding the person to create an AS for more functionality if they use the basic filters.

I think of it like Outlook, it has search folders which are similar to AS in you define everything and save it and it shows this in a dynamic folder, its brilliant but 9/10 people will simply use the unread filter in their inbox and are unaware of the feature.

[Marcher Technologies]

10 hours ago, Matt said:

I think you've found the solution, use the activity streams to do this. It would effectively duplicate the functionality.

Please add a 'list' view to streams then? I find the fluid(or even topic listings in a forum) view much easier on the eyes than the 'stream' format in whole. I have primarily avoided AS because the format is not very useful in providing information at a glance. I find the expanded view jumbled and confusing, and the condensed view gives far too little information. Not saying it actually is these things for all users, just that it would really help in AS usage for many, while identifying a potential reason people are asking for this feature in fluid view to begin with.

[Aiwa]

4 hours ago, ZeroHour said:

 it could have an info bar prodding the person to create an AS for more functionality if they use the basic filters.

Or the addition of any filters here takes you TO an AS with the requested filters.  

AS is the far more powerful cousin to forum filters, I don't see a reason to facilitate a second method to do this, but I do see benefit in adding filters that create the custom AS's for you.  

[Simon Woods]

7 minutes ago, Aiwa said:

Or the addition of any filters here takes you TO an AS with the requested filters.  

AS is the far more powerful cousin to forum filters, I don't see a reason to facilitate a second method to do this, but I do see benefit in adding filters that create the custom AS's for you.  

I like this idea, maybe this combination could be achieved with a second block which is even clearly labelled for AS. You could provoke action with something like "Want to filter your view more? Choose the options below to create an Activity Stream."

[sudo]

23 minutes ago, Simon Woods said:

I like this idea, maybe this combination could be achieved with a second block which is even clearly labelled for AS. You could provoke action with something like "Want to filter your view more? Choose the options below to create an Activity Stream."

Yeah it would naturally lead users over to doing it in AS if they want and provide a shortcut of a quick filter when they dont.

I want people to use AS but it will need to be explained as people wont discover it naturally often I think.

 

Another user hook would be to add AS filtering options above the All Activity stream which too would push them to make use of the feature.