i do think we need some better rss options, but you might want to try clicking the "monitor" button in what ever forum you want to keep an eye on

any other suggestions?

I monitor as mentioned in the post by Tony. I also just perform searches to find the content I need.

WJ

I was thinking, too, that it is hard to monitor new posts in the forums. The summary of new posts on the right side of the forums page is good, but its usefulness is diminished when people change the subject, because you can't tell to which thread the post belongs. A subject like "I Agree!" is no help at all.

While threads with new posts float to the top of a forum, it would be nice to see the time (and maybe name of the person) of the most recent post. It could be that something I read two hours ago hasn't changed. It is still at the top of the forum, but I can't tell that it hasn't changed unless I go into the post and scroll all of the way to the bottom to see the last post.

A full-fledged forum would keep track of the time a visitor last viewed a thread and mark those threads that have posts after the visit date/time. That's a bit more work and information to track, but that might be an interesting forum feature. I'll have to think about that.

I wish a User could pull out a list of topics he has set to monitor on the Profile Page, where currently it just shows the topics posted or started by users.

I totally agree that the subject line changing is a hindrance for those who want to monitor an entire forum.

Really, I don't see what value is added by being able to have a subject line on individual comments, so why not do away with that "feature"?

that's actually done, unless I'm missing what you're saying...

play with the sort/filter command at the forum list level and you can sort threads by when they were originally posted or when the most recent comment was.

I don't think this discussion is about the sorting options, but those options are helpful. If a forum is sorted by most recent post, that doesn't tell you if anyone has posted to a thread since the last time you read it. You would have to go into the thread and scroll to the bottom to see if it has been updated.

If each thread title in a forum displayed the original poster name and time as well as the name and time of the most recent response, that would help determine at a glance if there is new information in the thread.

For example, if the top thread in a forum had a response from JohnDoe at 3:00am and I came back several hours later and saw the same thing, I would know that no one has added anything to the thread. I wouldn't have to go into the thread to see that nothing has changed.

The other item being discussed in this thread is that the usefulness of being able to change the subject of a response is of dubious benefit. This is not my thread. This thread was started by hursey013, and hursey013 chose the topic for this discussion. If I want a different discussion, I can start my own thread, but I should not hijack this thread for my own topic.

Changing the subject also makes it nearly impossible to determine the original thread when looking at the summary of new posts on the forum list page. If I were following a discussion about "re: Monitoring forums" and I saw a new post in the summary with that subject, I would check that message, first. A response that has changed the subject to "I Agree!" is not helpful in relating to the thread.

I am (very) new to concrete5, so do not take my comment too badly. I love concrete5 already: it is the first time I really enjoy using a cms.
But really guys, these forums suck. Why try to re-invent the weel ? There are a few good forums out there - you will never be able to match that usability and functionality. Why not spend some time to work on an integration ? I would love to see something like phpBB integrated into conrete5!

I know, why would you want to make something new when it’s already been done. That’s why I’d never learn to play an instrument, there are already loads of albums already there for me to listen to. Who needs new music right the same old stuff gets the job done just fine.

Why would Apple want to make a "iPod Touch" when they already have a regular old iPod that works just fine?

Should I keep going? :)

These forums may suck in your opinion but when you use the Concrete CMS for awhile they just make sense. Sorry if I was harsh. I just think the Concrete 5 guys are doing a great job. But thats my 2 cents.

Give them some feedback and features you'd like to see and they will listen.

I agree, having a forum that plugs into concrete has its advantages. You don't have to maintain two systems, two user databases, etc. I really think removing the ability to rename threads would be a big improvement.

Also though, the thing I've noticed about other forums is that if you visit one regularly, it's usually very easy to see what posts are new since your last visit. Many go as far as to highlight new threads, or old threads that have had new comments. I find this very helpful, because you can visually see very quickly what you have missed. In this current forum, to me at least, its pretty hard to distinguish whats new.

I've never had a problem finding information, the search functions work as they should, I simply think there is room for some improvement for those that want to stop in a few times a day and quickly see some of the hot topics. One example - the "fireside chat" thread, which is very interesting to me, almost slipped by because I had no idea it was even going on... I just happen to catch the tail end of it in the "Recent conversations" sidebar of the main forum page.

On a very similar topic (monitoring forums) it would be VERY nice to see a checkbox to monitor the topic when posting a reply, and to have that checkbox automatically checked.

It makes sense to me that anyone posting a reply is going to be interested in seeing further responses. Why not default to that (and allow the user to deselect if preferred)?

I am in no way criticising the concrete5 team. They did (are doing) an awsome job. But re-writing perfectly good code just for the fun of it may be, well, fun, but it is not very productive.
You seem to appreciate analogies: car manufacturers do not invest in the development of subparts such as tires, electronics, ... We see this trend everywhere and it is finally being adopted in web applications (services such as provided by google, twitter, social networks).
The concrete5 devs did not re-write php, mysql, a caching mechanism, ajax framework, etcetera. Why the fear for integrating with a good piece of open software ?

the reason that concrete came up with there own forum isn't just for creating more work for themselves, it's because doing so allowed forums that are more seamlessly integrated with the rest of the system. By making forums that take advantage of concrete's framework, it now integrates a lot better with the existing site search (as opposed to using a whole different search that comes with most forums software). it also lets us use concrete's existing permissions system, so we can lock down different branches, and it gives us the edit in place ability, which is kinda what concrete's all about.

Concrete5 having an integrated forum is great, but there are going to be more people asking about integration with existing installs.

Many companies will *not* spend the money to convert years of existing content. I've already had requests for phpBB and if I had the time I'd build that block. I bet it would sell quite well.