LONGECITY

I'm curious if it would be possible to get an Active Topics button that only lists the threads I'm interested in? It could be configured in my user control panel or something. Alternately I would just like having a link I could bookmark that would return the active topics minus the supplements and nootropics subforums.

Its funny you post about this because we were just chatting about this in the imminst broadcast channel. Lightowl set off to work on this but he has disappeared.

Maybe somebody else can pick up on the idea now though, because its a crucial function.

This has been discussed before several times, and I think it is an excellent idea. I am not sure what changes would need to be made to the forum software to allow this, but surely we could get it done.

Thanks for your suggestion lunarsolarpower

please consider:
http://www.imminst.o...showtopic=25619

However, I'm so darn tired of this stupid topic coming round the block that I have given it a try myself- I have set up an experiment which you can find under "portal" above. It indexes the last 30 topics from every forum except the Nutrition & Health section, theology and the free speech forum first in topic headings, then in full topics. Let me know is this what you freaks have in mind.

maybe i dont understand the original question properly, but you can subscribe to any thread topics of interest on the right side of the top the thread under "options"

options --> track this topic

or

options --> subscribe to this forum

then just go to My Controls and under Subscriptions you will see View Topics or View Forums

I use it to track 5-6 key topics on resveratrol, NAD/Sirt1, etc.

Thanks for your suggestion lunarsolarpower

please consider:
http://www.imminst.o...showtopic=25619

However, I'm so darn tired of this stupid topic coming round the block that I have given it a try myself- I have set up an experiment which you can find under "portal" above. It indexes the last 30 topics from every forum except the Nutrition & Health section, theology and the free speech forum first in topic headings, then in full topics. Let me know is this what you freaks have in mind.

Thanks for your efforts in catering to the "freaks" - well over 80% by this measure.

I tried that portal link out but it really doesn't do the trick. I really like the look and feel of the current active topics listing. The way to resolve this will be to create something under My Controls that lets the user specifically check or uncheck each forum and/or subforum they want to appear when they click the Active Topics button. It probably won't be the easiest thing to create but it shouldn't be the most difficult either. Then if one has their list of topics pared down to what they're really interested in, expanding the length of time viewed will be an excellent way to avoid missing anything of interest without getting overwhelmed.

I made a small mock-up of what I have in mind. Ideally this would have a line for each forum and subforum rather than just the 5 but it gives the idea.


Edited by lunarsolarpower, 21 March 2009 - 07:47 AM.

maybe i dont understand the original question properly, but you can subscribe to any thread topics of interest on the right side of the top the thread under "options"

That could certainly be handy in specific cases. The point of using the active topics button however is to be made aware of new/newly active threads that you aren't currently following. I use the Last 10 button quite frequently when I want to keep track of threads where I have ongoing conversations.

This is in response to the comments above and in particular to this post elsewhere

if some kind of solution is not implimented soon I'm going to stop coming here because the material is becoming increasingly irrelevant. There is so much irrelevant material finding the tiny amount of relevant material is becoming all but impossible, and therefore less is generated.

The supplements sections are killing imminst.

I agree that increased navigability would be an asset. I disagree that the "Active Topics" button is the solution.

-- this button only lists recent topics. What if you were only visiting ImmInst once a month?
-- what is revelant to you may be less relevant to the next person a single button will not solve that problem
-- the "selective" function DOES work reliably (but only in firefox) but few people are using it
-- when you write "the material is becoming increasingly irrelevant" - when was it more relevant? What forums used to contain relevant material?
-- IMO the supplements sections are the only thing that sets ImmInst apart from many other "bla bla bla" fora, they are a source of practical, scientific information and -without conflating the two- an important source of revenue.

The way towards improvement could be a "tags" system - where authors can tag a post with with a limited list of categories and members can subscribe to a tag.

In the absence of that, I have installed a second active topics button, that uses the traditional format and excludes the forums listed above. Please let me know if that is wanted.
Edited by caliban, 23 March 2009 - 08:15 PM.
typo

I work primarily in the projects sections. I can assure you there is not an over whelming amount of bla bla bla in there. I think the supplements section is killing imminst too. I think its relevant, but should not be so closely tied. An active topics for supps and an active topic for general and action and philosophy seems like the perfect idea, at least worth a shot. Active topics works for people that are here once a month because then they can get right in on the action by finding indefinite action topics in the action section. If they want to look up other topics they can do that too.

It would be better if people surfed the forums, right, but they dont. I think they will however once we get a regular 300 + active people here per day. I see your active topic 1 and 2 there, and your description here, are you saying that you know a way to put some forums in one active topic button, and other forums in another? Then please do, I see supplements are in both. Can you try one with only "immortality institute" "action" and "philosophy" in one and all the rest in the other?

