Today I released a set of changes designed to do 2 things:

1. Cut down on the number of database queries, and above all, page generation time, when a creator views threads of thiers that have a lot of thanks (many hundreds or thousands)

2. Sort and filter the names of people who have thanked a thread.

To that end I have released a new style of viewing the post thanks for creators on thier own threads. Previously, you got a huge long list of people, not formatted, and that was pulled in when you first requested the page. This resulted in huge lists, and huge page load times - in the order of 93 seconds for some of mine.

Now, when the page loads, the thanks list doesn't load, and is instead loaded via an AJAX call. In addition, the thanks lists themselves are now sorted into 5 tabs. Friends, Featured Creators, MTS Staff, Creators and Members. Please note that non creators on this list are not loaded automatically, unless the number of thanks on a download is less than 50. Otherwise, an additional click will load the normal members too.

For an example, here is a screenshot from my Dashboard thread:



Note that I realise the "tabs" don't really "fit" with some of the themes, but this is deliberate, and I will be slowly updating the site to match them. Gotta start somewhere

Note 2: This doesn't show on the old style download pages - only on the new tabbed ones.

I hope you like this change, and please let me know any feedback you have.

Regards
Delphy

I really like the new filtering for thank lists. It's good to know what kind of people on MTS have been thanking you, plus, I love the new filtering design! :D

Bloody everytime I come out of my turtle hole the world has change again, I am still slowing crawling to hunt down the person who is responsible for the filter. Now here is another scoundrel that have change the "Thank You" list. I can not catch up with these fast moving characters, So I am calling "Sherlock Holmes" and "Dr. Watson" in to investigate these changing crimes. hahahaa lmao hahaha

Oooh Delphy, I love it! Gotta admit I do wish there were a tab for regular non-creator members though. There are quite a few non-creators who regularly comment on threads and even make requests through PM and whatnot, and it's nice to be able to look at the thanks list to see that those folks have seen the upload.

Also, what order are the lists sorted in? I can't seem to figure that one out. .

fansee: The lists are sorted in order of date thanked (earliest ones appear sooner in the list). As for showing only certain people - thats what the friends list is for Enabling it to show all members regardless will just go back to the old slow method of loading, which is not something I want to do.

Simonut: Do you have a problem with the new thanks tabs, or do you like them? As for the filter stuff, that was me. Who else would it have been? I just don't understand what you are trying to say with all this crawling into holes and so on. Obviously a site like MTS has to adapt, add new features and tweak existing ones in order for it to provide the same quality to our users as before, and sometimes that means changing things up a bit. You just have to accept that these changes will happen and get used to them.

Really nice work, but I think it should be a tab, that shows normal members list too. I prefer to know exactly who thanked me, even if loading time is a bit longer.

If there are particular members you're interested in, Lhonna, then you can always add them to your friends list. If it's just random members, then it really doesn't matter the individual names, if you don't know them.

Really interesting to see the 'thankers' filtered Thanks!

Ooh, really love this feature, it's easier to see who I know actually thanked my creations, without me asking of course

To those with misgivings about not being able to see the full list, I do understand - it's a trade-off to some degree. Not loading the full list has brought loading times of some threads down from over a minute and a half to less than two seconds; that's at least 45 times faster. I think you'll agree that losing a usually fairly uninteresting part of the Thanks list is worth it for such a huge loading speed improvement.

hey, Im just.... putting my 2 cents in..

THis is a awesome idea, and i would love to see the same thing for users that favourited us... so.. in other words, we would go to the scorecard, go down to Statistics, click on the section that says "## people have added you to their favourite creator list" and we would be able to instantly know how many staff, creators etc have favourited us. Just a thought

I must admit I'm in the corner with the people who'd still like to be able to see all thankers, but I can understand the need to cut down load time and server load. I'm sure I'll get used to it in time.

Possible Bug Report: If you use the old, non-tabbed downloads view (which is the one I prefer), nothing at all happens when you click the "Click here to view the complete list" link. Is this by design/inevitable because the new list uses tabs when the non-tabbed view doesn't, or is it a bug?

I think that I understand why you introduced this set of changes,but can't prevent myself to dislike it...On my eyes it just means... shorter loading times,less humanism

However it will not be enough to cure my MTS-addiction :lovestruc ,I will keep downloading and downloading.... unsure if pressing the "Thanks" button still makes any sense

But you are a creator, Mehrlicht. Your name will show up in the list. And even if it doesn't, the thanks gets counted towards the creator's total..... so please keep clicking, non-creators. And if you want your appreciation known more specifically, then leave a comment! Comments are more fun than lists anyway.

The "friends" feature is a good solution if there are specific non-creators you want to see in the list. Now that I've added a few friends I see that it works well. For those who don't know how to use it - go to "User Links" on the nav bar (top right corner of the page) and under the "User Control Panel" heading click "Edit Friend / Ignore Lists". There you can add people to your "Buddy List" and those people will show up in the "Friends" thanks tab.

