[RFC] blacklist forums in default searches

[Erik Frèrejean]

Currently if you use the "view unanswered posts", "view unread posts", "view new posts" or "view active topics" searches phpBB will include all forums in the result and there is no way to limit these results. This is a problem as search results might become cluttered with forums you don't wan't/need in your result set. Examples being a "trash" forum or when looking at phpbb.com the "[3.0.x] Abandoned MODs" forum. Also if you visit a board just because you are interested in some forums it would be nice when those quick searches only display the results you are actually looking for.

I'd suggest adding a select box to the ucp (can be added to the "Edit display options" section) where a user can blacklist forums, these blacklisted forums will be taken in account when one of these default searches is used. Also if a blacklist is used the search results page will contain a link which can be used to display all results without having the need to reset your settings if you quickly want to see the result set for the complete board.

[Senky]

+1, we all should know how abusing it is to see all new posts from all forums.

I would maybe suggest adding selectbox to the UCP, but also show it in the page of that searches to see another results you want in quick manner. Of course, this selection would be temporary and after next visiting of search, default setting from UCP would be used again.

[Erik Frèrejean]

but also show it in the page of that searches to see another results you want in quick manner.

I'm kinda +1 on that, however that might clutter the page a lot as well. Although it could be hidden with some javascript and a "adjust filter" link so something similar.

[Jacob]

Really good idea.

[drathbun]

I've had this for years on my phpBB2 board. Each user has three choices for every forum on the board. Do I want to show or hide the forum (which will make the forum visible / not visible on places like the index and jumpbox), do I want to search / non search the forum (note that it is possible to search a forum that is hidden by the prior setting), and do I want to subscribe to a forum. Obviously phpBB3 already has the forum subscription option. I can tell you that my users very much like the show / hide option. Why have a different tag for search /no search and show / hide? Because as an example, I don't want to search the "off topic" forum but I do occasionally want to read it. So the "new topics since last visit" search results should not include anything from OT, but I can still see the forum on the index and go read it if / when I want to.

As a final note, the board admin / owner has the ability to set which forums can be hidden or not. For example, there's no impact to hiding the "off topic" forum, but I don't want users to hide the "board announcements" forum.

[Erik Frèrejean]

I'm actually doing the same thing on one of my boards, though we have various groups with "never" permissions if users want to hide a forum, although that isn't exactly the nicest/most user friendly way to handle that. I actually like the idea of hiding the forum completely.

As a final note, the board admin / owner has the ability to set which forums can be hidden or not. For example, there's no impact to hiding the "off topic" forum, but I don't want users to hide the "board announcements" forum.

The permissions system can be utilised for that, simply add one (or two incase the "hide" feature also comes) forum permissions.

[Senky]

but also show it in the page of that searches to see another results you want in quick manner.

I'm kinda +1 on that, however that might clutter the page a lot as well. Although it could be hidden with some javascript and a "adjust filter" link so something similar.

Yes, of course it would be defaultly hidden. But general idea is to give users real flexibility.