Recent discussion about discussions

H. S. Teoh hsteoh at quickfur.ath.cx
Thu Mar 13 12:36:40 PDT 2014


On Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 06:17:27PM +0000, bossfong wrote:
> On Wednesday, 12 March 2014 at 18:30:37 UTC, Jesse Phillips wrote:
> >
> >I don't see anything from that which would make it better for
> >heated discussion. A discussion is just a thread of replies.
> 
> "A discussion is just a thread of replies" is wrong I believe.
> Discussions often evolve and diverge, whilst threads have a static
> title and topic.

That's not true. That's only the limitation of the web interface. NNTP
threads can have a new subject in every reply, should the need arise.
AND it keeps track of the parent post, so that if you want to, you can
actually trace the thread back to the parent thread! Show me a web-based
forum that can do that, and I might reconsider.


> I see sometimes people split discussions by starting a new thread,
> which is a really good step, but it happens too seldomly.

Proper threading support requires only a change of subject line. Any
software that can't handle that properly is fundamentally broken and
unfit for such use.


[...]
> >Votes are probably the only thing missing because they eliminate
> >the need for "+1" posts.
> 
> I agree. (see, how again some button would have been nice)

Frankly, I rather see voting as a waste of time. Either you say
something substantial, or don't say it. Getting rid voting *and* +1
posts will be a good thing (though I'm guilty of +1 posts myself :P).

If voting is needed, say to build a consensus, one of the various online
voting services should be used instead. A random +1 here and a random +1
there to the odd forum post carries no meaning to me -- it doesn't add
substance to the discussion.


T

-- 
This is a tpyo.


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