Threads getting too long to make sense of

[Josh Hambright]

Originally posted by Ken L
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.

I know of forums that have on average 1000 people online. And those are horendous to try to keep track of everything. Usualy those have very strict rules for posting and the 'chit chat' type forums are just full of discussion.

Plus they often have more sub forums for more specific stuff to try and keep stuff organized. I think Brandon has done a great job of keeping a very up-to-date and useful list of sub forums and the forum should definately continue to grow in that area.

Just think, when there are 2000 teams what its gonna be like

I definately think that when there are more moderators that will help alot. Those big forums usualy have like 50 or so moderators to keep track of everything. We'll just have to hold on like people said until we get more moderators.

In the mean time everyone should probably make a concious effort to make sure they are either staying on topic or start a new thread and link to the origional thread that made you want to post a new one.

[srawls]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin
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?

I don't know about everyone else, but I've always preffered the style used at this site. It uses the everything engine, so it's probably not possible to incorporate that at Chief Delphi. But, just to point out a different style, the reason I like it is because it shows all the posts instead of just a link of the subject line that you have to click, but it indents the replys so you can logically follow the thread, and can skip sections that you don't want to read.

Stephen

[Jack]

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

[J Flex 188]

well just like this thread itself is demonstrating, your always going to have that 'problem' of multiple users having varying or agreeing opinions that have concern with the matter at hand. Even if idle users only post concerns that have to do with the thread topic, there will still be a number of posts at any progressive and large forum such as CD.

I dont like to call it a problem, because it shows just how active and full of opinions and free speech forums are. There isnt anything particularly wrong with it. I suppose aside from forum software, the only thing that can be used to stop massive posting is self-discipline on the part of users; which can be difficult to word properly, and obviously cant be enforced. But again, this massive posting in my opinion isnt anything that should be discouraged. We should be happy there are so many people on CD with vaild opinions= )

[the_short1]

i think the search functions need to be better optimized and more "Advertised" .. . so ppl use search more often then just creating a new thread about the same thing again and again. . theirs been some issues dragged out in over 50 topics.. . its crzy

but i know what you mean. . i have to check this regulary otherwise i get lost... i visit one day.. two days later i check back on posts i made in a thread.. and bam theirs 5 more pages.. im like.. whole crap..

[Bharat Nain]

A part of the problem is, some people are too smart. They will analyze every little detail till the topic gets boring and outdated. Few words of advice: Too many chef's spoil the broth. At the same time, there are useful posts and threads.

[Jay H 237]

I've been very busy the last few weeks and haven't spent as much time on here as I used too, and now with all the threads it would take a good days reading to catch up.

I don't see a realistic solution to limit posts in threads. The only way to really do that is to make every thread moderated but that won't work in reality plus it would create it's own problems and become counter productive to the forums.

[dlavery]

Ahem. If I was really concerned about limiting unnecessary thread growth, the first thing that I would do is make sure I was not posting on a thread that was dead and buried over two years ago.

-dave