I had a suggestion for the forum that I thought I'd post to see if anyone likes it:

On the forum overview page, you could have a link to your own profile page. Basically, since your name is already stored in a cookie, you can check if there is a name in the cookie. If there is, display a link to the profile page at the top of the forum overview.

This would make it easier than needing to find somewhere you have posted already so you can get to your profile page. I realize I could simply bookmark the profile page, but I think this would be useful. (I've got enough bookmarks already, and want to avoid having two separate Blogoscoped bookmarks...I also think it makes sense in terms of functionality anyways)

Interesting idea! I'll think about it. How does everyone else like it?

I never use my profile page to get to threads that I have posted in, but it sound like a nice way of going about things. I will try doing it.

The profile link wouldn't really clutter things up, since it is only one link. Nice idea!

> I never use my profile page to get to threads that I have posted in...

Me neither, but that's mainly because I usually want to keep up-to-date on all threads anyway. And it takes quite a long time to load!

Philipp – how easy would it be to "page-ify" that page? Or at least just show the last 50 posts with another link to view all posts?

Also, for it to be any real use I think it should include the subject of the thread too.

Could it be easy to implement to refresh the forum page automatically when there is a new entry ? DiggSpy-like.

If not just an old automatic page refresh/reload would be enough ,-)

For simplicities sake, an F5 does fine now too ;-)

I don't use the profile pages a lot too because the information is not very usefull to me. The Google result that is shown has nothing to do with me. Maybe it should be possible to change that, but then we're loosing the famous simplicity.

What I do use a lot, is the top forum users listing to see which users are active. Maybe a timestamp can be added, something like last post 14 days ago.

But anyway, please keep on focusing on the great content. That is much more important than some nice, little extra features...

Philipp, you're doing a great job!

Yes, Art-One is dead-on...don't consider these suggestions as anything but suggestions...I love the forum right now!! One of the best I've used. Simple, elegant, and unique. In case you haven't heard it enough :)

i have a suggestion. How about you append "?mesnum=$number_of_messages" on the main forum page to all the urls. That way, when a thread has updates since the last time I read it, the URL won't show up as visited.

Interesting idea. Probably the side-effects this would have would be too high, e.g. Google would index multiple pages, and it might also be confusing to newcomers unless you know exactly what's happening.

You'd also be increasing your bandwith usage as people would be reloading common elements as opposed to using their cached versions.

Philipp, after someone submits en entry in the forum, the page appears where there is that link ' Back to overview...'. You have to click on that link anyway...

Why not implement it in a way that it takes you directly to your entries number (#) ?

... or to the forum page.

I occassionally use the profile page to reference recent topics that I want to follow up on that might have been buried. As for the "Back to Overview" link, I never click on it anyway because I open all the stories in seperate tabs and close them when I'm done.

It's working differently now, check it out.

I always use my profile page. I think that's a great idea!

Yeah it's great now, I wonder is people will like to have the entry they submitted or the forum page, can we have a quick poll here?

OMG, I just had this idea when I said "poll", would it be interessting if there was another page beside the forum one; where anybody can create a poll, and have anyone vote for it ??

I don't know... It would have to filter explicit stuff, and some people might post polls that don't ask anything.

>> some people might post polls that don't ask anything.

Yes I agree, but those would get buried and only the active polls will be on the top list. Likewise for the forum, the boring threads get buried...

ok in the forum view it always says "by XX" for who started the topic .. can't it also tell when it was started.. when i see smth like "Gmail down" i wnat to know if this was one month ago or just yesterday .. besides, there is enough space :D

I have a poll feature for blog posts. Maybe for starters I can use it more often and as usual work on suggestions from all of you.

Thanks for changing the link after you post. I noticed this today before I saw this thread. I like how you are constantly improving this blog Philipp :)

<< It's working differently now, check it out.

I don't like this change. You should redirect users to the Forum homepage. It's not useful to see the same page where you've just posted something.

I don't like the change either. You should redirect to the blog homepage, or the forum homepage.

Yeah that's what I am saying, I prefer a redirect to the forum.

No one thinks it's interessting to have a poll page too ??

Opinions are better than votes.

True.

<< It's working differently now, check it out. >>

I prefer this. I would often do this manually anyway to check what I wrote in case I made any mistakes. (Of course I proofread my posts first, but some things inevitably slip through the net!)

And for all those of you who want to go back to the "overview" page, you can always click the "Forum" link in the menu...

<< And for all those of you who want to go back to the "overview" page, you can always click the "Forum" link in the menu... >>

But, most of the time, it brings you down to your post, which for me, is usually past the Forum or Home links, so you have to scroll up.