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Get rid of (Times Read) in Title Bar

Started by Garrett, March 29, 2012, 10:49:18 PM

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Garrett

One pet peeve of mine on SMF 2.0 is the (Times Read) in the title bar above the first post in a topic. It's quite annoying to me. In 3.0, I'd like for it to be removed and placed in a place they could have the stats for that topic.
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Antechinus

To fix it in 2.0.x:

Display.template.php:

Find:

// Show the topic information - icon, subject, etc.
echo '
<div id="forumposts">
<div class="cat_bar">
<h3 class="catbg">
<img src="', $settings['images_url'], '/topic/', $context['class'], '.png" align="bottom" alt="" />
<span id="author">', $txt['author'], '</span>
', $txt['topic'], ': ', $context['subject'], ' &nbsp;(', $txt['read'], ' ', $context['num_views'], ' ', $txt['times'], ')


Replace:

// Show the topic information - icon, subject, etc.
echo '
<div id="forumposts">
<div class="cat_bar">
<h3 class="catbg">
<img src="', $settings['images_url'], '/topic/', $context['class'], '.png" align="bottom" alt="" />
<span id="author">', $txt['author'], '</span>
', $txt['topic'], ': ', $context['subject'], '

Kindred

what's wrong with it?   I think it's a nice stat to have clearly displayed (as it is).  You want folks to have to make another click (and leave the message) in order to see it?   That's a silly idea, since the whole idea of a forum is to get people to read and respond to the actual messages, not the stats.
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Antechinus

IMHO (opinion warning here) it's like a lot of other stuff that SMF has inherited in the gui: useless clutter that distracts from the user experience.

Kindred

hmmm....   I agree that there is a lot of clutter... 

and maybe the read count should not be actually part of the title itself (bad for seo)
however, I think that this bit is definitely NOT useless clutter nor does it distract...   because it is an important part of the user experience to knw how popular (for viewing, at least) a topic is.

(actually, if we're going to mod it, I'd like to see this parse UNIQUE views only)
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Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

emanuele

I find the number of views the less useful information you can have while reading a topic...
Well...it all depends on "how" you actually reach the topic: if you come from MessageIndex, UnreadReplies or Unread then you already know that information. The only way it *could* be "interesting" is if you arrive to the topic from a search engine.

If you are thinking about SEO...the number of views is probably the less important factor:
<img src="http://media.simplemachinesweb.com/smf/default/images/topic/normal_post.gif" alt="" align="bottom">
<span id="author">Author</span>
Topic: Get rid of (Times Read) in Title Bar &nbsp;(Read 79 times)

this is what is inside the h3 tag (75% of this (an image, the word "author", the word "topic" the number of times the topic has been read) has nothing to do with the topic itself).

So, if you want some stats about the topic it would be better to have them in a separated box (maybe at the same level of "« previous next »") I think, but that's more Ant's field. :P


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Kindred

oh, I agree that it does not belong as part of the h3 tag....   but it IS useful information. :)
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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Antechinus

Ha. Piffle n bollocks. No way am I making an extra box for that stuff. :P

It is not useful information. See, I can make assertions too. I don't care how many times a topic has been viewed. If it looks interesting, I'll read it.

NanoSector

It's only useful 1/100 time you view a topic, so why stuff it in the title? Why not create a nice collapsible box called "Topic info" and store the information in there?
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Antechinus

Because it's a waste of markup and css and js, and is just something else to clutter the gui?

The number of views is already shown on the message index, and on the unread and replies templates. How many times do you want to show the same number all over the forum? What benefit is there in it?

NanoSector

Quote from: Antechinus on March 30, 2012, 09:43:18 AM
Because it's a waste of markup and css and js, and is just something else to clutter the gui?
Yeah, you got a point, there :P

Quote
The number of views is already shown on the message index, and on the unread and replies templates. How many times do you want to show the same number all over the forum? What benefit is there in it?
None, once is enough.
My Mods / Mod Builder - A tool to easily create mods / Blog
"I've heard from a reliable source that the Answer is 42. But, still no word on what the question is."

Kindred

lol... of course you can make assertions, Ant, you're an ass, after all. :P

anyway...

as I said, I find it useful. I know that my users find it useful -- many of them don't come into the post from the message list more than 50% of the time (especially with a FB or G+ link mod installed) so, having that info there is good since it's not seen in the other locations. :P

I've already agreed that it doesn't belong in the title... but it IS useful. :)
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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

emanuele

Maybe:
Simple Machines Community Forum » SMF Development » Feature Requests » Topic: Get rid of (Times Read) in Title Bar - (Read 183 times)

ETA: I'd remove also "author".


Take a peek at what I'm doing! ;D




Hai bisogno di supporto in Italiano?

Aiutateci ad aiutarvi: spiegate bene il vostro problema: no, "non funziona" non è una spiegazione!!
1) Cosa fai,
2) cosa ti aspetti,
3) cosa ottieni.

Kindred

oh yes...   What the heck is the author column heading doing in the H3 thread title section?
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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

emanuele

Well, h3 is used in several places with a lot of things in there...

* emanuele suggests to take a look at boardindex... :P


Take a peek at what I'm doing! ;D




Hai bisogno di supporto in Italiano?

Aiutateci ad aiutarvi: spiegate bene il vostro problema: no, "non funziona" non è una spiegazione!!
1) Cosa fai,
2) cosa ti aspetti,
3) cosa ottieni.

Chalky

Perfect - I have now removed it, thank you :)  It was a pain in the butt.  Out of interest, does nobody else read the message as an imperative?  It takes a hell of a long time to catch up on the forum when you have to read the same topic 31 times  :P

Antechinus

Quote from: Kindred on March 30, 2012, 09:55:59 AM
lol... of course you can make assertions, Ant, you're an ass, after all. :P

anyway...

as I said, I find it useful. I know that my users find it useful -- many of them don't come into the post from the message list more than 50% of the time (especially with a FB or G+ link mod installed) so, having that info there is good since it's not seen in the other locations. :P

I've already agreed that it doesn't belong in the title... but it IS useful. :)

Ok, please explain why it is useful. I'm genuinely curious here, because I've never seen it as being at all important on the thread pages. Whether or not a topic is worth reading has never seemed to me to be at all related to how many times somebody or something may have hooked up to that url in the past.


Quote from: Sabrinova on March 30, 2012, 02:33:57 PM
Perfect - I have now removed it, thank you :)  It was a pain in the butt.  Out of interest, does nobody else read the message as an imperative?  It takes a hell of a long time to catch up on the forum when you have to read the same topic 31 times  :P

In Soviet Russia, forum uses you. :)

Arantor

Were it entirely up to me, I'd remove the 'Times Read' thing *entirely*. I wouldn't track it at all, I'd declutter the UI and more importantly I'd also save the queries that update the table in question.

There are people who think it is important to have such information available and will resent not having it available. But I'm certainly inclined to agree it shouldn't be in the topic itself.

godboko

Quote from: Arantor Beeblebrox the First on November 25, 2013, 02:57:06 PM
Were it entirely up to me, I'd remove the 'Times Read' thing *entirely*. I wouldn't track it at all, I'd declutter the UI and more importantly I'd also save the queries that update the table in question.

+1
Thank you,
Robert aka godboko

Arantor

I'm still thinking about making this an option, actually, but even if I do make it an option I'm seriously tempted to move it out of the title area.

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