Not Updating `last_posted_at` when sending a private message

dev
1

I’m working on a plugin that will not update a users last_posted_at when sending a private message.

Our use case is probably unique, but people have been using it to solve the forum game we run.

We run mafia games using discourse. The mafia/scum faction would use private messages to communicate. When users last posted time did not match up with the last actual post people were finding out who the mafia/scum were. We eventually shipped the mafia chat to chatzy, but that is just annoying and we want to be back in the same forum.

I wrote this

https://github.com/Roragok/discourse-hidden-private-messages/blob/master/plugin.rb

It seems to be working on my development environment, but was just wondering if there is a better way or would this cause problems? I am pretty new to making discourse plugins.

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Does this look ok @sam?

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The hack should be OK. I guess you are asking “Should core stop updating last posted at, when you post on messages”

My answer is … maybe… we would carefully work through a change like this. Probably take a day or 2 to get it perfect.

There are concerns around huge amount of testing that depends on it being updated, various processes like time stamp resetting that would have to account for this, plugins, and so on.

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Wouldn’t it just be simpler to remove last posted at from the interface entirely for communities who need it?

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I suggest you go for it and see what happens. Report back here after a few weeks.

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I was unsure of the consequences of completely removing it. Also it seems like a cool metric that is useful to see who is active etc.

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Just thought id report back. been on for two weeks. have not seen any negative effects.

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