Keeping posts in a subforum

[David (EVDL Admin)]

I've searched the forum and haven't found a solution to this, so I hope someone can suggest something.

I've been with Nabble since its very earliest days.  My main forum is an email discussion list archive and front-end for folks who prefer a forum approach.  It works well for that purpose and the users are mostly happy.

A while back, I added a  subforum  for news and announcements, creating a group for contributors to the subforum.  Viewing that subforum is open to anyone, including unregistered users, but only the small group can post there.

For the main forum, I prefer the traditional topics view, and that's what the users are accustomed to.  The Subforums are under a text link to the right of "New Topic." People seem mostly happy with that setup.

However, in the topics view, every post from the subforum is intermixed with the main forum posts!  That makes the main forum harder to read and use.

I'd like to keep the subforum posts in the subforum, hidden from the main forum in Topics view.  

So far the only way I've found to do that with my current structure is to remove "Anyone" view permission from the subforum.  But then (duh!) not anyone can view the subforum posts  - and that defeats the subforum's main purpose.  So that's out.

I can also switch the main forum format to "Standard" view.  That puts the subforum posts behind its folder-icon link pinned to the top of the page.  That's not too bad, but switching to Topics view still reveals the subforum posts in the man forum.

Ideally, I'd like to entirely eliminate subforum entries from Topics view.  

An alternative would be to make the Main Page (Standard) view permanent, removing the link which switches to Topics view.

At the moment the only other way I can see to accomplish what I want to do is to split off the subforum and make it a separate root forum.  That would work, but it removes the subforum further from the main than I would like.  I think it would also require the folks who post there to register separately, no?

Another possibility might be to make both the main forum and the subforum equal children of a new parent forum.  That retains some connection between the two.  However, I'm concerned about what will happen to my current list of registered main forum users if the main forum becomes a subforum of another.  Does the new parent forum inherit its child's registered users?  Does that matter?

I hope this isn't too confusing.  I'm already confused myself!

Am I missing some other more obvious solution here?

Thanks for any ideas you might have.

[David (EVDL Admin)]

Oh, sorry, one more question.  I have a second subforum which is basically a trash can for spam posts and the like.  Is there a way to hide that subforum from Standard View, so it's visible only to me when I log in?

Thanks again!

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Hi David, I've changed the NAML code of your EVDL forum and now the "Topics View" doesn't show any topics under the EVLN sub-forum anymore. Is this what you want?

David (EVDL Admin) wrote

Oh, sorry, one more question.  I have a second subforum which is basically a trash can for spam posts and the like.  Is there a way to hide that subforum from Standard View, so it's visible only to me when I log in?

This is a bit more complex. Are you talking about the woodshed sub-forum? Should it be completely hidden from all users except you?

[GregChapman]

Hi David,

David (EVDL Admin) wrote

I have a second subforum which is basically a trash can for spam posts and the like.  Is there a way to hide that subforum from Standard View, so it's visible only to me when I log in?

I'm not familiar with your forum, which I'm guessing may have some non-standard customisation, and Hugo obviously is, so I may be offering inappropriate advice, however...

For most forums the answer is:
Options > Application > Extras & add-ons > Content > Smart application pages

Turning this feature on means that any user who does not have "View" permission for a sub-forum is not is not even aware of its existence. (Normally, a non-viewable sub-forum is listed at the parent level but a user without "View" permission gets a "Request Access" screen instead of reaching that sub-forum.) Perhaps that is all you need?

(I always recommend that forum administrators have a second "normal" user ID so they can test how any forum appears to "Anyone", "Registered" and "Member", etc, users. Having a second user is definitely useful for checking how the Smart Application Pages works for different groups of user.)

[David (EVDL Admin)]

Hugo, thank you, that's perfect! You are the man of the day!

I wish I understood NAML code so I could make such changes myself.  I found an Edit link on my main app page, but in the editor all I saw was:

 <subroutine name="view_standard" requires="basic,nabble,servlet">
    <n.apply_app_namespace.view_standard_page />
</subroutine> 

There must be more code buried elsewhere that I'm not finding.  My ignorance on this is cringeworthy.

You're spot on that I'd like to hide the Woodshed subforum, which is a spam trash can.  

I drop spam posts in there rather than deleting them.  That way the posts don't get sent back to the spam originator to save.  Probably most spammers are using bogus email addresses anyway, but if any aren't, I don't want to alert them to the fact that their posts have been zapped.

Hiding Woodshed is really just a cosmetic matter.  Its contents aren't viewable by registered or unregistered users.  So it's not all that important.

Greg, thanks for the suggestions. I do have extra IDs so I can see the effect of changes on regular users.  I tried setting the flag you mentioned, but it had no effect that I could see.  I'll keep experimenting.

[Hugo <Nabble>]

I've changed the forum and now it hides the woodshed sub-forum. You can save the link below so you don't have to look for it later when moving spam messages.
http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/woodshed-f4284491.html