I've looked through the master list of suggestions for AG3 maintained by Cormyn, but I didn't see quite what I'd like to recommend.
Threaded discussions and editing of posts in forums are sort of there, but not in the way I'd like to see them.
Firstly, editing: I think it would be useful if a person could edit a post at any stage, provided that no one has replied to it (see the next bit for the context).
Secondly, threading within forum topics. On AG2, I find it quite difficult to follow the discussion when persons A, B and C have all commented, then person D responds to B, while person E responds to A, etc etc, particularly where people don't bother to use the Quote facility. I think it would be a good idea if you were able to comment either on the original post, or on any of the subsequent comments. So, a comment on another commentator's remarks would then be inserted in the appropriate place in the forum thread and indented slightly.
If you happen upon a particular comment well after the event, and say with a considerable number of pages of discussion, you really have little choice but to read all of the forum posts if you want to follow a particular thread. The idea outlined above allows someone to quickly pick up on all the entries on that thread.
This is the way that comments and discussion operates in another social community I belong to, and I think it works well. You can see which discussion point people are commenting on, instead of it all being munged together in strict chronological order, and it would be really useful to be able to edit your own comments, provided that no one else has replied to them in the meantime.
If I have anything to say about it, you'll only get a chance to edit within the first 5 minutes of posting. Otherwise someone could go off on a flaming rant, post all kinds of abusive stuff, and then edit his post to sound like the plot to Disney's Bambi movie. And maintaining edit control unless someone 'replies' to your exact message will lead to confusion as a simple user interface with a single "ost a reply" button is our ideal situation.
Threading forum posts sounds a lot like Google Buzz, which as ghgt99 said, looks cluttered, but *is* effective under the right circumstances. However, an ideal forum thread is a single thread of conversation, and diverging from that topic warrants a whole new thread anyway.
I think this would cause a lot of clutter. Then to see an actual post that was not a reply, it would take a while.
In practice it doesn't. You just need to scroll up and the indents show you which submission the comment is referring to. New comments on the original post would still go in chronological order as they do at present.
Was that community Wikia? I am just curious.
Threading forum posts sounds a lot like Google Buzz
It's a site where authors can post writing of a particular genre. Readers can then comment on the writing, and obviously some comments spark discussions. The site is built on Drupal.
However, an ideal forum thread is a single thread of conversation, and diverging from that topic warrants a whole new thread anyway.
I take your point on this, though it often doesn't happen. I guess I was responding to the situation where a particular forum post has anything from six to 15 pages of comments. At that point, I find it really difficult trying to follow what is going on, and based on my experiences, I was just suggesting what I think is a better way.
I think you should be able to edit them, and even if they do the exact same thing as cormyn's illustration above, it would be taking back something that could possibly cause a written fight. So if they do that, they are helping, not hurting.
Every forum that has ever existed has that ability.
AG is different. If the development team allows editing of posts at any time, there is a possibility, not a certainty but a possibility, that there will be those that will edit posts to their own advantages. Fill in the blanks if you wish.
AG is different. If the development team allows editing of posts at any time, there is a possibility, not a certainty but a possibility, that there will be those that will edit posts to their own advantages. Fill in the blanks if you wish.
That's why AG is so much better than a lot of sites because the moderators actually have a bit of control on what happens in the forums. In another point, if someone makes a stupid comment, and everyone comments on that comment, and then the first guy fixes it, than it's alright. But then another person comes on and sees all the comments about a comment that doesn't exist anymore and gets really confused. So, instead of making a stupid comment, make sure your post looks good before you move on, or just let it be if you already post it. It makes it much easier on everyone else.
I can assure you I've never seen that happen before in my three years of being on the internet.
1. The moderator should delete that comment before it spreads its seeds
2. People don't get confused if they see the quoted text and see what the real post was.
1. If we had an edit button, moderators would slack off. Probly. 67% chance. That wouldn't be good.
Hah! No. Where I come from, double posting gets you one full infraction. You get five infractions, banned for one year. I am sure that you have double posted at least five times. You would be banned for one year by now.
2. What I meant was if the person edited the post, then the people new to that post wouldn't be able to see it after they see the comments it received. You get the picture?
The posts that follow the original post would quote the original post. It's like I say blueberries, and then you quote me on blueberries but my post is then changed to strawberries. My post is original post is still blueberries.
P.S. I think I get what you're saying. Sometimes people don't quote the original 'stupid' post as they should. So if a lot of people say, "Oh, that's a stupid post" and there were none, that wouldn't make much sense. But if the people replied, "whaeroagewhriu;erhgv Oh, that's a stupid post" Than that makes sense. And of course if people quoted the sentence, what's the point of editing it? There pretty much is none. So, in conclusion, look over your post a couple times before you submit it, and there will be no need for an edit button, and it would make everybody's lives so much better and would waste that much less time.
I guess.
In vBulletin forums, it usually says under the signature, in small letters, last edited by blank at 2:56pm by blank.