This is in response to the comments above and in particular to this post elsewhere

if some kind of solution is not implimented soon I'm going to stop coming here because the material is becoming increasingly irrelevant. There is so much irrelevant material finding the tiny amount of relevant material is becoming all but impossible, and therefore less is generated.

The supplements sections are killing imminst.

I agree that increased navigability would be an asset. I disagree that the "Active Topics" button is the solution.

-- this button only lists recent topics. What if you were only visiting ImmInst once a month?
-- what is revelant to you may be less relevant to the next person a single button will not solve that problem
-- the "selective" function DOES work reliably (but only in firefox) but few people are using it
-- when you write "the material is becoming increasingly irrelevant" - when was it more relevant? What forums used to contain relevant material?
-- IMO the supplements sections are the only thing that sets ImmInst apart from many other "bla bla bla" fora, they are a source of practical, scientific information and -without conflating the two- an important source of revenue.

The way towards improvement could be a "tags" system - where authors can tag a post with with a limited list of categories and members can subscribe to a tag.

In the absence of that, I have installed a second active topics button, that uses the traditional format and excludes the forums listed above. Please let me know if that is wanted.

Edited by brokenportal, 23 March 2009 - 08:30 PM.

I think the supplements section is killing imminst too.

You guys seriously think "killing" is the correct word here. OK, back to M&M or such I guess.

You know supplements, vanity sections, etc. bring folks in. In their absence, please fill the void quickly with more relevant LE material.

As it stands, supps stuff and other off topic stuff is like 98 % of the active topics. Its killing it in the way over watering a plant might. Im looking for a more proportionate balance. We need life extensionists for indefinity to see topics on it. Many times of the day there are none.

You guys seriously think "killing" is the correct word here. OK, back to M&M or such I guess.

You know supplements, vanity sections, etc. bring folks in. In their absence, please fill the void quickly with more relevant LE material.

Perhaps *killing* is the wrong word choice but stifling or smothering all other areas of investigation would be more approriate.

Yes it is attracting people but many of htem have a very singular focus and that focus is somewhat, shall we say zealous.

It makes it very hard for more a more concrete effort in specific areas of biotech and other sectors of the hard science to reagin the foothold of discusison they once enjoyed here and what we mean is that they dominante the active topics to the point where many scientists that used to frequent our site and discussion no longer bother.

Supplements and their discussion have always been encouraged here but they have never been the sole, or even the primary focus of the institute. We do not want to diminish the attention they get but we do want to protect the interest of those other areas that we are also extrememly concerned about.

Filling the void is hard when the subjects are more involved and require a more in depth understanding of the material. The important posts get buried swiftly under pages of fast moving discusisons in politics and supplements which both are not the primary focus of the "science of life extension". Much of what goes back and forth in supps is related not only to how contentious many opinions are but also how it reflects the complexity of the still largely anecdotal and unproven aspects of supps.

People here are experimenting on themselves but they have proven very little from what transpires here, though they may have helped focus others with a similar interest to improve their efforts by sharing their experiences.

You guys aren't saying anything new. You don't like the content of 98% the posts here. Give us something else to discuss and/or ban everything you don't approve. I am seriously tired of the whining.

You guys aren't saying anything new. You don't like the content of 98% the posts here. Give us something else to discuss and/or ban everything you don't approve. I am seriously tired of the whining.

Frank you have 176 posts and I have over 8000 even after they lost 500 or so in the one of our software upgrades. We post on many topics and I doubt given your comment you have bothered to research the site in depth. I think I have given folks a lot to discuss and many do. Aside from complaining about our concerns; what exactly are all the great topics you have started that are so important? You are not even a dues paying member and you have not said anything significant by simply naysaying what others here who are members are concerned about.

We are not whining to protect the core mission we are charged by our charter to protect.

We are very glad to support users like you in maintaining your free access to information that benefits you but it is not the mission we are charged to ensure. We also do NOT have a problem with most of the posting that goes on either. The vast majority of it is very helpful and informative in general as are the contributors but the issue is one of focus and access and we are trying to make that MORE user friendly by this discussion, not LESS.

You guys aren't saying anything new. You don't like the content of 98% the posts here. Give us something else to discuss and/or ban everything you don't approve. I am seriously tired of the whining.

