Threads getting too long to make sense of
 

The more time I spend time trying to make sense of the thousands of threads out there, the more I get frustrated with how long it take to read through 20 posts to make figure out what people are talking about.

Is anyone else experience the same problem as I do?

Recently I haven't had time to check out the forum, and when I do, the thread are just so long to read that I just though "you know what, forget it, it takes too long."

I guess I am just starting this thread as a comment/observation, but now that I think of it, I really want to understand:

1. Why are the threads so long?
2. How many people stop paying attention to this forum because of this?
3. If this continue, will the threads be so long that it lost its effectiveness in communication?

I understand that the people participating in those discussions usually can keep track of them. But for "spectators" who just want to drop in and take a look, I think it's getting hard to keep track of everything going.

I am also interested in finding out, is there any sort of solutions for this situation? What happen if it get worse, and threads turn into 50+ post easily?

But I don't know, this could be just my opinion, and I am too lazy. Well, we will see if no one reply to this thread, then that mean it's just me.

-Ken Leung

Agreed. I think that a lot of threads are getting off-topic, too. I remember a time when I could keep track of everything on the forums. Now, it's hard to watch even a few things, especially when they start getting long, drawn out, and off topic. Unfortunately, there's really no way to fix the problem. As CD gets bigger, we're just going to have to live with it. I would just ask one thing of everyone: before you post, ask yourself: Is there a good reason to post this? If you don't have anything relevant to say, don't say it. I know I'm guilty of posting useless garbage from time to time, but I think if we all work on it, we can at least make things bearable.

Yes, i know what you mean. The people here (no offense) seem to like to argue, and to talk about irrevelant topics, which isnt nessicarily bad, but i tell you that unless im really interested in a thread then i wont read it if its really inordiantly long.

I AGREE...

Some of us people here on CD need to keep our posts short and to the point...

I have seen too many threads where people post a page full of information that makes no sense or is hard to understand.

Use PM or we should have an option for a cascading the posts like in the yesteryear of CD. So if there is something off topic about something somebody said, you would hit "REPLY TO THIS POST" and it would reply to that post, and those of us who are following the whole thing can skip over that.

You'll have to check w/ Brandon on this one (Actually, the vB developers), but I think that this will be an option in vB 3 (whenever it comes out) :)

And yes... I would be very nice. :)

I've made a few helpful suggestions in the past, maybe this could be to.

Perhaps for those who have achieved the status of custom titles and/or senior members (By this I suggest because it means they've been around a while), could have a small link to "Request Lock" on threads that have digressed to far from their original topic and have become chatter-box threads.

I can think of a few threads that went on for 2 weeks or more of post-answer posting. (A correct or accepted answer to a question posted, then digressive chatting of items similar to the thread).

I could see it working much like the "report post to moderator" but instead of asking to remove the post due to vulgarity, etc., to have the thread locked from further rambling.

Perhaps a trial run at this?

vB3 will give the ability to view:[list=a][*]Linear (like now)[*]Threaded (like old one)[*]Hybrid (both! at the same time! woo!)[/list=a]

If you want to see how this is accomplished, check out
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

They have vb3 alpha 2 or something running, for testing/preview.
Its pretty nice. Will take a little bit to get used to, but still nice.


And -- next year there will be a few more moderators, so their job will entail closing threads that have run their course & gone so far off topic. They could split any new topics off into new threads, also. There are too many new topics/threads/posts for me to do it alone, and I don't want to go assigning moderators just yet.. so for now, report to a moderator, and one of the few will get to it.

Thanks :)

Brandon, nice job. Hope to see some topics get cleanded up al little more so they arent all just OT posts.

~Mike

[EDIT] OT = Off Topic [/EDIT]

all hail VB3.

I have to say that if threads are too long and i didn't get in on them early i am often scared away from them.

A good example of how fast a thread can go would be andy's post yesterday about using your real names. It was upto 2 pages by the end of the day and now its on its 4th!

Its just part of growing as a community that we are going to have to deal with for awhile. The fact that things are always changing is the only thing that stays the same.

This is exactly why I started this thread. We can either "deal" with the problem, or we can figure out something to solve the problem or make it better.

VB3 is definitely a solution I can see working well for a whole bunch of situations I've seen around here.

But other problems such as threads getting off topic too easily, or getting too large to keep track of is only going to get worst as more and more people know about this forum. I don't have experience setting up forums for thousands and thousands of people while making sure its easy to read and make sense of, so I don't know what kind of solution there is. Maybe someone have some ideas and will post in here eventually, but I just want to get people thinking about it.

Just think, when there are 1000 teams, and each team have 10 person knowing about this, that's 10,000 users already. If something controversial comes up, and maybe 1 person on each team felt really strongly about it, that's 1000 post in a thread already. Averaging 15 words per sentence, and 4 sentence per post, that's 60,000 words right there, in the interval of 4~5 days.

Of course, it's not going to be 1000 post per thread every time... I am just coming up with an extreme case that could get out of hand really easily.

Are we going to start deleting post when that happen? limit how much posts per thread? limit how many users per team? Those are probably not the best solutions neither.

Just think about it for a few days, and see if you agree with me.

This can easily be done by simply IMing or PMing a moderator. Does it really need a special button?

No my thread was a good example titled odd occurences. It started off with me and odd stories and then somehow segwayed into a discussion into about education.

Well...

From the vB 3 threaded posts thing, it should help to sometimes kill the extra discuession... But... I normally don't like threaded forums because they get too hard to follow (as each branch breaks off to something else) Personally, I think that each extra thread in a threaded forum should just be a new topic and keep a linear style. Oh well...

The solution that i see is:

Mods will be using the "split" & "move" action a lot. In a large community, newer users just don't know how to really keep a topic on topic. (And even older users forget that sometimes) The "Lock", which might be the first idea, just makes the discuession go somewhere else. (At least that's what I've found). Move it / Split it...

(Sorry, know the mod thing is still a little while off.. but it's the best idea i have)

I agree on the "threaded forums," Jack. I've used threaded forums elsewhere, and I find them to be way too confusing for my tastes. I've always preferred the linear style CD has used the past two years. Maybe the "hybrid" vB 3 style will be a good compromise?