Guardians: New Feature - Filter Posts That Matter Most

[Fraize]

We're rolling out a new Guardian-exclusive feature: User Filtering.

What It Does​

Websleuths threads can get long. Really long. This tool helps you cut through the noise and find the posts you're most interested in.

You can now choose to highlight or show only posts from:

• Guardians - Fellow supporters of the community
• Verified Insiders - Witnesses, family members, and others with direct case knowledge
• Verified Experts - Lawyers, coroners, professional investigators, law enforcement
• Moderators - Staff posts and announcements

Whether you want expert analysis to stand out visually or you only want to see posts from verified sources, you're in control.

How To Use It

​

1. Go to the top of any thread
2. Click the Filter button
3. Select which groups you'd like to highlight or show
4. Press Filter Posts

That's it. The thread will update instantly.

Why Guardian-Exclusive?​

This feature required significant development work, and we wanted to give our supporters something valuable. Guardians keep Websleuths running - this is one more way we can say thank you.

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Not a Guardian yet? Upgrade here to unlock this and other exclusive features.

 

[Inthedetails]

Is there a feature to hide threads? There are some threads that I don't even want to see the titles when scrolling through the forums (too graphic, for example). Is there a way to hide an entire thread?

jmopinion

 

[Izzylizzy]

Before trying it I'd like to know how to switch back to regular posting.
Thanks!

 

[Fraize]

Before trying it I'd like to know how to switch back to regular posting.
Thanks!

When you enable a filter, there will be big obvious buttons to remove the filters you select, one at a time, or all at once, at the top of the page, and inside the Filter button.

It's not scary - it won't bite!

 

[Fraize]

Is there a feature to hide threads? There are some threads that I don't even want to see the titles when scrolling through the forums (too graphic, for example). Is there a way to hide an entire thread?

jmopinion

I hear you. We don't have that right now, but please send me feature requests via DM instead of here.

 

[tlcya]

I like the filter feature, if for no other reason than I can select to highlight mod posts specifically so when quick reading to catch up I don't inadvertently scroll past updates from mods about what is or isn't allowed in any particular thread.

 

[Gemmie]

Before trying it I'd like to know how to switch back to regular posting.
Thanks!

View attachment 640446

You simply click on the X up top which removes it.

 

[Fraize]

You simply click on the X up top which removes it.

View attachment 640450

there's also this big boy

and this one, too

 

[Gemmie]

Love it! Always multiple ways to do the same thing.

 

[Bounceycat]

Love this new feature! Thank you!

 

[cenazoic]

Love it, thank you. Suggestion: add a filter for manually-added users (follows?) who don’t otherwise fit the above categories.

 

[Izzylizzy]

When you enable a filter, there will be big obvious buttons to remove the filters you select, one at a time, or all at once, at the top of the page, and inside the Filter button.

It's not scary - it won't bite!

Thanks Fraize
I will click it now.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Okay, I just tried it, and found a problem (at least, for me it's a problem).

I went to a busy thread and applied the filters. Thread shortened by a lot, yay! And while of course I don't know what posts I missed, I trust that any major case developments would be mentioned or at least quoted by those whose posts are still visible to me.

Great, so far, so good.

But then I went to one of the Jury Room chat threads I enjoy, and -- oh no! Those filters all carried over to that thread!

Is that supposed to happen?

Are we intended to turn filters on and off each time we look at a different thread?

Or only apply filters we are willing to have on all threads we peruse?

If it's the latter, is it possible for the Jury Room threads to be excluded?

Thanks @Fraize !

ETA: I solved this for myself by switching from filtered to highlighted -- then I can scroll to only the highlighted posts in busy threads, if I want, but can still see all my friends' posts in the Jury Room threads. A bit more cumbersome than the filters but I think it will work!

A question: if I have filters on, and read a thread to a certain point in time, and then I remove filters, will the software consider the skipped posts "new" to me? Or does the "jump to new posts" function connect to date posted rather than whether individual posts may have been hidden from me? Thanks again!

 

[Fraize]

Are we intended to turn filters on and off each time we look at a different thread?

Or only apply filters we are willing to have on all threads we peruse?

I have the ability to make filters specific to only the thread you're viewing, but I felt like people would forget and, when they went to a new thread, they might wonder why they're missing so many posts. Making it one universal setting made the most sense, from a potential user-confusion perspective!

if I have filters on, and read a thread to a certain point in time, and then I remove filters, will the software consider the skipped posts "new" to me? Or does the "jump to new posts" function connect to date posted rather than whether individual posts may have been hidden from me? Thanks again!

I haven't tested this to be sure, but the board will mark "New" any posts that have been made since the last date you visited the thread. So, even if they were filtered out by this filter, they'll still be marked as read for you.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Thanks @Fraize !

I understand your reasoning. I had hoped that the settings could be thread-specific rather than just the currently-viewed vs all. If those are the only choices then I would have chosen as you did.

Given that, I will repeat my request/suggestion to exempt the Jury Room threads, or at least consider it.

Yes "new" going by date rather than individual posts makes sense!