Hurray for faster load times! Yay Delphy! *applause applause*

Back when non-creators were listed in thanks, I found out I have a few folks who regularly get my stuff, and that gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. The list also helped me contact folks if I posted a critical update, since not everyone checks for those. However, on the whole, I think this is a really great change and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

nixnivis, the old view is years out of date, and isn't supported any more - it's quite likely that new features won't work on it; and when that is the case they're not likely to be fixed to work on the outdated views.

whiterider, I didn't demand that it be fixed, I just wanted to make Delphy aware of it just in case he wasn't. I guess I shouldn't have.

I wasn't suggesting you were demanding anything, just explaining why it doesn't work.

"Delphy" Life is no fun without laughter I love comic I love the "turtle icon" because turtle are slow and can not catch up with fast moving things or changes, I try to find humor in some of the things you have or may change on the site. I do know that changes are made by you and must be done to add a new look or features, Delphy the "Thank You" Tabs and the filter are good changes. A sense of humor is in all of us, I am sure you have it as well. How you miss my humor in what I have said I do not know. Carry on

I don't like it.

1. I have no friends. In fact, I'm going to join Friends of the Friendless tomorrow right after I finish shooting my Vita-Vita Vegimen commercial.

2. I'm an egalitarian and think everyone should be treated equally. There is a certain elitism to thinking only creators are worthy of being noted. Some peole may feel that way. I do not. With no offense to creators intended. I love creators, modders, and cc--if you look at my posts they are the things I never complain about.

3. There are times we may wish to contact the downloaders (not just creators and friends). Right after I uploaded The Gothic Quarter I realized I omitted the last cc item on my list (a cut and paste error). I immediately amended the Dowload page and as there were only a dozen or so downloaders at that point, I sent the people who had already downloaded a message letting them know about the omission and apologizing for any inconvenience. I felt if people were nice enough to download my lot and say thank you, the least I could do is make sure they had all the correct info for it. Besides, it was only a few people. No one minded getting the message and some appreciated that I took the time to do so. For the people who downloaded and didn't say Thanks? Well, I had no idea who they were and couldn't do anything about it. Perhaps, next time they should hit the button.

For me 1 in 100 people leaves a comment, 1 in 10 bothers to hit the Thank you button. I do not want to put those people in the same category as people who download and don't say thanks or even hit the button. I value their consideration.

Not all of us are rock star creators and our pages do not take long to load. Mine takes a wee second. Is there any chance of having how downloaders are listed be creators choice? Allowing people to a screen or unscreen downloaders list?

Sorry, my response couldn't be more positive,,,but you did ask.

Awesome feature! It was nice being able to view everyone who thanked the thread, but also difficult picking through all of them to find names that I recognize. Now I can see them at a glance. Thanks!

(However, I do sympathize with the people who don't like the exclusion. Maybe there could be an additional tab for "normal" users, or perhaps an "all" tab without filtration?)

*Edit* Sorry, I posted before reading the whole thread. I see that adding that back in would defeat the purpose. (Although, personally I've never been bothered by slow loading times, and I'm on a weak connection.) I don't suppose there's any way to have the names load upon tab click rather than with the page?

I know that usually when features like this are implemented they are here to stay. I understand the logic for the page load times (although that has never bothered me either). At the same time I value the thanks I get from non creators or off site creators equally and have become quite attached to seeing certain names pop up over and over again. It is a show of appreciation and I think it deserves respect in return. Not everyone is comfortable leaving a comment. Making a friends list just in order to be able to see certain names seems a bit wierd and I couldn't remember them off the top of my head anyway.

If it were at all possible, like others have mentioned, to see the entire lists in some shape or form would be greatly appreciated.

Totally agree with what has been already said. Yep, that's great to save loading time on the server and whatever, but I don't really like the fact that 'non-creators' are excluded from the 'thanks' list, now. Why should they bother thanking, then? I think it's a bit like telling them "hey, look, if you're not a CREATOR your feedback doesn't count"... doesn't sound so nice
Not saying that things should be brought back exactly as they were, but... isn't there really any way to see non-creators in the list?

For performance reasons, showing a huuuuuuuuge list of people is not gonna happen again, but we've got some ideas for still showing non-creators in some performance-limited fashion. But it does require Delphy to code it so it might be a few days before it's added. Just be patient, ya'll, but we are listening.

I have to agree with the various comments above when it comes to lists of people who have clicked thanks. I don't look at it very often though, so I would be happy to take a hit on waiting for the list to be created when I actually asked to look at it (I actually thought that was what happened when you opened up the list anyway). That way most page serving wouldn't have to build the list, and when it was needed it could be requested from the database?

I also don't have any friends