[atomicbartbeans]

Any of you familiar with the popular tech news site Digg have probably seen Digg Spy, a page on the site that shows activity in real-time. Watch it for a few seconds... how many other activity-viewing web pages actually update themselves magically like that? I was thinking about conventional forums sites for a while, and they seem pretty stagnant from an interaction perspective... you must manually refresh a page to view posting activity.

How awesome would a forum site be if posts appeared on today's posts/VNP in real-time, as they were submitted? I don't know exactly what would be involved, but this guy makes it seem pretty simple (at least from the front-end) to make a live, updating spy page.

One thing that would probably be wise to avoid, however, would be live-updating threads... people would begin to treat the forum like a real-time chat site. But I think a "spy page" a la Digg would be incredibly awesome.

Now, the challenge would be vB integration... but something interesting to think about.

[ghoti]

Are you kidding? I wouldn't get any work done ever again. It's bad enough as it is. I would have to, like, get myself banned or something for my own protection.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by atomicbartbeans I don't know exactly what would be involved

LOTS more JavaScript and changing server-side functionality.

[colivigan]

What's with the thread title?

[atomicbartbeans]

I was trying to think of a title... typing random crap into the box and such... I decided to think about it for a minute wile checking my email. After I tabbed back to the posting page a couple minutes later, I assumed I was done and hit post... not realizing the title wasn't finished.

If a friendly neighborhood administrator wants to finish the title, by all means go ahead.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by UncleJohn What's with the thread title?

I thought we were about to have another hello, the

[ghoti]

Yeah, it's an old tradition here.

[Windswept]

What title do you want... exactly?

[MCQ]

I'm not sure how you finish that thread title beginning and get anything close to the subject content that ABB had in his first post.

[Mac+]

abb - you managed to derail your own thread with your very first post ... that's got to be a record.

Now get it back on topic ... where's the treatise?

[atomicbartbeans]

Dammit, I should've locked my room when I went downstairs to grab some food. I come back up here, and my little sister is starting threads about really geeky stuff (with nondescriptive titles nonetheless) using my account. She's such a troublemaker...

[Windswept]

WHAT TITLE DO YOU want???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Majost]

Maybe just change it to a treatise on why Brad hates me.

I think that sums things up fairly well here.

[atomicbartbeans]

"real-time posting activity spy page" would work quite nicely, thanks Carol.

[Mac+]

Windswept - you're far too kind sometimes.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by atomicbartbeans "real-time posting activity spy page" would work quite nicely, thanks Carol.

Okay, abb, I changed the title to what you asked.

I don't know how long the title will last in that form, because there are more determined people than I lurking about; but at least you will know that I did what I could.

It is now 7:45pm Pacific time.

I hereby wash my hands of the matter.