'Portal' for simple viewing of all new topics

[Dave Baker]

I have added a new, optional way to see what's new on the message boards.

You might prefer it because it's simple and straightforward.

It's the new "Portal" tab next to the "Activity" tab and the "Browse" tab (at the top of every page). Just click the Portal tab.

The Portal tab generates a list of all topics recently added to all message boards, with a snippet of the first five lines of the message that started each topic.

The list includes links to the full version of each topic if you'd like to read the rest of the initial message and any reply messages. (Of course, the full version of each topic includes a box at the bottom where you can post your own reply message.)

Hope the Portal view is useful to you!

[Kevin C]

Thank you, Dave.  It is very useful.

[Dave Baker]

You might want to have the Portal be the view you see when you access the message boards, rather than the Activity tab, which is the default.

One way to do so would be to bookmark this page using your browser:

   https://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?/portal/

For now, I think it's probably best to leave the default as the Activity tab, but I'm considering whether the Portal tab might be a better default, because it's a gentler introduction to the message boards for a novice. Would appreciate any comments that anyone might have.

[Kevin C]

Dave, is there a way to get the Portal view to sort by the date & time of the last post in each thread instead of by when the thread was started?

 

[Bird]

BG5150 gave me this tip and I think it is what you want...the oldest of the new posts since I last visited are at the bottom and newest are at the top.

Quote

 

Bird, go to "My Activity Streams," choose to make a new one.  Call it Bird's Stream or whatever you want.

Choose "Show me Content Items Only"  and "Content I haven't read" and I'll leave it up to you whether it takes you to the beginning of the thread or to the first unread post.  And I'll leave it up to you haw the rest of your preferences are chosen.

Save the stream.  It will automatically shift to it.

Then on the top of the messages, you'll see your stream name and 3 icons next to it.  Click the third one and your newly-created stream will be the default. 

That should be it.

You can create several streams to see which set of parameters work best for you.  You cannot edit a stream from what I can see, so you have to create alternates.  IF you don't like one, activate it and click the second icon which will delete it.

In all, to get the first one done, it'll take maybe a minute.

I think the messages view will stay the same until the topic is marked 'read.'  What I do from time to time is go to the Forums list page and click the dark blue circles next to the rooms I'm not interested in at the moment.  That will mark the entire forum read and clear out the unread message list.  You'll now only see new messages going forward.

I hope that helps.

 

 

[Dave Baker]

Thanks for the question, Kevin, and thanks, Bird, for recommending a solution!

Last night I added a new "stream" for use by all users, which works the way you've described. It appears when you click the Activity tab (under the "BenefitsLink Message Boards" heading -- it's between the Portal tab and the Forums tab).

Or you could bookmark it:

https://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?/discover/unread/

(though it works only if you're already signed in).

Its name is "Topics & Contents: Unread (Abbrev.)"

The reason for the complicated-but-accurate name is because it is one of a series of new names I created last night, for the various items on the Activity tab's drop-down menu.

For details about the new names, please see this new topic: