Needed: Forum precis / digest view

[devotee]

(I posted this in another forum-related discussion, but I feel it

deserves its own discussion here.)

<p>

What the forum software really needs is a precis feature like the

<b>Discus</b> software supports. It provides a tree-like overview of

discussions with the opening words of each post. A great way to skim

and overview what's going on in a forum.

This would be <u>in addition</u> to the existing forum functionality,

but would add a lot of value.

<p>

See <a href='http://forum.smbc.sandwell.gov.uk/cgi-bin/discus/board-

newmessages.pl?method=last&number=7&units=1440&tree=ON&where=all'>an

example</a>.

<p>

If you open the example discus listing, above, you can see that the

tree view is based on:

<table style='font-family: Courier New'>

<tr>

<td>

+---Forum 1<br>

|   +---Forum 1 Thread 1<br>

|   |   +---Post 1 snippet<br>

|   |   +---Post 2 snippet<br>

|   |   +---Post 3 snippet<br>

|   +---Forum 1 Thread 2<br>

|       +---Post 1 snippet<br>

|       +---Post 2 snippet<br>

+---Forum 2<br>

    +---Forum 2 Thread 1<br>

    |   +---Post 1 snippet<br>

    |   +---Post 2 snippet<br>

    |   +---Post 3 snippet<br>

    +---Forum 2 Thread 2<br>

        +---Post 1 snippet<br>

        +---Post 2 snippet<br>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

<p>

This makes a great format for the unified view, which is less than

fabulous in its current incarnation. Photonetters could nominate the

forums they are interested in and quickly browse.

<p>

It is also appropriate for the New Responses view, and another useful

view that Discus supports : posts in the last 'n' days.

<p>

Please consider.

[geri]

I looked at your example. It's a wonderful idea; but I can't imagine the pages and pages that would be required to display the hundreds of 'snippets' for the Site Feedback forum alone.

[devotee]

That's true, but there are solutions. For example, the software could limit the number of post snippets to a maximum of the last 20 for each thread. For more detail, the reader would drill into the thread.

 

The whole idea of the snippet view is that it saves you drilling into the thread to see if you are interested in it. It may even reduce redundant forum page fetches associated with drilling into threads that were in fact of no interest to the prospective reader.

[geri]

Well, Barry, sounds great to me. Can't recall how many times I've forgotten the name of a thread, and clicked through a few to find the one I wanted.

[devotee]

Here's a capture of the tree example I cited.

[devotee]

Smaller:

[devotee]

Ditto

[dan flanders]

It looks neat to me PROVIDED no font less than 12 points is used. Us old farts would just not bother with anything smaller. Tortured syntaz, typos, and people who haven't learned to use caps are difficult enough but fine print just adds injury to insult!

[._._z]

Old farts should use browsers that let you adjust font-size. :-)

[devotee]

It's a reasonable point. As far as I have seen, photo.net does not commit the page design sin of specifying absolute font size, so this wouldn't be a problem.

 

Brian, what are your thoughts on the proposal?

 

Thanks.

[john falkenstine]

Masters of Minutiae.......