Finding New Content

Today's Posts / New Topics

Today's Posts and New Topics are a means by which members can discover the latest content on a site, regardless of the channel (forum, group, blog etc) or content type (posts, photos, links etc).

For many people this can be the most convenient way of exploring the site, as it aggregates all recent activity in one place.

TODAY'S POSTS is usually shown only to guests (unregistered users browsing the site), and provides a simple but comprehensive list of all content that has been updated in the past 24 hours. Topics with unread content are highlighted in bold text; topics with no new content since the last visit are displayed in normal (non-bold) text.

NEW TOPICS is usually shown only to logged in users, and works in much the same way as Today's posts, except that it only shows topics with unread content since the member's last visit to the site. Topics will generally only show up in bold text, as once the item has been read it is no longer "New" and therefore does not display in "New Topics" at all.

In both cases; logged in members will see a small icon immediately to the left of the title in the case of unread topics; clicking this icon will take the member to the first unread item in the topic. Clicking the title itself will open the topic at the first item.

Each entry in the list also shows the following information:

Additionally, at the top of the list of topics, there are two filters that enable the viewer to sort the results according to their requirements.

Activity Stream

The Activity Stream forms an integral part of new content discovery on the site. It can be configured to be visible, or even to be the default view, in a number of areas of the site, such as: Forums, Blogs, Groups, Topics and Discussions.

The idea of an Activity Stream is to provide a "running commentary" of activity in that particular section of the site, or even the entire site if required.

A straightforward example of an Activity Stream view would be the main Forum listing. At the top of the list of forums are a series of tabs; the second of these is labelled "Latest Activity". Clicking this tab transforms the view of the forums from a straightforward list, to a free flowing commentary of recent activity. This will commonly consist of new topics started, replies to existing topics, and the addition of other content such as photos. Each "entry" in the stream also makes clear who posted the content, and where and when.

Activity Streams appear in other places as well. These include Groups and Blogs, and even in topics themselves, where the list of posts can be displayed in stream view to provide a commentary of activity specific to that topic.

Modules with Activity Streams, such as the Forum Home module or Group Home module, can be configured by the administrator to display content using certain criteria by default, though end users can apply different filters if they choose. End users can change the filter on specific streams to show the results they are looking for, such as specific content types or time frames.