[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Cironir:
Not the customer support forums of companies I've worked for. Admittedly, though, the "newest first" order was more common a few (many?) years ago, I don't encounter it often anymore. I also agree that there are some advantages to it, but they are far less significant, or even non-existent, on community-focused Boards (where threads are usually on-going discussions rather than question/answer small-scale exchanges).

A number of forum packages support the "automatically go to newest message in a thread since your Last visit" (or "... Last time since you opened this thread") feature, which would probably meet the needs of customer support reps who are pressed for time, and still allow a more "natural" order of Messages in a thread. The current system is as tedious as top posting in Usenet, though not entirely comparable since threads are still ordered "properly".

This is all very true. No one here is in disagreement with any of it. The "trouble support" Version which was started here years ago is no longer "commuity chat" that these forums have become.

And switching to a newer package which allows it both ways is the answer. Done and purchased. Its no longer a question of IF it should be done.

But Im not sure if you realize yet the wealth of information which has built up in these forums. In some cases it has gone beyond a manual, beyond a strat guide, its become an encyclopdeia of knowledge which exists nowhere else. THATS the scarey part. Making it easier for some Users now does not tip the scale over precautions about the data. Since we are between conventions it has become the "project of the day"