Site Comments & Suggestions

New feature: Thread Hiding

  • Last Updated:
  • Feb 15th, 2019 12:32 pm
Tags:
Administrator
User avatar
Jun 17, 2013
18224 posts
36610 upvotes
Scarborough

New feature: Thread Hiding

Today we released a new feature to the forums called Thread Hiding. This will allow you to hide any thread which you do not want to appear while browsing a forum. There are times when you'll see the same thread which you have no interest in appear over and over again and now you have the ability to remove it from your view. To do so just follow the steps below:

Enable thread hiding here: ucp.php?i=-rfd-hidetopics-ucp-ucp_main_ ... hidetopics

You'll then see an eye icon next to each thread while browsing the forums. Clicking this icon will hide the thread and the next time you refresh the page it will be removed from your view. If you accidentally clicked this icon, want to make a thread visible again or just want to see what you've hidden, you can view those threads on the same page where you enabled this feature.

We hope that you'll enjoy having the ability to hide threads and that it will make browsing the forums a more organized and enjoyable experience. If you have any comments or questions about this feature please let us know in the comments below. Note that this feature is only available for registered users so if you don't already have an account with us, sign up today.
RFD Staff - Got a question? Send me a private message.
[Forum Rules] [Deal Alerts]
70 replies
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 2, 2008
1126 posts
1793 upvotes
Blips & Chitz
Funny, I was just thinking about this again this morning. Major kudos!!!!
Deal Addict
Apr 28, 2004
1796 posts
332 upvotes
Probably wishful thinking, but will you extend this feature to categories or tags? For example, politics/religion topics are still cluttering OT, so a very useful feature would be to "Batch Hide" certain topics (ie Trump, immigration, religion, etc.) or in case of Hot Deals section, "Batch Hide" categories (Apparel, video games, Furniture, etc) or stores (ie Costco)?
Administrator
User avatar
Jun 17, 2013
18224 posts
36610 upvotes
Scarborough
akira1971 wrote: Probably wishful thinking, but will you extend this feature to categories or tags? For example, politics/religion topics are still cluttering OT, so a very useful feature would be to "Batch Hide" certain topics (ie Trump, immigration, religion, etc.) or in case of Hot Deals section, "Batch Hide" categories (Apparel, video games, Furniture, etc) or stores (ie Costco)?
Wishful thinking it is not! We are actually looking to add personalization via categories (like those in Hot Deals). You would choose which you want to see (or not see) and then only those would appear when you visit that forum. The same logic could then be applied to other forums where it makes sense (off topic being one of them) and be able to pick only the categories you want to see. We had hoped to get that done alongside this update but had to switch over to another project before it could get started. With any luck it'll be added in later this year so keep those fingers crossed.
RFD Staff - Got a question? Send me a private message.
[Forum Rules] [Deal Alerts]
Deal Addict
Nov 20, 2007
3799 posts
797 upvotes
ON
there seems to be problem with sorting (with start date) when some threads are hidden.

newer threads show up again on the final pages, where should be left empty.
Administrator
User avatar
Jun 17, 2013
18224 posts
36610 upvotes
Scarborough
ppnndd wrote: there seems to be problem with sorting (with start date) when some threads are hidden.

newer threads show up again on the final pages, where should be left empty.
The most recently hidden thread will appear at the top and it goes back by date hidden. It's not meant to be used for organizational purposes.
RFD Staff - Got a question? Send me a private message.
[Forum Rules] [Deal Alerts]
Deal Fanatic
Apr 11, 2012
5865 posts
3138 upvotes
Winnipeg
This is very useful...
Now I can hide all the GTA threads, chinese phone and tablet threads etc...
Lucky Mobile | Public Mobile | Simplii | Tangerine | CIBC
Deal Addict
Nov 20, 2007
3799 posts
797 upvotes
ON
TomRFD wrote: The most recently hidden thread will appear at the top and it goes back by date hidden. It's not meant to be used for organizational purposes.
no, it's the unhidden newer threads show up again on final pages when viewing by start date. the final pages should be empty due to the hidden threads.
Member
Jan 2, 2017
415 posts
586 upvotes
THANK YOU! This is awesome. Definitely going to use this.
Deal Guru
Jul 19, 2012
14763 posts
4912 upvotes
Montreal
BEST... FEATURE... EVER!!!

I have wanted this for soooo long, as a lot of idiotic posts keep being bumped to the front page like a bad penny. Now I can smoke them and forget about it.

