 August 7, 2007 - 11:54am | It's my preferences that forums be flat. That is, one continuous stream of comments, flowing like a discussion, each person contributing to the last thing said. For those times when a user must reply to something somebody said five posts prior, he uses the "quote" option. That's my opinion. However, some people like nested forums. In a nested forum, the level and position of your comment's placement depends on where you click "reply". This results in a tree-like forum where not all recent forum posts exist at the bottom. For example:
Topic Post
Etc. In the above example, "- - - Comment 1 to Comment 2 to Comment 2 of topic post" might be new but be located upstream of old posts, just indented to show parental positioning. I could accomplish this through indentation of comments, but I wonder if others find this style as difficult to find new posts as I do. Additionally, it runs the very common potential that people hit "reply" in the wrong place and their comment goes in a place that's hard to follow the conversation. Even though it's not my preference, I realize others have preferences and ask that the testers give their opinions. I don't want to make it an option for each client-side user; I want it to be a site-wide solution... this would result to some messed up formatting (flatlisters like me might hit reply at an inappropriately nested place that reads fine in a flat list but not in a hierarchical one). 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 August 7, 2007 - 11:59am | I am with you... I prefer to simply quote when necessary, and not have to scroll all over the place to figure out stuff.
.03 cents <insert witty comment here> |
 August 7, 2007 - 7:53pm | I've always hated nested comments. They would be great ifyou could be sure you can get it right. |
 August 8, 2007 - 8:38am |
I'm for nested comments. but of course -- |
August 9, 2007 - 9:54pm | I was thinking that nested comments could be de-flawed if when a person clicks "reply" from a specific post, an option box comes up and ask them if they want to reply to the post or to the thread. It would force people to think about what they're doing. Without that, I don't see nesting as appropriate. |
August 9, 2007 - 9:57pm | I was thinking that nested comments could be de-flawed if when a person clicks "reply" from a specific post, an option box comes up and ask them if they want to reply to the post or to the thread. It would force people to think about what they're doing. Without that, I don't see nesting as appropriate. That would mean more clicking... but you're right. Without that level of verification, I think threaded forums get screwy. If we decide to go with flat forums, though, I *SHOULD* get rid of the "REPLY" options from all of the posts. Right now, if I delete a post upthread, it automatically deletes all subordinate posts along with it. I could see that being a problem. If we decide to stick with flat forums, I should make all "REPLY" links reply to the thread topic. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