Frank you have 176 posts and I have over 8000 even after they lost 500 or so in the one of our software upgrades. We post on many topics and I doubt given your comment you have bothered to research the site in depth. I think I have given folks a lot to discuss and many do. Aside from complaining about our concerns; what exactly are all the great topics you have started that are so important? You are not even a dues paying member and you have not said anything significant by simply naysaying what others here who are members are concerned about.

We are not whining to protect the core mission we are charged by our charter to protect.

We are very glad to support users like you in maintaining your free access to information that benefits you but it is not the mission we are charged to ensure. We also do NOT have a problem with most of the posting that goes on either. The vast majority of it is very helpful and informative in general as are the contributors but the issue is one of focus and access and we are trying to make that MORE user friendly by this discussion, not LESS.

I have been from end to end my friend, and I post on what interests me and I feel interested in responding to. Doesn't mean I don't read other topics.

Again, I'm not the one complaining about what is posted, you are, so please post something interesting. Currently you aren't hitting on much. You seem to have a 'nose-in-the-air' stance about your posts. Good for you.

The problem is you guys want the best of both worlds... you want the traffic, but you don't want us every day folks. Hopefully having multiple "Active Topics" will work out for you. Sounds like it might if it gets implemented soon.

And just to be clear, its the snooty folks like yourself that always seem to creep up when I am about to consider joining. Well at least this forum has an ignore feature.
Edited by frankbuzin, 23 March 2009 - 10:13 PM.

I'm not the one complaining about what is posted, you are, so please post something interesting. Currently you aren't hitting on much. You seem to have a 'nose-in-the-air' stance about your posts. Good for you.

We post interesting things all the time. Lazarus as much as anyone here. We just can't find them because they are drowning in a sea of repetitive posts about the latest racetam.

The solution is not however to cut out those sections. It's to simply create a division so those of us who don't want to be inundated don't have too be. Why does this offend you? You'll still be free to read about the latest research about the supplement of the week posted by a viral marketer.
Edited by eternaltraveler, 23 March 2009 - 11:47 PM.

Why in the hell are there 2 "Active" buttons, now?

The solution to the forums being overly-complex is not adding another layer of complexity, Jesus.

Why in the hell are there 2 "Active" buttons, now?

The solution to the forums being overly-complex is not adding another layer of complexity, Jesus.

Ok, nevermind. It appears someone was just testing out buttons or something; It is back to normal now. Disregard my comment.

Well, the experiments have only been partially sucessful.

Please try the "selected" button and see if that works.

We post interesting things all the time. Lazarus as much as anyone here. We just can't find them because they are drowning in a sea of repetitive posts about the latest racetam.

The solution is not however to cut out those sections. It's to simply create a division so those of us who don't want to be inundated don't have too be.

If you wish to create divisions, that’s fine, but the very first Active Topics button should be a true Active Topics button that has every single forum in it including the supplements and Freedom Forum and politics forum. That after all is what an Active Topics button is for, to show what topics are the most active, not the most relevant.

Active topics works for people that are here once a month because then they can get right in on the action by finding indefinite action topics in the action section.

The Active topics works for a lot of us who are here daily as well.

We post interesting things all the time. Lazarus as much as anyone here. We just can't find them because they are drowning in a sea of repetitive posts about the latest racetam.

The solution is not however to cut out those sections. It's to simply create a division so those of us who don't want to be inundated don't have too be.

If you wish to create divisions, that’s fine, but the very first Active Topics button should be a true Active Topics button that has every single forum in it including the supplements and Freedom Forum and politics forum. That after all is what an Active Topics button is for, to show what topics are the most active, not the most relevant.

Good point. I move that we create a 'Relevant Topics' button. We all have our areas of interest, so the big question is how can we allow each user to customize their own list? If that's too difficult, we should settle on a couple Relevant Topic lists that please the most users while using the smallest number of buttons.

Please try the "selected" button and see if that works.

I posted a similar question in another (the other) topic on this. How about a function allowing users to 'bookmark' or 'subscribe to' a topic, and then have a special Active Topics list with only the topics the user has bookmarked or subscribed to? Many other forums have a similar function.

But please do keep this as a default or at least an option.

I. Suggestions about new technical features
Your suggestions are welcome, and will be considered by the technical development team (the "Engineers") however, please understand that not all new features may be technically feasible or easy to implement.

At today's meeting the Recorders noted that there was a contingent of membership who would like some other way of selective interaction with the forums than the ones currently available. (Making Forums invicisble with the [-] button, using the "selective" option in mozilla, or subscribing to individual threads).

This issue will be passed on to the engineers team who will see if it is feasible to implement a technical solution.
(No-none gave feedback on the "Selected" button, and it was not a clean solution anyway, so the button was pulled. )