Just a thought - why not dispense with the red and blue stars and
simply make the thread that was last posted in rise to the top as it
does on most forums I've every visited.
It 's far easier to just look at the top of the list to see if anything's
been said since your last visit without hunting around for stars.
This would also mean that you woudn't end up with really active
threads being forced off the bottom of the screen.
Rhymester
That is a terrible idea! The current format is near-optimum. The only
possible improvement that might be proposed is a more elaborate
system of indicators to get a more accurate idea of the "freshness" of
the post. (more colors of asterisk for example). It allows for clear
observation of which threads go to what posts etc. Your proposal would
make a confusing mess out of everything (especially as the posts
become more numerous. One would have to do allot of tedious
sorting to see what threads belong where and follow what. All for the
sake of "chronological arrangement".
In that case you have lost your option to have the newest threads go
to the top. If you observed some of the long chains of replies to posts
and replies to replies etc that occurred in the former "rants" forum,
you would realize that new posts could be scattered anywhere in the
chain. This would make both or your "conditions" impossible!
The usenet format would be worth looking at. When you log onto a
group (or forum), only the main posts are shown. If there are threads
to the post, there is a 'plus' icon to the left of the title. Click on it and
that post is expanded to show all threads.
Any posts or threads you have not opened appear in bold. Those you
have already looked at are in plain text. I've seen newsreader
programs that use different colors to indicate which posts have been
opened, as well. Either method is much easier to use than the little
colored asteriks used here.
I don't know how hard it would be to change to that format here on
RHP. I use the newsreader that comes with outlook express to check
a few news groups I'm interested in, and it works fine for me. There
are several other newsgroup reader programs available.
Just a thought, for what it's worth...
mwmiller
I just found this forum and I like it a lot. The only improvement I can think of
would be to add a 'frames' option (that can be turned on or off by the individual
viewer) where the screen is split horizontally. The top half would show the posts
and the bottom half would show the message when you clicked on it. That way
you're not clicking back and forth between the message and the main forum. Here's
an example: http://www.boatertalk.com/frames.php?forumid=BoaterTalk
It's very smooth to navigate, and you can scroll through the posts while the last
message you clicked on is still loading.
Other than that, I think this is a great forum. (sorry to dig up an ancient post,
though...)