New Feature Live Threads: Updates in real-time

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Don't you wish you didn't need to refresh the page each time you are reading an active thread? Right! Me too!

So I'm happy to present to you the latest forum feature - Live Threads!

It is as it sounds - basically thread pages update in real time, so if someone adds a new reply, you'll see it append instantly. If they react to a post, the hearts will pop up in front of your very eyes - and also, if someone is typing a reply, then that will be indicated too!

Who is typing?

If you look at the bottom of the page, just above the reply box, you'll see a new info bar. When nothing is going on it looks like this:

But when someone is typing, it will update with a fancy animation and let you know who is creating the next post masterpiece!

I'm hoping to be able to roll this out to conversations too, making them into more of a real-time chat - but that will have to wait, super busy at the moment :S

 

[ben]

Experimenting with hiding the "typing block" if no one is typing.

The downside of this is it moves the reply input box up and down as it shows and hides (which I think is why the default is to show the box permanently)

 

[ben]

Well after a bit of testing, in Edge at least, if you have the reply box selected, it moves the content above up, rather than the box down