Idea for post display in forums Options

[*mipadi*]

I've been toying with this idea for post display in the cB forums. Right now, threads are displayed in a linear fashion, with new posts being appended to the end. That's not necessarily the most optimal way to displaying posts, though. It would make more sense to have a "threaded view". Basically, the first poster makes a post. Someone responds to his post, so her post is indented slightly underneath the original post. Then another user responds to the original post, and this new post gets indented the same amount. Then another user responds to the second post; rather than going to the end of the display, it goes directly underneath the post to which that user is responded, but it is indented slightly more.

I came up with a quick mockup of what I mean (click on it for more detail):

In this example, user mipadi (aka Yours Truly) made a post (it could be a new thread or just anywhere in a thread). disco infiltrator then responded to my post, and user acid bath slayer responded to hers. libertie responded to disco infiltrator's post too, so she goes at the same level as Acid Bath Slayer. iRock cB responded to my post and so is indented the same as disco infiltrator's.

The problem is that it can be hard to find new posts, since they are not automatically at the end, so new posts are highlighted. This is where the colors come in. Read posts are have the normal blue header; unread, or new, posts have a green header; and your posts are highlighted with a yellow header (in the above example, user Acid Bath Slayer is the logged-in user reading the thread). New posts could also be marked with some sort of icon along one of the margins (probably right, since I have avatars on the left), but I didn't go to the effort of actually making an icon yet.

The problem is that I'm not sure if the forum software supports this kind of organization, but if it does, I think this would be an interesting idea.

Caveat: This is not intended to be a "final design", so please don't critique the design itself. I whipped it out in about fifteen minutes. I do like certain elements of it, but it's by no means complete; I just wanted something that would show my idea.

[marzipan]

Wow. Kudos, Michael!

I've seen this thread style before. It can work.

In my opinion, I like the quoting feature better than this, but it depends.

[*mipadi*]

cB could certainly still have a quote feature of sorts, but I think this would make it easier to follow the "subconversations" that go on within a thread.

[*T0rmented_Soul*]

^ dude I think thats an awesome Idea, I've seen this type of display on youtube and I think it's effective!! this would be good for cB!

[*Libertie*]

This sort of reminds me of Livejournal or Digg comments.. But yeah, I like it. I think this would be awesome.

Oh, and did anyone mention that we miss you?

[*mipadi*]

Oh, and did anyone mention that we miss you?

Aw, shucks. You're making me blush!

[*disco infiltrator*]

I certainly miss you.

I like this! Much easier to know who you're responding to and then people wouldn't clog up your conversation with their crap and you wouldn't have to search for people responding to you...yeahhh!

[*I Shot JFK*]

Pretty! [/shallow]

and yea, i DO like this... easy subconversations are always a good thing. and the colour thing is awesome, as i've seen this format sans colour, and it is a pain in the ass.

question, though... if this was implemented, what would happen to existing threads? would they stay the same?

[GREASEbaby]

Kudos, Michael. This is an excellent idea.

I would lovee this<3
You always have something great on your mind.

[*Zatanna*]

Reminds me of how gmail is set up (sort of).

This design could be confusing at first, but once people get used to it I think they'll wonder why it wasn't done sooner.

Great idea, Michael.

(PS - Yes, you are very much missed. :) )

[*StanleyThePanda*]

Hmm.. I dont know, I dont really like it.
I think it would bother me.

[*digital.fragrance*]

^ Yeah, it'd bother me.

Remember when the replies were linked together like that at the bottom of the pages? It had that same indentation... it didn't last long. It was confusing...

[*Kathleen*]

Ehh. I don't know.. I've been around to a lot of forums, and I've never really liked this style. Mostly because of how you can't instantly view the latest post. It reminds me a lot of IMDB. *Shivers* I've always preferred forums that are set up like cB. Another thing (other than the fact that James questioned what would happen to current threads) I wonder about is how this will affect the moderators. The revived topics and whatnot, that is. I mean, wouldn't it be more difficult to tell which threads have been pretty active compared to those that aren't? I don't know.. I just like this format, because it's how cB's always been.. I mean I know change is necessary at times, but I don't think this is one of them.

[*Azarel*]

What's wrong with the system that we have now? With our current system, people can reply to multiple posts by quoting them. If we were to switch over to the tiered reply system, members would have to post multiple times in order to reply to everything they wanted to.

Another reason I don't like this threaded system is because after one post gets too many replies, it's hard to read the posts as they become too far indented, which is something that bothers me with livejournal (which also uses this system).

Also, Kathleen brought up a valid point with the dates of topics and such.

[GREASEbaby]

I second those above ideas^

I guess I don't see anything wrong with createblog's current post display It's very functional with the view last post..

[Nymphetamine]

I hate this, I'm sorry. I like how it is now. 'Your' style is in my opinion, boring.

[Selv]

I've seen this thread style before. It can work.

In my opinion, I like the quoting feature better than this, but it depends.

Me being a regular member, i can say that I would like this new type better but maybe also have quotes in also....There everyone could be happy. IDK just sound slike a great idea to me! GOOD JOB

[*Kathleen*]

There would be no need for quotes in the tiered format. And our point was that the quotes work perfectly fine instead of the reply option.

[*mipadi*]

I hate this, I'm sorry. I like how it is now. 'Your' style is in my opinion, boring.

As I said in my original post, the mockup is for concept only, not overall design. A more minimalist approach brings a certain level of professionalism to a site, but my "sketch", if you will, was for concept, not style, which is why I said that I didn't need the design itself to be critiqued, as it wasn't in any way a final copy.

[marzipan]

Oh, and did anyone mention that we miss you?

*nods* Yeah, I do too.

Another reason I don't like this threaded system is because after one post gets too many replies, it's hard to read the posts as they become too far indented, which is something that bothers me with livejournal (which also uses this system).

That's what I was thinking as well.

[*Kathleen*]

Also, it'd probably be way complicated for new users that aren't used to that system.

[*mipadi*]

Also, it'd probably be way complicated for new users that aren't used to that system.

It's a little disconcerting (for lack of a better term) at first, but it's easy to get used to, and much more usable once you do (which happens quite quickly). It's not as though this is a completely original concept that's not in use anywhere else—it's quite commonly used on other forums sites, to great effect.

[*Kathleen*]

Yeah, I know. I've seen them in other places, like IMDB. I don't like going to those forums mostly for their format. It's like that on LiveJournal as well, as Anna pointed out. It's irksome.

[GREASEbaby]

I notice that on the top of every forum, there is an Option Button. Perhaps make the threaded version an option?

If somebody makes a quote on this version, it can be taken out and have it indented on that person's quote.

However, this may not be capable for the forum software :

[*mipadi*]

The option sort of exists already. It's the "Outline" option. It doesn't display posts in quite the same way, though. You can look at it yourself to see, but it basically gives a tree view of the thread, and then you can click on a specific subthread, but it doesn't display the whole post, as in my mockup. There's also no way to see new posts, etc.