Threaded view question

[Stytooner]

Status quo for me too, but updated software is a go.

I do not mind hitting the post button when that is my intention.

[Cochese]

Threaded view makes me want to punch babies.

[JSUPreston]

That was a huge help. And yuck, no thank you on the threaded mode... That is just ugly... Keep it the way it is please!

I agree. It doesn't seem to work for here, IMHO. I do like it on other sites (i.e.: Microsoft TechNet), but it also depends on the topic and how the forum presents it.

[cwsmith]

YIKES!

As mentioned earlier in my first response, I didn't know the difference... NOW I do.

No thanks on the "threaded mode", I much prefer the "Linear", so please don't change anything, thank you.

CWS

[tfischer]

I don't think people are understanding the question.

The "change" suggested is not to default to threaded view. The change would be to make it so you can't use threaded view at all, so that it would be easier to reply to posts.

So far I haven't seen anyone (other than the one person who answered 'YES' in the poll) say that they prefer threaded view, yet people are saying "don't change anything".

I would be for eliminating threaded view to make linear view easier to reply to.

-Tim

[Black wallnut]

+1000!
Not to influence the voting but Tim has nailed it.
An added benefit is the possibility of faster server times, or at least that was what was used as a reason why a forum owned buy the parent company that owns vBulletin used as a reason why they did not even offer the threaded view. I'm thinking that you would need some very sophisticated timing equipment to notice faster response time, Now if our server was getting more use then maybe but our current load I think is pretty small. Our average thread is not even one page long and not graphic rich.

[woodturner]

The change would be to make it so you can't use threaded view at all, so that it would be easier to reply to posts.

With the Black wallnut's clarification, I think I now understand the difference in how we would reply.

It seems to really be a question of using the "quick reply" box. I don't use the quick reply at all, but tried it after the clarification. It seems to me the change would require more clicks to get to the quoting and editor, so it would make replying (slightly) harder for me.

I don't think it is a huge difference either way. I wonder if people who are saying "no" to threaded mode have tried the hybrid mode? It's really the best of both worlds, in my opinion, and since from the comments it seems most people are not looking at the thread view at all, but rather are reading and replying to the main thread section, they may not really understand the difference.

For those who may not know, hybrid view gives you the linear view in the main window - so you see the posts the same way you would in linear mode. However, it gives you the threaded view in the smaller window at the top, so you can easily see the thread hierarchy and find a particular post, without having to page through the multiple pages of the thread to find it.

As Black walnut noted, however, most of our threads are fairly short, so it's less of an issue here than with other sites with longer threads. Still, like any "new technology", one may have to spend a little time to learn to use it to understand and benefit from the improvement. I'd hate to see babies getting punched due to a misunderstanding.

Edit: Just tried linear mode again, and realized that the linear mode does not show the "thread overview" window. To summarize, there are three modes:
1. linear - shows only the main thread window, in linear order
2. threaded mode - shows a summary window at the top, with replies indented from the earlier post to show the hierarchy of replies. Only the current message is displayed in the main thread window. Paging through the thread uses the page buttons at the bottom of the thread window.
3. hybrid mode - adds the summary window from threaded mode to the linear display. The main thread is displayed like in linear mode, but we can find a particular reply and the replies to that message by clicking the post in the threaded window.

[woodturner]

If there are some that are using the threaded view I don't wish to force them to change it which is what will happen if I activate the instant reply option.

The threaded view option seems to be gone now. Was it changed or is something else wrong?

I assumed it would not change since some of us are (were) using it.

Thanks.

[Black wallnut]

A glitch