Idea: very old post dates colored

demagogue on 10/1/2012 at 20:33

I understand that sometimes it's better to necro a very old thread than make a new one, so all the info on it is still kept in a single place. But it'd be nice if there were some visual indication when you start reading it that lets you notice the first posts are very old.

One idea I had was for the date in posts older than 1 year to have a different color, or possibly a slightly different shade to the borders, something in that vein -- nothing garrish, still readable & consistent, just enough to bring attention -- so as soon as you start reading it you'd be alerted right away that everything you're reading is a very old discussion, rather than only noticing after you've read 20 posts and want to reply to something. Is that something technically feasible and worth doing?

Al_B on 11/1/2012 at 00:11

Love the idea. If you have a browser that supports userscripts then go to (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/122849) http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/122849 and follow the instructions. It's a simple bit of javascript that I knocked up that will look at the post date of a post and add a warning to the left column if the post is over a year old. It's pretty crude and it may break for strange date formats - but do let me know if that's the case.

As ever - if it reformats your browser and de-fragments your cat I'm not responsible. If it's useful then I am.

Edit: Of course - it'll be better if this is implemented server-side since then it doesn't rely on people installing something like this, but consider it a stop-gap. It should also be compatible with the (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/55445) Gravatars plugin but again, I haven't extensively tested it.

Edit 2: Now supports Chrome, Firefox and Opera - see the instructions on the script description if you're interested.

Kolya on 11/1/2012 at 20:19

Quote Posted by Al_B

Of course - it'll be better if this is implemented server-side

Of course this will never happen. So thanks for the script.

I'm looking at my guide on how to fix this damn forum theme and at least the script works.

Al_B on 12/1/2012 at 19:08

You mean the ones you put in (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133501&daysprune=365) this thread? If so it's a real shame nothing happened about it (unless some were done and I missed them).