Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to who?

Now your you're getting technical!

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Since the majority of posts in this BBS are normally very short, just one sentence or even just one word, how convenient would it be to read a book and having to turn the pages every few seconds? Or in this case, go back to the index of the book every few seconds, look for the page number of the next page, and then finding the right page again. (Yes, my analogy isn't very good either, but that's why I thought that you can't compare a book to an internet forum in the first place.)

Yes, both the linear mode and the threaded mode have their pros and cons. The posts in the threaded mode are indeed neatly arranged and therefore the dialogue is easy to follow, but does it really have to be that organised for people to be able to follow the conversation? In the linear mode the posts appear in chronological order which seems quite sensible to me, if you're having a conversation with your friends in real life, you don't need to constantly remind them of whom you're replying to, the content of your reply should give it away. And to avoid any possible confusion, there's always the 'Reply With Quote' functionality... I do agree that people would have to learn to use it first though!

But hey, I'm not saying that the linear mode is the best for everyone, I've just gotten used to it now and I wouldn't like to change back to threaded anymore. I like to sit back in my chair and scroll down the page to read all the messages without having to scroll the screen up and down and clicking each post individually. The threaded mode started to get really annoying when this BBS was working really slowly... you clicked on a message, waited for it to open for 15 seconds, only to find out that the reply was just "lol" or something. Grrr. The BBS is still occasionally slow on matchdays (right after the full time whistle and/or when people get home from the game) especially, so I think I'll stick with the linear mode in the future as well.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Yep, totally agree. It's a very simple solution and would make the forum much more readable for everyone.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

6 people talking at once on a Hull City thread :-

Threaded mode:

Bob: Where's the best place to park at Hull?
Ralph: That industrial estate near Morrisons.
Bob: Where abouts is that?
Ralph: Just off the roundabout on the A675

Pete: Where's the Rising Sun Bus setting off from?
Colin: Sheffield Road.
Pete: Where abouts?
Colin: Outside the Rising Sun you fool.

Jackson: Which pub for Hull?
Fatty: Rose and Crown
Jackson: Is that on the high Street?
Fatty: Yeah, opposite WHSmiths.


Linear Mode:
Bob: Where's the best place to park at Hull?
Pete: Where's the Rising Sun bus setting off from?
Ralph: That industrial estate near Morrisons.
Bob: Where abouts is that?
Colin: Sheffield Road.
Jackson: Which pub for Hull?
Pete: Where abouts?
Fatty: Rose and Crown
Colin: Outside the Rising Sun you fool.
Jackson: Is that on the high Street?
Ralph: Just off the roundabout on the A675
Fatty: Yeah, opposite WHSmiths.

 

Reply with quote. The rest of the Internet seems to manage quite well.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

I'm starting to understand how the developers of betamax must have felt.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Aardvark

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Fair enough, that's a good example, although a bit "extreme".

However, like Watcher_Of_The_Skies just pointed out, it's still nothing that the good old quote function wouldn't fix. In your example those six people really are replying at the worst possible time (but how likely is that?) so that the thread would look a bit messy, but we're all intelligent enough to follow three conversations at the same time. Also, Pete and Jackson should start their own threads because what they're asking has nothing to do with parking at Hull.

 

Part of the issue is not having a decent view for mobiles. Anything other than threaded won't work on mine. So I use forum runner (which by its nature is linear anyway). But if everyone used reply with quote it does make it easier. The biggest issue for me on forum runner is the title only appears on the first post. So I tend to see a lot of posts like this

.

Nt

Making me go onto the site using mobile browser for ages only to see the title just say

Yes or cheers.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Or use multi-quote.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Hybrid mode is the answer. You can check the thread flow at the top and then read down in linear. In really long threads when you are just reading the latest post you can use the thread at the top and click on the individual post to save scrolling to bottom.

 

Re: Is it me, or is this site getting more confusing to work out who is replying to w

Just use reply with quote then we all know who you are replying to - its a blinding invention that button