Bitcoin Forum

Just noticed I have a huge (as in enormous, gigantic, brobdingnagian) watchlist.
When I go to //bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php, I'm being served an html file that is over 6 MB.

Now, I think I have turned on the feature "Add posted-to topics to watchlist", but while I may post a lot, I'm still surprised.
Also, while I was checking this out, it seemed that at the moment, just any topic I read is automatically being added to my watchlist.

Somehow, I guess I either don't understand what I'm doing, or there must be something seriously wrong with my config.
I mean, 6 MB, seriously? WTF?! :o

Do you maybe have any "Boards" added to your watchlist?  ... which would cause all threads to be added to your watchlist under that board.
https://bitcointalk.org/watch_board.php
 

I do. Just didn't know that's the way it worked.
Does it really add each and every single thread in these boards to the list? Damn.
I always believed that'd be more like a "select * from thread where board in watchlist" thingy.

Oh my, the more you know ::)
Now, just how do I go about cleaning my watchlist?

You can clean your entire watch list by Selecting the "Mark all messages as read" option on the top right corner of the page.  And ooh, that mysql statement  :o

My understanding is that any new topic created after you've added the board should start getting added individually under your watchlist. Which I guess would be like a select * from all_threads where Board is in watchlist AND topic_replies is null  :P  <-no clue how the forum database is structured.
*If "Meta" was one of the watched boards, you may have seen a spike recently in new topics due to the merit system.

Are you trying to clean the watchlist or just clear it? :)

Clear
Edit Watchlist: https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php
Select All, then "Remove Checked"
*this deletes all watched threads.

Cleaning
Edit Watchlist: https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php
Good luck with the checkboxes.
Click "Removed Checked"

... and obviously unwatch any boards you do not want feeding into your watchlist.


This would clear the unread messages of the topics/board, but topics would stay as part of your watchlist and show any new replies to those threads.

What is the difference between https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php and https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=watchlist? They have totally different formatting and background but they are watch lists at the end of the day.  ???

The way I look at it:
Edit watchlist: https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php
View watchlist: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=watchlist

View would show any topics in your watchlist that have new unread replies.
Edit shows all topics in your watchlist... just because it isn't appearing under the "View", doesn't mean it isn't part of your watchlist - waiting to appear when a new reply is added.

Now I get it. Seems to be pretty simple but confusing in the first place. But anyhow, thank  you.

Unfortunately, when I do that, it only cleans out a few hundred or thousand watched threads at a time. I guess there's a limit with the processing of "ticked boxes" in the POST or something. From testing I noticed I get the size of the list down by 0.2 MB every time I do that. So, I'll probably have to reload that page some 30 times or so ::)
Well, at least I'm getting somewhere ;D

Apart from the "*" I'd certainly not use in a production environment and a missing "where user = ?", what about my SQL-statement?
Not that I put a lot of detailed thought into it, but I also don't see anything wrong with it ???
Assuming "thread", "board" and "watchlist" are proper views, of course :)

Obviously, it was only meant to demonstrate my assumptions about the mechanics of the "watch board".
I just don't see why that should actually add records to my watchlist. But it seems to do. ::)

There are limitations you could be running into from PHP, I know there is a setting somewhere (Google told me max_input_vars :D).
Default value appears to be 1,000 so assuming the default is set on this forum, we can estimate you had over 30,000 topics??  :o

Regarding the query, it was valid and obviously a little tongue-in-cheek but I am (was?) a little confused by what you were expecting this feature to do?  Based on your query "select * from thread where board in watchlist", I first interpreted this as being run from a global perspective (assuming "threads" was a table of every thread on the forum) and returning all threads where that threads respective "board" is in your board watchlist... which is sort of what it does, it just limits it to new topics in those boards.

I have a feeling my confusion was that your example query was meant to be executed on your own watchlist?  which would make it more of a "select * from threadsinmywatchlist where board in mywatchboard". In which case, I assume there would need to be another 'view' page or some sort of "Only show threads in my watch board" checkbox to filter only threads in your watchlist that are part of boards added in your "watch board"?  This would allow the 'watch board' to still function the way it does, but give an option to filter the view of the watchlist to only threads part of boards in the "watch board".

Not sure if I'd find this useful but it might be helpful for people who post all over the forum but want a way to quickly filter the watchlist view to only topics that are part of boards in their "watch board"?

Good news, everyone: I cleared my watchlist. Well, if PHP has such a limitation, I guess that was the reason ::)
I didn't count how many times I reloaded, but I guess that, yes, something on the order of 30.000 topics could possibly have been on my list 8)

Well, I assume that somehow there's a table called "watched_threads" with records like "user, thread". This is where a "thread id" goes whenever I click "watch" on a thread.
I also assumed that whenever I watched a whole board, there'd be a table called "watched_boards" with records like "user, board", where only the "board id" goes.
Then, whenever I'd look at my watchlist, it would simply look for all new posts in "watched_threads" as well as any new posts in "watched_boards".
I just did not assume that, in fact, every single new thread in a watched board would be automatically inserted into my "watched_threads".

See the difference?
In one case, "watched_threads" would stay relatively small, in the other case, it'd quickly blow up over time.
Sure, with "my" method, the query behind "watchlist" would be slightly more complex.

You got a huge activity number. Mine is nothing compared to you. That's why my watchlist is very little. Matter of fact, there's not even 10 posts there. And interestingly, I'm on the same train as you are. I don't know how I got these 9. I mean I don't know my config either.

how many topics you usually read ?? might be all because you read so much.

is there a way to "permanently" clean my watchlist?
as in permanently never give me notice anymore if there's new replies to those threads
I would like to "ignore" some of the irrelevant old threads in my watchlist

I think this should help. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=338591;sa=notification , as in your case,deselect  the first checkbox,http://i63.tinypic.com/2dv1i5v.png
If not,just go here :- https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php ; select all of them and remove them ,though I believe this is temporary.

I believe I see the difference, and this is probably how I would imagine the basic structure of the tables as well. Assuming this was how it worked, how would the forum know which thread(s) in a board to add or show in your watchlist after you have added a board to "watch board"?  If the answer is "any topic I've posted to within that board", wouldn't these threads already be getting added with the "automatically add threads I've posted to" checkbox and make this somewhat redundant?

Would your intent be that you could unwatch a thread you have posted in, but still have it appear in the watchlist because that thread is under a board in your watch board list?

I may be over(or under)thinking this. :) 


It sounds like you just want to remove them from your watchlist, use "Edit Watchlist (https://bitcointalk.org/watchlist.php)" and check off the threads you do not want to show up - then "Remove checked"

I want to unwatch them, as in no longer listed/showed under my watchlist when new replies posted
I (think) have tried this before but it only removes them temporarily from the list.
I'm going to try again today, I will try "Select all" then "Remove checked"

anyway to control what will be shown on unreadreplies page, such as some filtering to ignore very old threads?

As long as they've been removed from the "Edit watchlist" area, they shouldn't get added back in unless you re-watch the thread or reply in the same thread again (assuming "Automatically watch topics after replying to them" is enabled on your account). Reading all posts in the thread will temporarily remove it from the watchlist view but a new reply will make it re-appear.