Most Recent Posts Panel on Home Page
Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:40 pm
Today I have added a 'Most Recent Posts' panel to the GMSRT home page. This displays, as the title suggests, the most recent posts on the forum. The number of posts shown depends on the size/resolution of your screen. PC and laptop screens should show ten, on smaller screens fewer, with mobiles only showing the three most recent.
For each post displayed there is the topic title, a brief exert from the post copy. Both of these have links to the post in question. Plus there is post metadata such as the date/time of the post, a link to the first page of the topic that the post is in and the username of the forum member who authored the post with a link to their profile page.
This works in a slightly different way to the New Posts and Unread Posts links in the menu. These are tailored specifically for you, once you've read a post on those it will be removed from the list. These two menu items should be your go-to check for more content. The new home page panel is purely an in-your-face easy reference, the posts will always be the most recent ones irrespective of whether you've read them or not. Additionally, this is shown for guest users, to give them a few quick links so they can see what the forum is about, whereas the two menu items above are only available to logged in forum members.
It also doesn't include any topics or posts from the sub-forums that are read only. Such as 'Welcome', 'Forum Rules', and 'Using the Forum, Tips & Tricks' as these don't contain regular member posts.
The 'Most Recent Posts' panel can be toggled on and off via a link above it and to the right. This setting will be remembered between visits to the site (for the same device and browser), so if you find the panel too intrusive you can, effectively remove it from view.
For each post displayed there is the topic title, a brief exert from the post copy. Both of these have links to the post in question. Plus there is post metadata such as the date/time of the post, a link to the first page of the topic that the post is in and the username of the forum member who authored the post with a link to their profile page.
This works in a slightly different way to the New Posts and Unread Posts links in the menu. These are tailored specifically for you, once you've read a post on those it will be removed from the list. These two menu items should be your go-to check for more content. The new home page panel is purely an in-your-face easy reference, the posts will always be the most recent ones irrespective of whether you've read them or not. Additionally, this is shown for guest users, to give them a few quick links so they can see what the forum is about, whereas the two menu items above are only available to logged in forum members.
It also doesn't include any topics or posts from the sub-forums that are read only. Such as 'Welcome', 'Forum Rules', and 'Using the Forum, Tips & Tricks' as these don't contain regular member posts.
The 'Most Recent Posts' panel can be toggled on and off via a link above it and to the right. This setting will be remembered between visits to the site (for the same device and browser), so if you find the panel too intrusive you can, effectively remove it from view.