Make "News Watch" more useful

[vanedor]

Hello!

There is something that has been annoying me ever since the website moved and I wish it could be modified.

It's the "News watch" part, on the front page. It's not as useful as it used to since it contains all news, not just those being discussed. We already have all news in the top section of the front page. I think it would help a lot if the "News watch" would only include news that are actually discussed. That way, it would help keeping the discussions alive... and more discussion means more engagement.

Thanks!

 

[Redglyph]

It could be useful, indeed.

For what it's worth, I'm mostly only checking the recently updated threads with this link (that I bookmarked):

New posts

www.rpgwatch.com

I don't think it's possible to limit that search to the news thread only, so if you don't want to see all the other threads, that won't help you.

Or maybe the "more comments" link of the front page? But I suppose you've tried that already (AFAIK, it shows the most recently updated threads first).

 

[Couchpotato]

Well to be a smartass we have maybe 10 members that comment, and most news-bits don't even get a single comment. So your not missing anything. Good idea though.

On the other-hand we get 300+ guests a day and including bots though.

 

[vanedor]

Well to be a smartass we have maybe 10 members that comment, and most news-bits don't even get a single comment. So your not missing anything. Good idea though.

On the other-hand we get 300+ guests a day and including bots though.

Well, my suggestion might well hope improve that a little. Just by keeping news discussions more visible, instead of having them buried under the newest news that are already displayed in the "All News" section of the front page.

 

[vanedor]

It could be useful, indeed.

For what it's worth, I'm mostly only checking the recently updated threads with this link (that I bookmarked):

New posts

www.rpgwatch.com

I don't think it's possible to limit that search to the news thread only, so if you don't want to see all the other threads, that won't help you.

Or maybe the "more comments" link of the front page? But I suppose you've tried that already (AFAIK, it shows the most recently updated threads first).

Oh yes. There are certainly ways to do the same. But I think it's all about convenience. There is a "News watch" section on the front page that could be way more useful.

 

[Redglyph]

If I'm not wrong, it's only the matter of adding an extra condition in the SQL request to have at least one reply (it seems to be already sorted by the date of the last post). So it should be pretty straightforward.

5 items is not a lot, but I'm not really using it, and I don't know if others would like to see more of them.

 

[HiddenX]

I always use the

WHAT'S NEW​

tab on the front page.

I can see what is new, with replies or not, things I haven't read are blue.

If I've read all the interesting stuff, I go to forums/mark forums read.

...and repeat.

 

[HiddenX]

I encourage all readers to look into the not yet discussed newsbits as well.

 

[vanedor]

I encourage all readers to look into the not yet discussed newsbits as well.

I understand. But we do see them already at the top in the "all news" section. It's also interesting to follow the newsbit that do get discussed, even if they are several days old.

As it is, the "News Watch" section is more or less useful and those newsbits that are very discussed often stop to be discussed, not because the discussion has ended, but because people have to "work" to find them again.

 

[vanedor]

Just an illustration to demonstrate my point :

 

[Redglyph]

I understand. But we do see them already at the top in the "all news" section. It's also interesting to follow the newsbit that do get discussed, even if they are several days old.

As it is, the "News Watch" section is more or less useful and those newsbits that are very discussed often stop to be discussed, not because the discussion has ended, but because people have to "work" to find them again.

That's why I don't rely on the front page for the discussions. With the link above, I'm not limited to the news, either, so it's two birds with one stone. As a bonus, I see the threads I've already visited and that don't have anything new.

Another example: in your screenshot, you can't see that 2 people already posted in 'Kingdom Come' because HiddenX posted last, and since he's the newsposter, it's easy to conclude there's no reply there yet (unless you cross-reference with 'All news' and are lucky).

 

[vanedor]

You know, it's not about what "you do", it's about making the site as convenient as possible for the greater number ;-)

 

[lackblogger]

You know, it's not about what "you do", it's about making the site as convenient as possible for the greater number ;-)

"I think the statue in the town square could do with a clean"

----------

- "I don't tend to look at the statue anyway"
- "There's a better statue 2 blocks down"
- "If you look at the statue from lower down and closer up it's not so bad"
- "Have you tried looking at it through meta glasses?"

----------

"So... about cleaning the statue..."

----------

Same old same old

 

[Redglyph]

it's about making the site as convenient as possible for the greater number ;-)

Well, exactly.

EDIT: Nevermind. I thought that, if it had to be modified, we may as well think a little about it and make the information clearer, but I suppose people can manage to deduce what's been updated by looking at the different lists.

 

[Shagnak]

I use the "News Watch" section a lot and would be really happy if it was expanded to, say, 10 items. Also, as suggested, if it was just ones that have been responded to, but even just increasing the number visible would be a step in the right direction.

Edit: same with Forum Watch (though in this case it should still show newly posted stuff, of course).

 

[num4!vr34umu5t4r!]

I dont use that section mostly because its just 5 items; seriously if we were in 2010 sure, but its 2025 soon, i think it could be made with some form of scroll and include many more than 5 items.

 

[Redglyph]

Wouldn't that make sense to display the items in the 'All News' section in bold or in a slightly different style when there's something unread? That'd give a direct overview on the recent news' activity.

And similarly for the 'News Watch' (plus the filter discussed earlier) and 'Forum Watch' panes.

For example:

​

I'm not sure which language was used for that, perhaps PHP, which could make it more complicated, but not too much. There's apparently already a function that links those items to the forums' threads, and there must be an API to determine whether something's new in each of those threads.

 

[vanedor]

Wouldn't that make sense to display the items in the 'All News' section in bold or in a slightly different style when there's something unread? That'd give a direct overview on the recent news' activity.

That would certainly be a nice change, too.

 

[Taluntain]

Hello!

There is something that has been annoying me ever since the website moved and I wish it could be modified.

It's the "News watch" part, on the front page. It's not as useful as it used to since it contains all news, not just those being discussed. We already have all news in the top section of the front page. I think it would help a lot if the "News watch" would only include news that are actually discussed. That way, it would help keeping the discussions alive... and more discussion means more engagement.

Thanks!

I'm a bit late to the party but it's funny, because right now all items in News Watch are also being discussed. Anyway, this is a simple fix, so I'll put it on the to-do.

 

[num4!vr34umu5t4r!]

Many thanks for the changes.