FUT (Forum usage tip) Post titles/subjects

that ForumAdmin is a turkey!

that ForumAdmin is a turkey!

it's implied.

my brain just doesn't work that way!

(We need an angel smiley! )

Dang! I forgot what I was going to say.....

[David M. Bueker]

:mrgreen:

While I consider an appropriate punishment for this show of blatant disrespect, you are banned from all offlines on W. Mission Street.

Don't mess with ForumAdmin!

[Jenise]

:mrgreen:

While I consider an appropriate punishment for this show of blatant disrespect, you are banned from all offlines on W. Mission Street.

Don't mess with ForumAdmin!

AKA, "don't phfffft the FUT".

I was a big fan of title changes in the old (I mean pre-netscape) WLDG, because it let one spot subthreads worth pursuing. I have to confess that in non-threaded forums I tend to not focus on titles once I've opened threads. But if other find it useful, I'll attempt to conform. But please don't start a sentence in title and finish it in body - ugh!

I was a big fan of title changes in the old (I mean pre-netscape) WLDG, because it let one spot subthreads worth pursuing. I have to confess that in non-threaded forums I tend to not focus on titles once I've opened threads. But if other find it useful, I'll attempt to conform. But please don't start a sentence in title and finish it in body - ugh!

Oh darn, I thought it was a good lead-in. However, I will try to remember not to do that.

I'm with Dale on this one, FA -- the extra headings may be useful in the threaded view, but in the unthreaded view, they break up the flow since I get to the substance so quickly.

Do you have a view on how many folks use the threaded vs. the unthreaded views -- some magical counting system?

Or is this an appropriate topic for a poll.

I'd be glad to add headings, where appropriate, if I'm in a small minority of flat landers.

(It's amazing -- in one of the early iterations of WLDG, I was passionate about the need for threading which was a feature of WLDG vs. other boards. Now when I have a choice, I find unthreaded much quicker and easier to follow, especially since I learned to jump to the bottom of the stack.

Bob, I was pretty sure threading was one of the options that went away with this upgrade. Robin/ForumAdmin, please, as always, correct me if I am wrong.

[Robin Garr]

Bob, I was pretty sure threading was one of the options that went away with this upgrade. Robin/ForumAdmin, please, as always, correct me if I am wrong.

Threading did indeed go away with the upgrade.

Sadly, although a very small percentage of forumites (less than 1 percent of all registered members) used threading as the default, we know that those who liked it were very fond of it.

It caused major problems, though - not least that the modification, installed, then prevented us from being able to perform security and efficiency updates on the forum software. No threading modification exists for the new software at this time, and we won't likely entertain adding one if it does become available.

HOWEVER:

If everyone will learn to use "Quote" and not "Reply" when replying to posts, then judiciously edit the backquote to give a hint of content without barfing back the whole prior post, you'll soon find that this alternative helps make the continuity of threds and sub-threads clear without threading.

Bob, I was pretty sure threading was one of the options that went away with this upgrade. Robin/ForumAdmin, please, as always, correct me if I am wrong.

Threading did indeed go away with the upgrade. Ok I see how this works!

Who's this "Forum Admin" person, anyway?

Doesn't sound like a real name to me.

-Paul W.

If everyone will learn to use "Quote" and not "Reply" when replying to posts, then judiciously edit the backquote to give a hint of content without barfing back the whole prior post, you'll soon find that this alternative helps make the continuity of threds and sub-threads clear without threading.

Thanks, Robin -- since I didn't use threading, I didn't miss it. Sorry to hear some folks did use it and like it and now miss it. The Quote function does help continuity.

I think, though, that changing the title runs a real risk of missing part of the point of a Message.

In Paul's immediately preceding post, I read the heading LAST, not FIRST, even though there is no quoting. And then read it by chance, really, because I was going up the page to quote your Message.

The Message is much more effective read 1 2 3 as I suppose Paul intended, than 2 3 1 as I read it.

In any event, thanks for the explanation.

[Robin Garr]

The Message is much more effective read 1 2 3 as I suppose Paul intended, than 2 3 1 as I read it.

Bob, whatever floats your boat, but I think probably most people do things in 1 2 3 sequence.

Still, many people do work through magazines and newspapers from back to front ...

Bob, whatever floats your boat, but I think probably most people do things in 1 2 3 sequence.

Still, many people do work through magazines and newspapers from back to front ...

No, it's my habit of skipping over the headings in flatland because they rarely change. In the great majority of Messages in a flat thread on WLDG, the heading is exactly the same -- why read it? In fact, there's a tradition here, a very good one, I think, of avoiding drift -- folks often start a new thread to start a new subject or apologize if they move to another subject in a thread.

Doesn't changing the heading encourage thread drift -- or, perhaps hijacking the original poster's thread?

I tried to think of a way to change the heading in an effective way in a long thread; perhaps the one I came up with on the Word of the Day in Friends and Fun works?

Regards, Bob

Who's this "Forum Admin" person, anyway?

Doesn't sound like a real name to me.

-Paul W.

He wears a mask, and has a secret identity. Like the Ghost Who Walks.

Still, many people do work through magazines and newspapers from back to front ...

Interesting point, Robin. I think "Atlantic" is the only pub I read from page 1 to the last page in order. "New Yorker", last page to see who won the cartoon, third of way in to read the editorials, skip the short stories, read poetry and skip wrap around. NY Times: different order, different days, etc.

Magazines and newspapers make it easy to do -- they use headlines to tell you what you are reading.

I use the fixed headlines here really for the same purpose. Especially true since emails take me from the title to a single Message in the thread. If the title is different in the Message than it was in the email, I'll wondered for a bit whether that a malfunction -- probably move up the thread to be sure I'm where I should be.

Same problem with the little button that takes you to the last Message in a thread.

Another issue: once a headline is changed, it stays the same until another Poster changes the headline -- see the way the "Word of the Day" thread has been superseded by my example headline.

I'm sure if people start changing headlines on Messages, I'll learn to live with the variation. But I wonder if the elegant variation won't cause a bit of confusion.

Thanks for reminding me how I read newspapers.

Good night.

Batty-man and Robin, eh?

-Paul W.