The Flat Earth Society

The Flat Earth Society => Suggestions & Concerns => Topic started by: timterroo on June 29, 2020, 11:51:06 PM

Title: Profile post ordering
Post by: timterroo on June 29, 2020, 11:51:06 PM
This is really a non-issue, tbh, but since I was bored and just looking at my previous posts, I noticed that post #1 is my most recent post. This seems odd because I would think post #1 would be my first post. Is this something that can be changed? And easily? Like I said, seriously no big deal, and I'm not trying to make more work for anyone - I just think it is odd that it counts it this way.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: xasop on June 30, 2020, 01:32:06 AM
In theory, changing this for everyone should be a matter of changing DESC to ASC somewhere in the code. Making it configurable per user might be a little more work or a lot more work, you never know with SMF.

If you're up to the challenge of trying this yourself, our code is on GitHub (https://github.com/TheFlatEarthSociety/forum.tfes.org). No obligation, of course, just if you want to.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: timterroo on June 30, 2020, 01:33:13 AM
In theory, changing this for everyone should be a matter of changing DESC to ASC somewhere in the code. Making it configurable per user might be a little more work or a lot more work, you never know with SMF.

If you're up to the challenge of trying this yourself, our code is on GitHub (https://github.com/TheFlatEarthSociety/forum.tfes.org). No obligation, of course, just if you want to.

Huh, cool. Never know, I could get bored enough some time. :)

Thanks!
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: Pete Svarrior on June 30, 2020, 11:18:54 AM
Your post can be interpreted in two ways, or at least it's not immediately clear to me.

Are you saying that, when viewing someone's posts, you'd like to see their oldest posts on page 1? Or are you saying that you'd still like to see most recent posts on the first page, but you'd like to see them numbered differently?
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: Clyde Frog on June 30, 2020, 01:35:47 PM
The way I read it, it sounds like when one is looking at anyone's post history, that person's most recent post should match what their current post count is (let's say that person has 1000 posts... the post numbered 1000 in that case would be the 1000th post that this hypothetical person had made). Similarly, that person's first-ever post on the forum should show up as post number 1 in their post count.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: Pete Svarrior on June 30, 2020, 02:53:46 PM
That is what it sounds like to me, too, but Parsifal seems to have interpreted it the other way, and I can completely see why he would.

In either case this is easy to implement and could be provided as a user-facing option. Though I'm not sure how beneficial this would be - those numbers don't mean anything anyway. The number of posts that can be shown depends on your level of access (we can see deleted posts, you can't, and guest can't see most of your posts because they're in CN/AR) and will pretty much never match the supposed post count listed in your profile (those are super inaccurate, and they're not actually tied to the number of posts you've made).

Basically, the post count is a variable that goes up when you post and down when you remove a post. Except not always, because SMF. The value is never cross-checked against how many posts you've actually made, unless this is triggered manually by the admin. Parsifal can also set my post count to -69, and it'll just carry on incrementing/decrementing from there.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: xasop on June 30, 2020, 03:12:31 PM
As a third option, maybe we could just get rid of those numbers? I don't think I've ever even noticed that they're there, and they're not even guaranteed to stay the same during one viewing of a user's posting history—for example, the user might make a post just before you click through to the next page.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: timterroo on June 30, 2020, 03:21:47 PM
Well, suppose it is possible to set permission levels so that each user can see all of their own posts (even deleted ones), so that the numbers would have unambiguous meaning? Then the only thing that would throw it off is like parsifal said, if you post while someone is looking at your post history - but this seems like a moot point because I'm talking about looking at my own posts, not someone else looking at my posts.

Sometimes I like to look at my old posts and seeing my most recent post as post #1 is misleading. Getting rid of the numbers is not a terrible idea.... I can pretty accurately surmise which posts were my first and last without numbers. :)

As I said in my OP, very very VERY not a big deal.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: Clyde Frog on June 30, 2020, 03:24:51 PM
Basically, the post count is a variable that goes up when you post and down when you remove a post. Except not always, because SMF. The value is never cross-checked against how many posts you've actually made, unless this is triggered manually by the admin. Parsifal can also set my post count to -69, and it'll just carry on incrementing/decrementing from there.
Oh yes, I'm well aware, I was just simplifying to communicate the concept. And in concept, I like the OP's idea, just because personally it seems intuitive that a smaller number would relate to an older post. That is, of course, unless the numbers are just gotten rid of altogether as Parsifal mentioned.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: Pete Svarrior on June 30, 2020, 03:35:10 PM
Getting rid of the numbers might be the best solution. Alternatively, we can generate a random integer for each post. Or select a random emoji.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: timterroo on June 30, 2020, 03:45:23 PM
Getting rid of the numbers might be the best solution. Alternatively, we can generate a random integer for each post. Or select a random emoji.

Selecting a random emoji would be fun. Would it also show you the bbcode for it?!

Edit:

@Pete, didn't mean to ignore your question. Clyde has it right:

The way I read it, it sounds like when one is looking at anyone's post history, that person's most recent post should match what their current post count is (let's say that person has 1000 posts... the post numbered 1000 in that case would be the 1000th post that this hypothetical person had made). Similarly, that person's first-ever post on the forum should show up as post number 1 in their post count.
Title: Re: Profile post ordering
Post by: juner on June 30, 2020, 03:49:46 PM
I vote for getting rid of numbers.