The D programming language newsgroup should lift its game

[Mathias Laurenz Baumann]

After a bit of googling, threaded view is possible, just requires a little  
work:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=255510.0

The guy who did this wrote:

"If you remember, I added that particular feature to my board some time  
ago -- http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=212576.0 (I  
even posted a screenshot.)
After the last message in that topic, I modified the Quick Reply feature  
to actually add a Quick Reply box under EVERY message. Which made it much  
easier to "build" an actual threaded view.
It worked, really. Very well. I've kept a copy of all the changes I made.

Only, I posted a poll, asking my viewers their feelings about the feature,  
and only two people shared their enthusiasm -- and that's because they're  
originally from LiveJournal where threaded view is all over the place.
Everybody else either said they didn't care, or reacted strongly against  
the feature, saying it would make it more complicated to follow a  
discussion.
While a threaded view is desireable when you're viewing a topic once and  
long after it was created (as a guest, from a Google search, etc.), it is  
not the best possible way to discuss when the topic is active.
Of course, there's always the possibility of not showing any posts, only a  
complete list of indented subjects, with a "new" icon next to the messages  
you haven't read yet, and a single click to get to that particular  
message. But even if using Ajax to retrieve them, that would still require  
a LOT of clicking, and keeping track of all unread messages, instead of  
"last unread message"! Oh my, the agony..."


So, the users used to a forum might not even appreciate a threaded view  
over a flat view. Though, I can't confirm that opinion.


--Marenz


Am 03.04.2010, 20:29 Uhr, schrieb Walter Bright  
<newshound1 at digitalmars.com>:

> Mike Parker wrote:
>> My favorite is SMF [1], which you can see in action at [2] and [3].
>
> Here's a link:
>
> http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=374244.0
>
> It is typical of web forum software and has the usual problems:
>
> 1. no threaded display, it's difficult to see who is replying to what.
>
> 2. Lots of irrelevant and annoying pictures, multiple fonts, borders,  
> ads, etc. The focus is on glitz rather than content.
>
> 3. It seems that less than half of the browser window is actually taken  
> up by the meat, and in a painfully small font, too. If you've got a  
> small screen, like on say a portable, it's hopeless.
>
> Yes, I suppose it's all customizable, but nearly all forum software  
> follows this style, and blows for the same reasons.
>
>
> I know the php web interface to the D newsgroups sucks. I make no  
> apologies for it.
>
> The only web forum software I actually like is reddit.com and the  
> similar one at ycombinator.com. Unfortunately, it has no interface to  
> newsgroups. Digg and slashdot suck with their awful interfaces.


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