About the Newest Nodes view

Newest Nodes is an up-to-the-moment listing of all the nodes which were created since "the last time you checked".

Use Newest Nodes Settings for configuring your Newest Nodes, and setting/clearing your "last checked" time.

You can opt to see or not see any of the sections in Newest Nodes.
You have some control over the formatting/verbosity of the "table of contents" shown at the top of Newest Nodes.
You can opt to see or not see reaped nodes in the Newest Nodes listing.
You can have a few choices for the order in which nodes are listed in each section.

Newest Nodes links to Recently Updated Home Nodes at the bottom, for your convenience.

The Newest Nodes "Last Checked" Time

Perhaps the most important control over Newest Nodes is your "last checked" time. Whenever you click the "I've checked all of these" button on Newest Nodes, your "last checked" field is set to the time at which the Newest Nodes page was loaded — in other words, the point in time up to which you've see nodes listed.

If this field is set, Newest Nodes uses the date/time stored there as a limit for how far back to show you "new" nodes. (However, 60 days is the hard limit. If your "last checked" value is older than that, only 60 days' worth of nodes will be shown. Note also that no more than 7 days' worth of replies are ever shown, regardless of the setting of this field, due to server load considerations.)

If this field is unset (i.e., cleared), then Newest Nodes lists nodes created during the preceding 24-hour period, and gives you a selection widget to view optionally up to 14 days of recent nodes.

If you're the type who checks Newest Nodes several times throughout the day, you can click "I've checked all of these" each time, so that the subsequent render of the page only shows you what's really new. If you ever decide, "Aw, my 'last checked' time is too recent; I want to see older nodes," then you can click the "Clear my 'last checked' time" button; this clears out the date/time value stored in that field. (And of course, there is always Super Search for maximally flexible node listing.)

Clearing your "last checked" time is also useful if it is set to some time in the distant past — for example, if you're away from the Monastery for a long time. You don't need to worry about overtaxing the server in this case, however, since Newest Nodes will never show you more than 60 days' worth of nodes, regardless of how far back your "last checked" time is set.

This "last checked" value, if set, is used in a few other places in the Monastery as well:

1. When viewing a node thread, any replies which are newer than your "last checked" time have some extra style class added, so that you can highlight them. If you would find this useful, go to your Display Settings and add some CSS along these lines:

   td.reply-new      { background-color: #FC7 }
   td.reply-new-body { background-color: #FBB }
   [download]

   Of course, you can use different colors or do whatever other styling you like to make these "new replies" stand out.

2. When you visit Tutorials, "new" tutorials (if any) are listed at the top. "New" means posted since your "last checked" time, if set, or within 30 days, if not.

3. Recently Updated Home Nodes also uses your "last checked" time to limit the list of "recently" updated nodes.