List of All Recent Posts, regardless of community/forum?

[PaigeMiller]

In the old board, it was possible to view a list of all recent posts, regardless of what forum or community (if that is the proper use of the term, I don't really know) the post was in, by the date of the last post in that thread. So, for example, the most recent activity was in the forum about SAS Data Steps, and then the next most recent activity was in the forum about Statistical Techniques and then the next most recent activity was in the forum about Graphics, I could still see them all in one single list.

I am not finding any similar list in the new forum. In fact, it's not even obvious to me how to determine what forums or communities exist, or how I can easily naviagate from one forum or community to another. Related to this, there is indeed a box on most screens, with orange text that says "Find A Community", but when I place my mouse somewhere in this box (using Firefox), it appears that this box is not functional and not hyperlinked to anything.

[PaigeMiller · Accepted solution]

I accidentally discovered the list I was looking for at

https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/thread

However, it is not sorted by the most recent activity, it seems to be sorted by (I'm guessing) thread creation date, which still isn't really what I want to see, I want it sorted by most recent activit.

[LainieH]

@PaigeMiller, you're one step ahead of me that is great.

So the URL you have will show all topics 

This URL shows all activity - even at the 'reply' level.

Which one do you like best? https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/message or 

/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/thread

[Rick_SAS]

From the Home Page scroll down and you will see a list titled "Latest Topics."  That shows the most recent 5-6.  If you click the "View All" link, you can see all the recent activity.

In IE and Chrome, when I click on the "horizontal line icon" in the "Find a community" box, it expands to a drop-down tree view of the communities.

[PaigeMiller]

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@Rick_SAS wrote:

In IE and Chrome, when I click on the "horizontal line icon" in the "Find a community" box, it expands to a drop-down tree view of the communities.

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It wasn't working in Firefox about an hour ago, clicking did nothing. Now, it works!

[Rick_SAS]

Great to hear that it is working. I have experienced several glitches as well, perhaps because the administrators are busy tweaking the system. For example, I've been logged out on more than one occasion and had to clear my cache to log back in.

[LainieH]

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@Rick_SAS wrote:
Great to hear that it is working. I have experienced several glitches as well, perhaps because the administrators are busy tweaking the system. For example, I've been logged out on more than one occasion and had to clear my cache to log back in.

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Rick, that is correct - we are working on this as we speak: several glitches and the logout issue. I will follow up as soon as this is fixed.

[LainieH]

@PaigeMiller, thank you very much. I share your concern.  When I was responding to users, I found myself needing that recent activity list.  What you suggest is possible in a variety of ways.  

In the short term, you can use this hidden URL within the system:https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/message .. Note: the icon of the comment bubble: if it is darkened in it shows that new content was added. Is this something you would find helpful?

The Communities Team is evaluating all feedback and will be addressing these concerns soon Thank you!  Your feedback makes a difference - 

Lainie

[PaigeMiller]

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@LainieH wrote:

In the short term, you can use this hidden URL within the system:https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/message .. Note: the icon of the comment bubble: if it is darkened in it shows that new content was added. Is this something you would find helpful?

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I participate in a number of forums on many different software manufacturers web sites. The thing that is most helpful to me, and which I had in the old SAS forums, and which I have on many other manufacturers web sites, is the ability to sort by the most recently updated threads.

So, to answer your question directly, no it is not helpful to me. I might have to scroll through several pages to find the posts with recent activity (and never be sure I have seen all of the posts with recent activity), and I don't want to do that, I want to see the most recent activity on page one — and only have to scroll if there are more recent activity than can fit on one page — and know when I have seen all of the posts with recent activity.

[Quentin]

I agree @PaigeMiller  the threaded discussion list has the most promise for how I like to browse.

https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/thread

But I definitely want it to be sorted by latest post each thread, rather than thread creation date.  

Actually, what I would really want is the ability to sort by either thread creation date or most recent post, or any other field. Maybe even quick drop-down to filter by community. I would probably use something like that as my main landing page.

[BrunoMueller]

In case you have an RSS reader application like Sage for Firefox, then all the various forums have an RSS entry that will show you the last topics. the scrrenshot below shows what it looks like to discover the feeds.

If you go to home you get the RSS feeds for all the forums.

Once a feed is added you can then look at it from within Firefox

The Sage Addon for Firefox is described here: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/sage/

[PaigeMiller]

This is what I see in the Adobe Forums. It would be nice to have this in the SAS Forums.

[LainieH]

@Quentin, @BrunoMueller , thank you for the additional details that you provided along with what @PaigeMiller articulated.  These details are perfect and just what we need to understand!

We are still tweaking the foundational elements (bear with us a few more days) but wanted to get the new site out so we can collect input for the long-term. Over time, we can evolve the community--with your help--to suit SAS User needs. 

The good news is that this platform gives us greater flexbility to respond and change.

Thank you for your patience as well as your honesty!

@ChrisHemedinger, @ShelleySessoms, @BeverlyBrown, @AnnaBrown and I are listening to you all. 

Sincerely, 

@LainieH

[LainieH]

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@PaigeMiller excellent -- thank you for articulating what you want to see. And for being candid. It means a lot.

This community platform software is very flexible and the community team actually has a meeting tomorrow to discuss the feedback and plans for next steps.

I need that recent activity feed that you speak of, too -- I didn't realize I needed it until we lanched the site and I started interacting with folks.  So I will be bringing this to the table tomorrow.

. 

[PaulHomes]

As Bruno suggested earlier in this thread, RSS provides one possible solution to reviewing all activity regardless of forum. I have been testing some of the communities RSS URLs over the past couple of days and, so far, it seems that the following RSS URL provides all activity across all forums including replies and ideas etc.

https://communities.sas.com/kntur85557/rss/Community?feeds.replies=true&count=30

Thanks to Lainie, in one of my previous questions, the count parameter allows some control on the number of items fetched each time.

BTW I use NewsBlur as my RSS reader - I like it because it show lots of information in a single view (no excessive use of white space) and it allows me to access it, and maintain the state of what I have and haven't read, across which ever device I have to hand - desktop browser(s), iPad and iPhone etc.