Thank you RFD!
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Aug 29, 2012
9298 posts
10312 upvotes
Honestly I really doubt many people wanted such a feature to begin with, other than a very small vocal minority. If there is something that doesn't interest me, I just skip it. I have no interest in living in a bubble where I am progressively only exposed to things I am comfortable with or that cater to my own interests.

I don't understand why this feature was developed, instead of doing something about the downvotes, which is a much bigger factor of aggravation for many regulars. It impacts the experience negatively much more to be punished for posting an unpopular deal or an unpopular opinion or for having antagonists who repeatedly retaliate to your mere presence, than to merely see fewer threads titles toward which one has no particular affinity.
Deal Expert
Dec 5, 2006
16787 posts
12570 upvotes
Markham
TomRFD wrote: Wishful thinking it is not! We are actually looking to add personalization via categories (like those in Hot Deals). You would choose which you want to see (or not see) and then only those would appear when you visit that forum. The same logic could then be applied to other forums where it makes sense (off topic being one of them) and be able to pick only the categories you want to see. We had hoped to get that done alongside this update but had to switch over to another project before it could get started. With any luck it'll be added in later this year so keep those fingers crossed.
Then i'd ask hide entire forums feature. For example I want to hide off topic/pets/ sports.It's more for iOS new forum app. When I swipe right, I only want to see the forum I want to visit
Administrator
User avatar
Jun 17, 2013
18224 posts
36610 upvotes
Scarborough
smartie wrote: Then i'd ask hide entire forums feature. For example I want to hide off topic/pets/ sports.It's more for iOS new forum app. When I swipe right, I only want to see the forum I want to visit
This is also something we're looking into. The forums app may get this feature (to some degree) earlier due to us using more flexibility with display options there. I won't say more on that yet as I don't know for sure if or when that's happening.
RFD Staff - Got a question? Send me a private message.
[Forum Rules] [Deal Alerts]
Deal Addict
User avatar
Apr 5, 2016
2611 posts
194 upvotes
Very nifty feature but it seems like a bit self-censorship.
Deal Addict
Sep 9, 2010
4863 posts
3538 upvotes
Burnaby
This feature is worth being a sticky thread in SC&S and being announced in a banner in landing page (or most visited fora) or at Facebook anywhere with more visibility. It'll be appreciated by many users if they are aware of it.

Incompetent workers (and criminals) cover each other's "lower back"
Keywords: doxxers, moles, security breaches, cs*s,
Deal Expert
User avatar
Aug 18, 2005
21223 posts
5939 upvotes
Burlington-Hamilton
I'm guessing that all of the complaints about Trump threads hastened this feature along. Glad to see it's available.

Hopefully this is also the first step to enabling a 'Silent Ban' feature, where the person is not informed they are banned, but their posts and threads are invisible to everyone except themselves.
- casual gastronomist -
Administrator
User avatar
Jun 17, 2013
18224 posts
36610 upvotes
Scarborough
aviador wrote: This feature is worth being a sticky thread in SC&S and being announced in a banner in landing page (or most visited fora) or at Facebook anywhere with more visibility. It'll be appreciated by many users if they are aware of it.
We're going to be promoting it for the next little while to help get the word out. Most users don't go through their settings pages often to discover it so we want everyone to be aware of this new feature.
Jucius Maximus wrote: I'm guessing that all of the complaints about Trump threads hastened this feature along. Glad to see it's available.

Hopefully this is also the first step to enabling a 'Silent Ban' feature, where the person is not informed they are banned, but their posts and threads are invisible to everyone except themselves.
Trump threads didn't actually have any influence on the timeline of us adding this in but I'm sure many people will be happy to be able to hide those now.

If implementing a silent ban feature was easy to do we might consider it but even then most savvy users would quickly realize that they're in that state and then just start a new account.
RFD Staff - Got a question? Send me a private message.
[Forum Rules] [Deal Alerts]
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 28, 2002
3543 posts
2128 upvotes
New feature: Thread Hiding is a good initiative but I would like to suggest something else to add.

I would like the option for original posters of new threads to have the option to make new posts only visible to registered members of RFD if they choose to.

Understandably RFD's revenue is click and eyeball generated from lurkers as well as registered members but I believe that such an option would encourage coversions from lurkers to registered members and this would be a plus for RFD.
RFD Admins All Drive Teslas. You should Too!

Top