Keep forum lists complete, unanswered posts at forum top, return thread to top of forum with new when it gets an new post, multi-diplay thread in relevant forums based on thread content (not cross-post, but cross-list)

1 - Sadly, photo.net only displays the Minolta forum back to 2006-08-05, and

older threads, well, you have to know their addresses from your previous

experience or you have to accidentally find them by searching for something

that happens to be in their contents. Hmmm ... any ideas here for Philip

Greenspun http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=23069 to

incorporate in his revisiting of photo.net's resources?

 

2 - keep unanswered posts sifting to the top of the forum list, not just at the

[unanswered] button (which, by the way, I think is a genius idea, BUT this came

up today for [unanswered] http://www.photo.net/bboard/unified/q-and-a-

unanswered "Problem with Your Input We had a problem processing your entry:

This feature is disabled" -- ARGH!) .

 

3 - return a thread to the top of the forum list each time it gets a new reply -

- it is, after all, therefore, a current, living thread.

 

4 - multi-display in a variety of forums any thread according to it's contents.

That is, if I mention Canon and Nikon in a post, that thread should then also

appear in the listing of the Canon forum and in the Nikon forum. Don't

duplicate the thread, just allow it to appear in multiple lists. How many

[General] questions really belong in a specific [Minolta] or other forum, for

instance, once we ferret out the answer? For instance, this thread originally

part of the [Minolta] forum should be automatically cross-listed (NOT cross-

posted) to [photo.net Site Feedback] ... but I'll cut and paste and start a

duplicate thread.

Peter, regarding your suggestions:

 

1. The forum list only shows items that are "new". Different forums have different definitions of "new". The "New Answers" displays shows any threads that have new answers, including any threads that are regarded "old". If someone replies to a thread from 1998, that thread will appear on "New Answers". By the way, the Minolta forum considers threads "new" for 28 days. Many forums have categories which provide a way to find other posts on particular topics; but the Minolta forum doesn't have categories. This isn't always so useful, since some of the categories get to have a huge number of threads, and just listing them isn't that useful. For these cases, for forums where there aren't any categories, and finally for situations where the pre-defined categories aren't really applicable, there is Google search.

 

2. The "Unanswered" button is currently disabled for the Unified view, but it still works fine in individual forums. In the "unified" context, it is very expensive to generate the "Unanswered" list site-wide.

 

3. This is what New Answers does. I use New Answers frequently, more so than the default forum thread list.

 

4. I like this idea a lot.

<p><I>3 - return a thread to the top of the forum list each time it gets a new reply - - it is, after all, therefore, a current, living thread.</i></p>

 

<p>Oh, goodness, no.</p>

<p>That only accomplishes two things: First, it screws up the chronological order, and second, it fills the message boards with "bumps".</p>

We could have the otpion to choose either type of display, then both camps would be pleased.

.

 

Earlier: ": 3 - return a thread to the top of the forum list each time it gets a new reply ... it is, after all, therefore, a current, living thread ... [reply]: Oh, goodness, no. That only accomplishes two things: First, it screws up the chronological order, and second, it fills the message boards with "bumps"..."

 

Okay, how about adding a hyphen/indent to "out of order" thread due to such listings so they stand out (in?)? That way you can see [new threads] chronologically in the left margin, and "bumps" as you call them -- I call them [new posts], living, popular threads! -- as listed indented by a hyphen.

 

I agree that chronological order is nice, and I want to ENHANCE chronological order to show [new posts], not just for [new threads].

 

My goal is to allow current dialog to stay current, especially in forums with short memories where the forum stops listing after 28 days but a 30 day old thread may still be going strong. New visitors won't ever see it ... unless it's re-listed somehow, and I suggest that we re-list it due to current activity.

 

Also, the alternative idea was offered to have 2 views - [chronological by thread], or, as I suggest and want, [chronological by post]. That's a NICE compromise that would allow us to choose our preferred view and then we'd see over time if the qualities of the thread contents improved and duplicate questions were reduced because older questions didn't disappear even though they were still ongoing discussions.

 

I appreciate the incredible challenge to guess what will work and then program it faultlessly and then survive criticism from those who are surprised at any change in the status quo. But, more power to Philip Greenspun and the team -- GREAT site, getting better all the time!

 

Click! Love and hugs, Peter Blaise petreblaise@yahoo.com Konica Minolta Sony Photographer http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/