# Shouldn't this be a relatively easy feature to install on a message board? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 19, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980 "2015-11-19T15:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/1 "2015-11-19T15:44:50Z")
First off, this isn’t a request to TPTB to install such a feature. I’m under no illusions.🙂 Basically, some sort of alert that lets the user know if somebody quoted something they said. So that way the user will know if someone is asking them a question or if someone took exception to something they said. (In my fantasy world the alert would take the form of a ding on my phone. But I suppose something listed under “user cp” would be the most practical.) I’m aware of subscribing to threads, but thats not really the same. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/2 "2015-11-19T15:55:09Z")
You could maybe make it detect when someone clicks the “quote” button on one of your posts, but there are many ways to quote someone without using that. And what happens if I hit the quote button on one person’s post, but then decide that I want to quote someone else instead, and manually edit it? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/3 "2015-11-19T16:18:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You could maybe make it detect when someone clicks the “quote” button on one of your posts, but there are many ways to quote someone without using that. And what happens if I hit the quote button on one person’s post, but then decide that I want to quote someone else instead, and manually edit it? Then don’t install software that does that. Install software that doesn’t do it in a stupid way. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/4 "2015-11-19T16:52:32Z")
Such as? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/5 "2015-11-19T16:53:13Z")
Several other boards I frequent do have just such a feature. For this board, I Google the following: site:boards.straightdope.com “Originally Posted by OneCentStamp” You can set up an alert for new results. It isn’t exactly real-time, but it isn’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/6 "2015-11-19T17:06:30Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Basically, some sort of alert that lets the user know if somebody quoted something they said. So that way the user will know if someone is asking them a question or if someone took exception to something they said. (In my fantasy world the alert would take the form of a ding on my phone… Tapatalk provides exactly this, for many forums, if you have push notifications enabled. It seems to be blocked from the SDMB’s side, here. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/7 "2015-11-19T17:11:36Z")
At the top of every page there is a link “display mode” If you click on that, you can select “Threaded Mode” This switches to a tree view, showing who has quoted who in a thread. Is that good enough? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/8 "2015-11-19T19:15:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Such as? Xenforo seems to work by generating an alert at posting time, not when the quote is quoted. Obviously this only works if the quote is generated via the Xenforo function, but that’s the vast bulk of use cases I suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/9 "2015-11-19T19:23:03Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Several other boards I frequent do have just such a feature. For this board, I Google the following: > > site:boards.straightdope.com “Originally Posted by OneCentStamp” > > You can set up an alert for new results. It isn’t exactly real-time, but it isn’t bad. That’s very clever, I’ll have to try that. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/10 "2015-11-19T19:37:18Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Tapatalk provides exactly this, for many forums, if you have push notifications enabled. It seems to be blocked from the SDMB’s side, here. What’s weird is that (according to the Tapatalk push notification plugin [installation instructions](https://tapatalk.com/download_vBulletin.php)), it should be working. There are instructions for doing a notification test using a URL. I tried the URL and got a “Success” status, so (unless it’s a false positive) the Tapatalk push notification system should be working. Very odd. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/11 "2015-11-19T20:21:02Z")
On my Tapatalk, I randomly get notifications for threads I’ve commented in, even though I turned off all notifications and never subscribe to threads. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/12 "2015-11-20T14:40:06Z")
I’ve requested something comparable in the past. It wouldn’t do exactly that but it would do more… I usually only come around every couple of days. Frequently I click on the button next to my Username and select Recent Posts. If that listing would add one piece of info it would be much more useful. That info would be the Date of the Most Recent Activity in that Thread. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/13 "2015-11-20T16:29:48Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I’ve requested something comparable in the past. It wouldn’t do exactly that but it would do more… > > I usually only come around every couple of days. Frequently I click on the button next to my Username and select Recent Posts. If that listing would add one piece of info it would be much more useful. That info would be the Date of the Most Recent Activity in that Thread. Try the Google search I mentioned upthread. If you sort it by “Most Recent,” it will give you all the times you’ve been quoted here, starting with the ones you’ve missed since the last time you checked. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/14 "2015-11-22T14:55:16Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Try the Google search I mentioned upthread. If you sort it by “Most Recent,” it will give you all the times you’ve been quoted here, starting with the ones you’ve missed since the last time you checked. I’m not so much interested in being quoted as I am in any posts at all in a thread that I’m participating in. Any suggestions for that? ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/15 "2015-11-22T19:18:16Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I’m not so much interested in being quoted as I am in any posts at all in a thread that I’m participating in. > > Any suggestions for that? You can subscribe to a thead - click on the link to Thread Tools. SDMB can e-mail you when there is a reply, for instance. I think there’s an option to auto-subscribe to threads that you post in, because I used to see people post “Posting to subscribe.” ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-this-be-a-relatively-easy-feature-to-install-on-a-message-board/737980/16 "2015-11-22T21:55:56Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I’m not so much interested in being quoted as I am in any posts at all in a thread that I’m participating in. > > Any suggestions for that? Go to User CP Select “Edit Options” Scroll down to “Default Thread Subscription Mode” There is a dropdown box with options. Change it from “Do not subscribe” to whichever notification option you wish. I use “No email notification”, and then just open the User CP page and “View All Subscribed Threads”. It will list every thread you’ve ever subscribed, which will be all the ones you’ve posted in since you enacted subscribing. It lists them with most recently posted in at the top, and shows you the last post date. If you want to subscribe to a thread but you have nothing pithy to post, you can go to the second blue toolbar at the top of the page, “Thread Tools”, “Subscribe to this thread”. Very soon it will list every thread you’re participating in, no matter if you post or someone else posts, and it can alert you the thread has a reply, or you can just check on your own schedule and not clutter your inbox.