To help us control our DU experiences...

[Boojatta]

I started trying to hide the threads - because almost every new thread on GD was another 'Edwards House' thread - those were multiplying like rabbits. But hiding a thread can take a little time - and when I was on thread 54 of hiding (after only a couple of hours - frickin 54 distinct 'house' threads) I gave up. I don't know the solution - but when the # of threads on a single topic get to the point of pushing almost all other threads off the GD front pages - it is a problem.

Source:
A problem

(...) a software feature we need, a complex indexing system, where
threads are indexed by subject, like the dewey decimal system applied to GD, a sort of subject code (...)

Then maybe a post would gain a subject code rating by other posters who bother to fill out the rating screen available like the 'recommend', a voluntary feature to inform us further about the post.

(...)

Every time your screen is painted, an sql statement is executed like 'select <data> from DU-database' The query can be modified to select based on inclusive or exclusive criteria that would allow people to program GD as either an SQL view or a modified query.

Source:
A solution

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I really don't have a problem clicking the little grey "x".

:hi:

[Boojatta]

2. This is not just about ignoring threads.

Suppose you want to search and find all threads about a given topic. That could take a long time if there are various different combinations of different words that could have been used by people discussing that topic.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. I guess I never had a real problem with just stumbling across them

and either reading or ignoring them. It's part of the experience for me.

[Boojatta]

4. Have you ever read a thread you found interesting but not

made any kind of link to it or note about it and later been unable to find it?

[Lex]

5. I use the search function we have now with very good success

but maybe I'm not understanding the problem.

[Boojatta]

9. Have you ever read a paragraph and some time later remembered

the idea but been unable to remember any distinctive, exact words that were used in the paragraph?

Imagine paying for the Chinese translation of some popular novel that was originally written in English to be translated into some obscure language and then paying for that obscure language version to be translated back into English. If you then edited the result without looking at the original book and systematically changed all names of people, places, etc., you would have a book written in English. However, it could be very difficult to find things in the original book if you couldn't browse through it, but had to use a search engine and had to specify the exact words to be searched for. Even if you could browse through your new English version of it, you would have difficulty guessing exactly which words to use to search through the original.

(If you tried to sell the book, you would be violating copyright law.)

[salin]

10. I am the tech-challenged DUer quoted in that post.

I didn't know about the x thingy. I was madly opening up newly spawned threads so I could hide them from the OP. Now I know about the x thingy and while I feel silly for having missed that before - I am happy to have found it.

[frogcycle]

12. yeah, i hadn't noticed the x-thingy

until the big house flap
now i just open up the discussion index and x out everything that looks like crap. every once in a whil i peek to make sure, say "yep, its crap" and poof it away.

fact is, still if you go away for a day or so, there are pages and pages of threads you wont see unless someone responds and kicks them to the top. so some threads just get started and then fade away. but by x-ing out the crap, you manage to get a filtered list on your first page, so you might be seeing maybe the top 2-3 pages worth of active threads on the one page.
Then if you want to follow one, bookmark it. if it sinks away while you're gone, use the bookmark to pull it up. The discussion board bookmarks only stay seven days, but you can add a bookmark (or "favorite") to your browser and keep it forever.

[salin]

13. This is the reason why I started doing it - I want to read

or at least browse more threads than the current 'topic spawning multitudes of threads'.

I just found that there is a front page of DU bookmarks - the week long bookmarks, but there is also a sort of 'personal archive' of your bookmarks that goes much further back. I stumbled across that a few weeks ago.

[Rosemary2205]

6. That's what the new block feature was for.

Since DU went stark raving lunatic over that then I don't blame the mods for telling people to kiss off if they don't like the contents of a thread.

[Lex]

7. No, that was to block individual DU'ers from a thread you started.

With the block feature, you could decide that certain DU'ers couldn't post in a thread started by you.

[Boojatta]

8. "...if they don't like the contents of a thread."

This thread, which puts forward an idea that I did not think of, is about describing the content of a thread, not evaluating the quality of a thread.

[Midlodemocrat]

11. I have, in the past, asked folks who I remembered partaking

in a particular conversation to send me the link if I didn't bookmark it.

DUers are particularly generous that way. Even if you post a "Help, I can't find xxx thread, does anyone remember this?" You're bound to get help that way..