Filter the noise: keep track of only certain types of threads on T-I

[fge]

Greetings,

I've been participating on various forums over the years, and if you're like me, the main way I track new content is by using the "New Posts" or "What's New?" functions instead of hunting down new threads by forums. Also, since most of the other forums I frequent are related to buying and selling commodities like sports equipment and computer hardware (never torrent invites FYI), I like to be able to quickly see the new stuff up for grabs.

After navigating T-I for a couple of days I'm starting to feel more at home, but the high volume of threads not relevant to the content I want to see has prompted me to test out a few search parameters to have a quick access to certain types of content via browser bookmarks.

What this allows you to do
√ Create custom search parameters
√ Create bookmarks to keep them on hand

What this does not allow you to do
x Access forum sections to which you don't have access
x Replace the native "What's New?" button

I'm assuming you already have a functional knowledge on how to manage bookmarks in your browser and OS of choice. Take note that this isn't exclusive to T-I, it can be used on any forum running vBulletin.

Understanding the basics
There are two sorts of searches vBulletin is able to do to help you find recent content:
getnew - retrieves new posts since you're last visit
getdaily - retrieves posts from the last 24 hours

/search.php?do=getnew
/search.php?do=getdaily

Personally, I only use the getnew function since I check out forums regularly during the day.


Each of these can be further manipulated with a few arguments, for the purpose of this two are relevant:
exclude - performs the search, while excluding certain forums
include - performs the search, only including certain forums

/search.php?do=getnew&exclude=x,y,z
/search.php?do=getnew&include=x,y,z




Depending on what kind of filter you want to set up, you need to decide if you want to approach it in an inclusive or exclusive manner.

For example, if you want all the new content without seeing Introductions threads, the search would look like this:
/search.php?do=getnew&exclude=48

Or if you're interested in searching only for the various Off-Topic and sub forums, the search would look like this:
/search.php?do=getnew&include=6,72,19,88,22,95,125, 20,23,39,21,54,91

Inclusive and exclusive searches are... well, exclusive. You only need to specify one or the other. As you see, you can include or exclude as many forums as you want, separating each by a comma with no spacing.

Forum numbers, where to find 'em?


Assembling the whole thing
Once you decide what you want to include or exclude, assemble your arguments into a URL, copy it and bookmark it.

http://www.torrent-invites.com/search.php?do=[getnew,getdaily]&[exclude,include]=x,y,z

Ok, I'm confused, how can I use this exactly?
Here are a few configurations to get you started.

Get new or recently updated threads related to invite giveaways:
http://www.torrent-invites.com/search.php?do=getnew&include=96,53,10,40

Get new or recently updated threads related to invite requests:
http://www.torrent-invites.com/search.php?do=getnew&include=11

Get new or recently updated threads excluding invite giveaways:
http://www.torrent-invites.com/search.php?do=getnew&exclude=96,53,10,40

Get new or recently updated threads excluding introductions:
http://www.torrent-invites.com/search.php?do=getnew&exclude=48

Hope this helps you guys!

[LabChimp]

Hey, that's a good guide!
Thanks and good job.
+1 rep from me.