4. Reading Filters


The new "content filters" code is currently going into testing so that people can really bang on them and make sure they work. The reason it's taking so long - and I suppose I can spill the beans now - is that we added quite a bit of functionality to what you're used to.

In particular, we've made it so that when you create a content filter and add someone to it, you can now set options on which content, exactly, you want to see. For example, with the new system, you can do the following:

* Create a filter, name it 'Tech Stuff'
* Show posts by [info - staff] mark with ANY OF the tags: perl, code, computers, tech
* Show posts in [info - community] dw_dev posted by a community maintainer
* Show posts in [info - community] dw_biz
* Show posts in [info] randomstuff with Safe For Work content

What does this filter show you? Exactly what it says. Any posts I make that are tagged with one of the listed tags (you can also choose 'all of' and 'none of'). Plus, posts in the first community that were made by a maintainer. All posts from the second community. And from the third, posts that are flagged as Safe For Work (or have no flag set).

These options give you a lot of flexibility over what you see and don't see in your filters. If you know that someone posts things that you don't care about, and they always tag it "tmi", you can now make sure that those posts don't show up on your reading page.

The system is pretty flexible, too. As people come up with new and interesting filters they want to make, we can fairly easily add them. If you have any great ideas for filters that you'd love to have, let me know.

Of course, one thing to note is that this is mostly a paid user feature. Free users will have access to create basic content filters which are exactly what you're used to from other sites. Only paid users will be able to filter by tag, poster, etc.

I expect an early version of reading filters to be in the next code push -- late August/early September.