README.bubbling.md

buddycloud bubbles: buddycloud sorts the most interesting information for you

Bubbling is unique to buddycloud and defines which events cause a user or channel to float upwards to the top of the channel list. Users subscribe to hundreds of channels. We want to show the user the most important information with the least amount of scrolling.

Channels bubble up according to the following sorting:

(Never sorted by post counts)

• the owner's channel should be pinned to the top of the channel list (and scroll with all channels)
• 1st: channels with unread @mentions - sorted from newest to oldest (where am I mentioned?)
• 2nd: channels with unread private messages - sorted from newest to oldest (did someone try to contact me?)
• 3th: channels with unread channel posts - most recent posts to oldest (show new new posts higher up the list)
• 4th: sorted from most recent posts to oldest
• 5th: tie breaker - compare alphabetically (for example a new user with pre-defined channels)

sort(channelA, channelB):
  if (channelA.hasMentions and !channelB.hasMentions):
    return -1
  if (!channelA.hasMentions and channelB.hasMentions):
    return 1
  if (channelA.hasMentions and channelB.hasMentions):
    return channelB.lastMention - channelA.lastMention
    
  if (channelA.hasPrivate and !channelB.hasPrivate):
    return -1
  if (!channelA.hasPrivate and channelB.hasPrivate):
    return 1
  if (channelA.hasPrivate and channelB.hasPrivate):
    return channelB.lastPrivate - channelA.lastPrivate
    
  if (channelA.hasPost and !channelB.hasPost):
    return -1
  if (!channelA.hasPost and channelB.hasPost):
    return 1
  if (channelA.hasPost and channelB.hasPost):
    return channelB.lastPost - channelA.lastPost
    
  if (channelA.lastPost != channelB.lastPost):
    return channelB.lastPost - channelA.lastPost
  
  return channelA.name - channelB.name
    

So for example our hypothetical user might have their list of channels in the following order:

• [email protected] (top becasue they are [email protected])
• [email protected] (mentioned in a post - they really know their coffee (or code))
• [email protected] (also mentioned here)
• [email protected] (users replied to [email protected]'s posting)
• [email protected] (a private message from mom)
• [email protected] (a private messgae from dad that was sent before mom sent hers)
• [email protected] (a very new channel post)
• [email protected] (an older channel post)
• [email protected] (nothing unread, but most recently accessed)
• [email protected] (nothing unread, but also not read for a long time)
• [email protected] (not read for even longer than [email protected])