[Ocean]

I have a really great idea for a way to improve this hack.


The basis is this - it's nice to be able to see who has viewed a particular Thread. But once that Thread gets going - it becomes next to useless if you need to ask "Okay, who has viewed this Thread since Post #13 was made?"


I would recommend, for Admins only, that the functionality be added so that they can see who last viewed a given thread since a particular date and time.


This can be done in a number of ways with varying levels of functionality:




Method 1


Underneath the current "Already viewed this thread" section, a second section would be added - "Viewed this Thread since..."

This section will be updated just like the first one. However, this section will have a Reset button. When an Admin clicks on the Reset button - it clears all users from that section. The section will list the new Date/Timestamp - and will start collecting User View information from that point on.

So that it will now show, for example, "Users who have viewed this Thread since 6/2/2004 10:31pm:"

Effectively, it works like your car's Trip Odometer.


This method would (I think) only require an additional field in the database for a second set of User View data. It would get updated just like the first one - it's just that there is a Reset button in each ShowThread page that allows Admins to clear this second set of data and set a new Date/Timestamp to be shown.

I would think that this first method should be very easy to implement. But Gary would have to chime in here to confirm.



Method 2


Add the ability for this hack to store Date/Timestamps for each user who views any given thread. It only needs to store the Last Viewed date/time.

Then, add a second section (similar to example 1) - however, this one has an Input Box that allows you to type a date (and possibly a time) in. Then, you can refresh the page and that second section will show all users who have Viewed that Thread since the date/time you entered.


As a secondary benefit/implementation - since under this method, the date/time of Last Viewed will be stored for each user, it should be easy to make it so that by hovering your mouse over a username in the first section (the "Already viewed this thread" section), you can get a tooltip with the date and time that that user last viewed this thread.


The advantage of this method over Method #1, is that you can check for Last Viewed data retroactively.

The disadvantage, of course, is the complication of implementing this. And perhaps, a performance concern.




So, what do you guys think? Would this be useful to you?


Gary, do you like this idea? Is either Method practically doable?