Bifurcated Threading
Bruce Bates
Posts: 3,045
Jim -
Just based on what I've seen so far and the posting options I've attempted to use, it would appear that bifurcated threading isn't supported. By this I mean replying in such a manner as to have the new reply "attached" (in sequence) to something other than the last reply posted. One of the reasons this is handy is that many posts contain more than one question, and one part may recieve the lion's share of the subsequent postings while another part of the original post may end up being ignored. Even if one wishes to reply to the yet ignored part of the question it stands to get lost in the subsequent replies. Sorry for any muddled spacing below, as I usually use a mono-spaced font.
· ··········· As it is now························ As it might be
···········
····················· ·
··········· Original question················· Original question
········· with sub-parts A and B······ with sub-parts A and B
······················· |···························· |················· ···· |
·········· 1st·reply to part A······ 1st reply to part A·· 1st reply to part B
······················· |··························· ·|······················ |
···········2nd reply to part A······ 2nd reply to part A· 2nd reply to part B
······················· |
·········· 1st reply to part B
That shown above is the absolute BEST case scenario for the present method of threading in the lefthand case, and there might well be many more replies to part A before anything is even seen in answer to part B. Additionally, any reader will know by the third·reply (in sequence) in the righthand case, that there has been some response to part B.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
P.S. Preview before submittal is a Godsend!
Just for the record it took over 15 minutes just for this one posting <whew>.
Just based on what I've seen so far and the posting options I've attempted to use, it would appear that bifurcated threading isn't supported. By this I mean replying in such a manner as to have the new reply "attached" (in sequence) to something other than the last reply posted. One of the reasons this is handy is that many posts contain more than one question, and one part may recieve the lion's share of the subsequent postings while another part of the original post may end up being ignored. Even if one wishes to reply to the yet ignored part of the question it stands to get lost in the subsequent replies. Sorry for any muddled spacing below, as I usually use a mono-spaced font.
· ··········· As it is now························ As it might be
···········
····················· ·
··········· Original question················· Original question
········· with sub-parts A and B······ with sub-parts A and B
······················· |···························· |················· ···· |
·········· 1st·reply to part A······ 1st reply to part A·· 1st reply to part B
······················· |··························· ·|······················ |
···········2nd reply to part A······ 2nd reply to part A· 2nd reply to part B
······················· |
·········· 1st reply to part B
That shown above is the absolute BEST case scenario for the present method of threading in the lefthand case, and there might well be many more replies to part A before anything is even seen in answer to part B. Additionally, any reader will know by the third·reply (in sequence) in the righthand case, that there has been some response to part B.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Regards,
Bruce Bates
P.S. Preview before submittal is a Godsend!
Just for the record it took over 15 minutes just for this one posting <whew>.
Comments
Your conclusion is correct. The first post in a thread is the anchor point to all other·posts within the thread, essentially a many to one relationship.·Threading based upon replying to a·specific message within a thread is useful to follow sub-plots as a thread develops.
The downside, in my humble estimation, of sub-threading is that one can lose sight of the original post when a branch of the thread takes on a life of it's own. You can see this in any of·a number news groups where the thread is 40 or 50 messages long. Threads of this size are usually discussing something the participants feel passionate about, and sometimes wanders way beyond the stated topic.
The forum software might support sub-threading in a future release. Given the amount of work involved to re-engineer the message system, I don't expect that we will see this functionality in any version 2.x release of the dotNetBB software.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Jim
Parallax IT Dept.
·· I myself cannot handle that sort of threading in messages, mainly because what I've seen in forums that do support it, is that I have to backup to continue with the other reply thread.· The messages are no longer contiguous, and for me are hard to follow.· Just my feelings on it.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Chris Savage
Knight Designs
324 West Main Street
P.O. Box 97
Montour Falls, NY 14865
(607) 535-6777
Business Page:·· http://www.knightdesigns.com
Personal Page:··· http://www.lightlink.com/dream/chris
·