# Hottest Topics



## tk_saturn (Jun 21, 2010)

We already have the latest discussion on the homepage, is there anyway to add underneath that the top ten threads with the most users/guests reading them?


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## Overlord Nadrian (Jun 21, 2010)

The layout of the homepage would get messed up (well, at least with the new layout).

Damn typos


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## tj_cool (Jun 22, 2010)

I think that's quite bad for the server and probably hard to code

I mean, the latest topics thing is easy: every time someone posts it can be added in the latest discussions. But if you're going to base on Viewers, it'd have to search each topic to see how many viewers there are and then sort them (which probably takes a while)


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## Overlord Nadrian (Jun 22, 2010)

tj_cool said:
			
		

> I mean, the latest topics thing is easy: every time someone posts it can be added in the latest discussions. But if you're going to base on Viewers, it'd have to search each topic to see how many viewers there are and then sort them (which probably takes a while)


True. It would have to look through thousand and thousands of topics, and it would have to do that everytime someone refreshes the homepage, or that box, so it would put an incredible amount of pressure on the server.


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## ProtoKun7 (Jun 22, 2010)

And even with the shiny new server that the site got a few months back it still wouldn't be great. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Just think what it might've been like with the old system...


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## Sterling (Jun 26, 2010)

Just so you all know, I know nothing of the way GBATemp is coded, etc. But just a thought: Try just keeping track of the posts being posted in a certain time frame. Most likely a time frame of it being in the mythical Hottest topics section. Which could be one post to put it there, but the more posts it gets the longer it stays there. Go with out posts, it gets put lower and lower on the list until *poof*.


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## Overlord Nadrian (Jun 26, 2010)

Sterl500 said:
			
		

> Just so you all know, I know nothing of the way GBATemp is coded, etc. But just a thought: Try just keeping track of the posts being posted in a certain time frame. Most likely a time frame of it being in the mythical Hottest topics section. Which could be one post to put it there, but the more posts it gets the longer it stays there. Go with out posts, it gets put lower and lower on the list until *poof*.


That basically comes down to the same thing as what tk_saturn suggested, so it won't work.


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## Sterling (Jun 26, 2010)

Overlord Nadrian said:
			
		

> Sterl500 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Does it have to keep track of who posted it? Couldn't it be in some sort of counter (or counter equivalent), which is updated after something gets posted? Then gets checked at time intervals to see if the topic needs to be bumped on the list?


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## Overlord Nadrian (Jun 26, 2010)

Yeah, but if the topic is really hot (and with that I mean more than 2 people post in it per minute) it would cause a huge overload on the server.


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## tk_saturn (Jun 26, 2010)

I don't see the point of basing it when something is posted, you already have the latest discussions.

Sometimes you can have tons of people reading a thread, but very few people posting. That's especially the case when people link to articles on here from other sites.

When you click on the "View New Posts", it does indicate "Hot Topics" but what makes those topics hot? I've seen topics with 1 or 2 readers which aren't hot, and those with tons of readers which aren't. It's presumably determining that over a timespan too, perhaps the Timespan needs shortening? and then you could just list the hot topics.


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## Overlord Nadrian (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm guessing those topics are considered hot because they either quickly after posting got a bunch of readers, or got a bunch of posts in no time. Correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT: Oh wait, I see what you mean, a topic is considered hot the moment it gets 19 replies.

You didn't see me do anything just now


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## tj_cool (Jun 26, 2010)

What do you mean? The topics with orange envelopes? Any topic with 19+ replies becomes a "hot topic".


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## tk_saturn (Jun 26, 2010)

I still don't see why it could be so difficult.

When someone views a post, you already have the number of people viewing a post at the bottom of the page. When someone views a post, add the number of people viewing it to a linked list etc along with the post type (blog, EOF etc) and time. Then when someone views the portal, just walk the list and display the top 10 posts underneath the ShopTemp banner. Every 10 minutes get the server to walk the list, if the time for each post in the list hasn't been updated in the last 10 minutes, delete that post from the list. Compared to the effort it takes the server to perform a search, parse unparse BBCode etc, I can't see it being much to the server. 

Or they could use the Google Analytics, as they send you there every time you read a page anyway.


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## The Pi (Jul 3, 2010)

Sorry for the bump but I came across this thread and had a idea.

It would be less work on the server if rather than looking at every thread, it looked at every online user and then sorted out which users where looking at threads and then looked for the top 10 threads being read.


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## metamaster (Jul 3, 2010)

Another way is if the site used the same system as google, a hit system. Would it be possible to implement? (maybe even by using google itself)


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