[Mini-RELEASE v2] User has started X threads

[tubedogg]

This one is a request from JJR512. It shows, in the user's publicly-accesible profile (member.php?action=getinfo), how many threads that user has started.



Hack version: 0.0.2

For version: 2.0.0 Final

Files needed: memberadd.txt, getinfoadd.txt

Files to edit: member.php

Templates to edit: getinfo

Instructions
1] Open memberadd.txt from the zip file in a text editor.

2] In member.php, find (around line 1193)

     eval("\$birthday = \"".gettemplate("getinfo_birthday")."\";");
  }

Directly below this, add the contents of memberadd.txt

3] Upload member.php to your web server.

4] Open getinfoadd.txt from the zip file in a text editor.

4] In the template getinfo, find

<tr bgcolor="#F1F1F1"><td>
<normalfont><B>Total Posts:</B></normalfont></td>
<td><normalfont>$userinfo[posts] ($postsperday posts per day)</normalfont>
</td></tr>

Directly below this, add the contents of the getinfoadd.txt file.

5] Save the template.

6]To test it out, go to http://path/to/your/forums/member.ph...tinfo&userid=5

Instructions are also included in the zip file (threadsstarted.txt).

FEEDBACK WANTED! Likes/dislikes/modification requests all accepted.

Please DO NOT conact me via AIM, ICQ, PM, or email about this hack. Post your question/problem here and I will try to help you.

[bira]

very nice

And it works great, heh.

By the way, one problem to anticipate with this, though, is that unlike post count, your check relies on the EXISITING threads. I.e., if someone prunes old threads and such, then the count for how many threads were started by users will be inaccurate and will only reflect how many threads of those available were started by the user

[tubedogg]

Thank you, bira.
And you're right. However, I can't see any way around this without adding a "thread" column to the user table, similar to post, except counting threads. And that would take a more detailed hack. If anyone really wants to see this, I'll see what I can do. (I don't think it would be too hard, just more detailed.)

Thanks again.

[JJR512]

Thanks! This is great. Works fine.

I only have one suggestion. In the part you add to the getinfo template, change the part that says "threads started" to "Threads Started:" (capitalize both words and add a colon). This is to match it to the style of the rest of the profile display.

Thanks for doing this for me!

[tubedogg]

Dang, I thought I changed that before I uploaded it. It was that way because I was testing on my forums, and my forums are all lowercase with no :. Sorry.

[bira]

tubedogg:

I don't expect you to worry about the threads issue at all, heh. I was just remarking in case someone asks.

In any case, I just made it clear in the profile that it's "threads started of the currently available threads".

See my profile for example: http://www.atlasf1.com/bb/member.php...fo&userid=1199

[JJR512]

Ack! I posted the above message when the first, original message was all I saw (I opened this thread just after it was posted, it just took me a long time to reply...guess I should have refreshed first!).

As a comment to bira's comments...what you say is true, but consider this. After a prune or anytime messages or entire threads are deleted, a user's post count goes down. The post count only counts how many posts are in the database for that user. Now by the same token as what you said, this would seem to be unfair, because a person may have posted 1000 times but only have a count of 950 due to thread deletions or whatever. Now in UBB, the count never goes down. When I upgraded to vB, someone wrote for me a little script to actually change everyone's post count to how many posts the user actually had in the database. Because, in UBB, we had a huge thread (1000+ replies) get corrupted, and deleted, many members, including myself, saw our counts go down by quite a bit...for some users, by a few hundred posts. (Not just due to the one big thread, but also the odd small one here and there over time, you know.) Now is this fair to us? My post count is ~6000, but I've probably posted about 6400 messages.

But on the other hand, is it fair for a user's post count to not reflect their actual current count? Or for their thread started count to not reflect how many threads there are, right now, that have been started by the person? People could begin silly games like "accidentally" double-posting, or try posting and deleting, whatever, just to increase their post count. Maybe this is a philosophical debate, I don't know. But I think I prefer these counts to reflect what is actually current.

[JJR512]

bira, by the same token, you should make it say, after the post count, that those are currently available posts.

Now a question for you: I notice after your post count, there is a link to search for all posts by the user. My profile doesn't have that. Is that a feature to turn on, and if so where, or is it a hack, and if so where do I find it?

[JJR512]

Nevermind, I just noticed it was in the table head, across from "Profile for [membername]". I guess you moved it in yours.

[tubedogg]

Just edit getinfo. It's up at the top-right by default, bira just moved it.

[bira]

Originally posted by JJR512
bira, by the same token, you should make it say, after the post count, that those are currently available posts.

No, the post count for user is not dependent on pruning.

If you prune all threads/posts prior to 90 days ago, for example, the total posts for each user will not change because the "user" table has a "posts" field. Like tubedogg said, if you wanted a number of threads started independent of which threads still exist, you would have to do the same as posts, and add a "threads" column to the "user" table.

[JJR512]

OK, I don't know much about the prune option. I never use it.

But I do know, by direct observation, that if you delete a post by a user, the user's post count goes down by one. I have seen this with my own two eyes. Last time was a few days ago...a user had double-posted. His post count was 4360. I deleted one of the two messages, and after that, the post count in the remaining thread said 4359. This is indisputable.

So regardless of pruning, a user's post count does indeed go down if any of the user's posts are deleted directly, and presumably also is an entire thread is deleted, too. So, it is clear the the post count does not reflect how many times the person has ever submitted a message.

[bira]

just forget it. I think tubedogg understood what I was talking about, and that was the point to begin really.

[JJR512]

Hey look, there's no need to get hostile about it. I admit maybe I was wrong about the pruning part, because I have no experience with it. But I did get your point, which was that this hack will only count how many current threads were started by a person. Now how many threads the person has ever started. Now my point, which is that the post count also does not display how many posts a person has posted, is a valid point, and one that says your premise may have another dimension to it that you maybe didn't consider. And I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't just dismiss me like that, just because what I said might invalidate your point.

[bira]

JJR I wasn't dismissing you, I was dismissing the subject, because it's of no importance, that's all.