topic order

daveholliday · Post by **daveholliday** » Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:45 pm

Hi, I'm setting up a new forum and wanted to start off with a 'welcome' category featruring a series of topics giving instructions on using the forum, such as registration, navigation, posting etc. If I enter these sequentially then the last topic ends up first in the list whixch isn't what I want obviously. I could write them in opposite order of course but then if something else occurs I'm stuck so is there a way to set topics within a category so that the topic entered first stays first in the order? Thanks DH

warmweer · Post by **warmweer** » Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:54 pm

Have a look at viewtopic.php?f=616&t=2415706&hilit=change+time
With this extension you can change the time of a post (and if it's the first post in a topic, it changes the topic time also).

daveholliday · Post by **daveholliday** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:58 am

OK thanks, I was hoping for a simpler solution but will try your suggestion.

janus_zonstraal · Post by **janus_zonstraal** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 6:33 am

You can make it a "sticky" post or a "announcement" than it stays on the top off the list.

daveholliday · Post by **daveholliday** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:42 am

Hi, thanks, I tried that but found that when I entered the second sticky it still went to the top of the list. I'll try it again to check and post the result. DH

warmweer · Post by **warmweer** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:11 am

daveholliday wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:42 am Hi, thanks, I tried that but found that when I entered the second sticky it still went to the top of the list. I'll try it again to check and post the result. DH

That's always going to be a problem because it's a new topic and sortorder is usually by datetime. (although users may use a different sortorder).

Let's accept that the sortorder is based on datetime. You could write the different topics, set the order by changing the time, and then close the topics.
If those topics remain open however and users can reply then the order wil change again.

It would be a nice feature if an admin could decide on a fixed sortorder for stickies (perhaps also annoucements) e.g. alphabetic and it would be just a matter of giving a suitable topicname.

AmigoJack · Post by **AmigoJack** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:19 am

Keep in mind that every user is able to sort a forum individually, and as per UCP > Board preferences > Edit display options > Display topics ordering by he can also set an alternative default.

If you want your topics to be read in a given order consider prefixing their titles with an ordinal, i.e.

Step 3: Posting
Step 1: Registration
Step 2: Navigation

bw99 · Post by **bw99** » Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:24 am

Bit late to the party here, but I was searching for this and have found a decent solution.

If you make your instructions 'announcements' rather than 'stickies', they go in a section all of their own at the top of the forum. Also, they are sorted by the time of the announcement. People can still post replies to them, but they stay in order of the original announcement. If you want to change the order of them and you are confident in sql, you can hack the table phpbb_topics to change the topic time so that the announcements are set in the order that you want.

3Di · Post by **3Di** » Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:54 am

bw99 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:24 am Bit late to the party here, but I was searching for this and have found a decent solution.

viewtopic.php?t=2491876

AmigoJack · Post by **AmigoJack** » Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:57 am

bw99 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:24 amthey are sorted by the time of the announcement

Must have been introduced with 3.2 or 3.1 - 3.0 also sorted announcement and stickies as requested.