Flat vs. Threaded

[Doug H]

This reminds of the one at Musictoyz. After a couple days it is pretty easy to find your way around. When the threads get big the "threaded" types can get confusing.

I'm with Jack, give it a week and no one will remember.

Doug

[william]

I like both styles.  But I do agree that some long discussions on a threaded board can get hard to sort out.  I think the forums on the IMDB are a good median between the two styles though.

William

[Peter B]

I think I'm leaning towards the flat style forum... I did find the threaded style a bit frustrating for long topics... especially if the thread ran over a couple of days and got "broken".

Mind you I haven't really tried to chase a particular topic on this style yet...  but time will tell huh?

Peter.

[moosapotamus]

Sometimes, when threads get long, several threads develop within the original thread. When this happens, I think the 'flat' style forces you to have to weed through a lot of messages that are unrelated to the particular (sub)thread that you might be interested in.

In comparison, the threaded style of the original forum makes it very easy to follow particular (sub)discussions that tend to develop within longer threads.

But, I guess, the majority of posts do not develop into multi-(sub)-threaded discussions. So, maybe that's not a big deal, most of the time.

~ Charlie

[aron]

I like both styles.  But I do agree that some long discussions on a threaded board can get hard to sort out.  I think the forums on the IMDB are a good median between the two styles though.

William

There is a mod that will allow imdb type threading for a single thread. I may investigate that.

[Rob Strand]

The threaded stuff makes it easier to work out who is talking to who, and it's particularly useful for isolating parts of the conversation which go off on their own tangent.  Long thread on flat listings are almost impossible to follow.

I actually like the Ampage format the best.  You can see all the posts in the thread, which I like, and you can see the tree structure of the thread.

[aron]

You can see all the posts in the thread, which I like, and you can see the tree structure of the thread.

Yes.

The best I have found is this:

http://www.jayjaymedia.com/mobythreads/forums/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=2&t=2

But you can only see one response at a time.

However, you can switch between flat and threaded as an option.

[aron]

The threaded stuff makes it easier to work out who is talking to who, and it's particularly useful for isolating parts of the conversation which go off on their own tangent.

Why do you think the majority of forums are giving up on threads? I don't understand it.

Why is it an "old" way of doing things? The only thing we can do here is use the quote button.

[Rob Strand]

>Why do you think the majority of forums are giving up on threads? I don't understand it.

I honestly don't know.  IMHO from a user's point of view there's almost no benefit to the flat form.

> Why is it an "old" way of doing things? The only thing we can do here is use the quote button.

Call me cynicle, but I suspect the software writers are enforcing this view.  Like a lot of this web stuff people jump on the bandwagon and never ask why.  These flat forums can be made to look nice because the panels are regular.  The regularity also means you can display more than one message on the screen and still look nice. ).  For small threads this is OK, but, the message context then gets lost - for example imaging posting a reply to post 2 when you at post 50.  I also suspect they are easier to write and maintain since the message linking is simpler.

The AMPAGE format was cool it has the flat view with all the messages but you still have access the the thread structure.

Despite my beefs with the flat form I think we will still survive with it .

I like the way the old messages are available at the bottom of the page when you reply to a message - I didn't like the fact the old message wasn't visible on the old forum, I used to open up the reply in another window.

Rob

[aron]

Call me cynicle, but I suspect the software writers are enforcing this view.

I agree. They are ones telling us this.

Wow, I just found out you can paste anything in here, select it and click the Quote button and it auto quotes it. Not that's kind of cool.

I also suspect they are easier to write and maintain since the message linking is simpler.

I think this is true.

I like the way the old messages are available at the bottom of the page when you reply to a message - I didn't like the fact the old message wasn't visible on the old forum, I used to open up the reply in another window.

Yes, I like that part.

Did you have a chance to check out that link I posted above? It gives this forum threading in a limited fashion.

[petemoore59]

If the 'food' [info] is great ... I dont care [too much] about the 'fork' [forum] type, as long as I get good 'scoops'!.
 Because there are more threads here,  [..and the old forums troubles/attibutyes will soon be a memory] so this is where I'll be!!!
 I'd like to say a fresh "THANK YOU" [Aron and everyone!!!] for the first time on the new forum!!!       ...because You're Great!!!                            Pete

[Rob Strand]

Did you have a chance to check out that link I posted above? It gives this forum threading in a limited fashion.

Yes,  since you have drawn my attention to some of these features  the forum software looks pretty good really - I'm starting to like it already .

[Ed Rembold]

I guess I'm "old school" , I'm already missing the old forum and the threaded lists.
also I'm on a phone modem  (there still is no DSL where my shop is).  So, this forum is incredibly slow for me.
sigh.......
Ed R.

[Ed Rembold]

I guess I'm "old school" , I'm already missing the old forum and the threaded lists.
also I'm on a phone modem  (there still is no DSL where my shop is).  So, this forum is incredibly slow for me.
sigh.......
Ed R.

[Rob Strand]

So, this forum is incredibly slow for me.

That's interesting. I'm on a dial-up too and this forum is much faster than the old one for me.  Weird.

Rob

[Ed Rembold]

I think the slowness is a problem at my end,  it rained really hard here yesterday,  the lines are still on poles in my neck of the woods, I plugged a standard phone into my modem jack, and listened,  and it was super static-y (sp?) after everything drys out it will probably be faster. (I hope).
Ed R.