srawls...
That is also about the only way i like threaded forums...
Well... I took the time to look at vB 3 Beta, and here's what i saw:
(Of course, it could change by the time final rolls around... but i think that it's pretty set by now)
In the standard linear view, each top level post is displayed normally. Each sub-thread then has a
quote
-----
message before
-----
So... things look pretty much the same as now, except that there are a lot more quotes. Not bad.... At least you now know the reasons behind a lot more posts now.
In the threaded view, It's your normal threaded style.. You have to click a million times to view a thread. Yeah... you can get through the crap easy, but it's annoying with all the clicks
The new (and mabey biggest key feature from an end-user point of few... don't know tho) is the Hybrid view
This view looks similar to the linear view. However, instead of displaying all the posts, it will only go three sub-threads deep
Ex:
Hybrid View is Cool
-Yep it is
-I like linear better
-Why do you
-because
-why because
-well, this is confusing
+More Replies Below Current Depth
-a simple reply
Well... That's my attempt at explaining it. In hybrid view, it will only go so many sub-threads deep, while in linear, it will go all the way. If you then decide to click on a sub-thread, it will then start at that post and go deeper into a sub-thread.
In a way, this is cool. Here, you can see the beginning of discuessions, and then only if you think something is going to be valueble, would you look deeper. However, right now, the only way to navagate the sub-threads is through a box at the top/bottem. I hope that in the final style, there are links in the posts that would allow you to read the sub-thread from that post so you didn't have to go to the top.
I guess the best way to really find out what you like is to go to:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/
You don't need to register or anything, (i didn't). Just pick a thread with a fair number of replys and try out the different views. One word though, the style you see there won't be the final style. It's quite messy right now, but I trust that the vB team is working hard on a good style to use.
So, which one do i like the best?
Well, first off, I will never use the threaded view. I just hate that. Now, between the linear and hybrid. I think it will depend on what forum i'm in. If I'm in a forum that i like to read everything, I'll most likely use the linear view. However, if i'm reading a popular topic, that has lots of replies, I may use the hybrid view so that I can look through the thread quicker and find which posts I want to read, and which I want to skip.
I'm not sure how vB is handleing the mod part, however, normally, splitting/mergeing a topic is much harder in a threaded style forum vs a linear one. This is because the mod may want to merge the two topics at different "levels" and there will be fragments when posts are moved. Whatever the end result is, i'm sure it will be good.
Jack
PS: Now, i want to play with my phpBB and see how i could make a "semi-threaded" system
