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Watch list

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Sceadwian

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I had an idea a few minutes ago about a feature I think would be very nice to implement; a simple watch list, a list of users that you could add sort of like the subscription service for posts they've made so that you would know when users on your list make a post anywhere on the forum and link to that thread so you can see. There are certain people here that have extremely high quality posts that I'd like to keep better track of, but many times between the Subscribed posts feature and the Unasnwered post feature I run out of time and can't scan every new post but I would love to scan any new posts from specific users without a complex process in the advanced search to go through.

The forum search has a user filter option, but I've only ever had luck finding started threads not posts they've made recently. Again though the Unanswered post button which I personally adore was available if you knew the right search options, I think it would be greatly beneficial to everyone to be able to watch for new posts from specific users in every forum regardless of weather they started with a single click would be incredibly useful.

Come to think of it it would probably be a good feature for moderator use as well to watch users that have a history of problems for possible recurrence, it would allow them to contact the individual privately to address issues before they progress rather than wait till a thread has degenerated into a flame war and lock or remove the thread (at which point moderation has failed) Sometimes all a trouble poster needs is a gentle nudge in the right direction to prevent problems. I have personally from my moderation experience on a BBS (yeah dialup) years ago know that hands off moderation is never a good idea. It's kind of like cops in troubled neighborhoods, declaring laws and arresting people doesn't do as much good as an officer that takes a personal hands on approach, and it also helps reaffirm a sense of community.

Between the 'short list' for moderator post filtering and the benefits of me being able to quickly and easily track posts from specific people I find it hard to think of any reason not to implement it. I'm not a PHP coder but I doubt it would be difficult to code something like this within a moderate amount of time, and the benefits I think are worth the time.

Food for thought at least.. I know moderators are hard pressed for time, but think about some numbers I'm just plucking out of the air. Pretend the short list has 12 users on it, I personally from my stats average about 6-7 post a day, and I'm definitely a heavy poster.

That's 84 possible posts (Average) a day that need to be glanced over. Perhaps simply assign watch lists to four separate moderators and and the number of posts that have to be viewed in a given day drop to 20. I read more than that myself! If you take a look at every post ever locked here in the the last two years, your short list will manifest itself with the top 2-3 posters in a locked thread, and I'm pretty sure it will be less than 12 users, even if I'm on it =)


Just an idea.
 
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