Posts are backwards why?

[Chazar]

I just want state that I've grown to like it the way it is.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by reverend:
Look around. You will very rarely find a board that uses the same reversed layout that Shrapnel uses.

Depends on the Boards you visit. Ive done customer suppport for many internet companies and this is the standard arrangment for support Boards. Its FAR easier for busy staff people to see the latest threads, and start with the latest Messages. That way they dont reply to the initial problem if there is a later post saying the person has found an answer which changed it abit. And multiple staff people can quickly see if another staff person has answered the ticket. Its a definate format choice for trying to keep staff and developers active in the forums.

But of course, thats an old and moot point. A couple of the forums have expanded into Community-Chat forums. And thats a good thing. Shrapnel has already decided to support that evolution with hardware/software upgrades including the purchase/install of software which will not only switch the sequence but apparently allows it as a choice.

The only concern now is switching over without any losses.

[ July 06, 2004, 15:58: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[psimancer]

to gandalf shrapnel and all involved

1 whilst i personally do not like the present bottoms up format
2 i do understand the original necessity
3 i applaud their patience with their customers and forum members
4 i applaud their decision to update the software to a Version that allows choice ( very american )
5 i thank them for taking the time to preserve the content of the present Boards

6 i suggest a temporary measure if its possible
move the printer friendly button to the tiop of the page if it can be done

7 expand the size of the new Posts blue arrow (never saw that in here till fyron mentioned it)
8 provide a topic search that allow to search specific forums for topics with new Posts
allowing the choice to see new post \topics in all forums or just in say the space empires forum

these are suggestions
all in all i believe the people responsible for these Boards whether it be company , advisors , mods , or just plain old posters have all done a great job and are to be thanked for their time and hard work

(yes that means you to fyron )

[ July 11, 2004, 16:36: Message edited by: psimancer ]

[Cironir]

Just to chip in my two cents: I'd prefer the "logical" order also, oldest first and newest Last. Since people write Messages from top to bottom (first letter of a message is older than the Last), it would make the most sense to me if threads also started with the oldest article.

it is only one of many.
forum I visited, I'd probably not mind, but alas,
severe headache. If this was the only web
smoothly read it without eventually getting a
my post like this would really help anyone to
I seriously doubt that ordering the lines of

I don't expect that the system is changed just for my needs, but a good community is important to me when I buy/play games. I like reading/writing about what I'm playing, sharing my thoughts and bouncing around ideas. The current system is too frustrating for me to really want to participate here, so the game's attraction is also negatively affected. My loss, I know.

Giving the user the choice would by far be the best option. If newer Versions use a different format/system to store Messages, then this probably does present a problem, however, it's a problem you'll eventually face anyway. Are there tools that would help converting the data?

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Cironir:

it is only one of many.
forum I visited, I'd probably not mind, but alas,
severe headache. If this was the only web
smoothly read it without eventually getting a
my post like this would really help anyone to
I seriously doubt that ordering the lines of

Cute. But not a good example. After all its not the Posts that are reveresed. Its the threads.

Any forum built around customer support (you know, the ones that do trouble tickets) tend to be ordered this way. So your example should have been that any customer service person jumping into a troubleshooting thread would see...
5)thanks that fixed it
4)did you try teaking the borgle?
3)no that didnt do it
2)are you sure the fwibble is turned off?
1)I cant seem to get asdf to work on my machine.

So the first post is the one most informative about what answer might be needed if any.

I don't expect that the system is changed just for my needs, but a good community is important to me when I buy/play games.

Heard and agreed to.

[ July 27, 2004, 17:40: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
I hope by that you do not mean that Shrapnel is thinking of changing things to the more common layout of oldest Posts first and on down. I would truely hate to see that happen here.

Not switch it. Just extend it. (hopefully. Knock on virtual wood)

Actually the SEIV forum had a big hand in the "this is a community chat forum not a trouble shooting forum" discussion. It had been decided awhile ago to upgrade the forum software to a package that makes the sequence a user choice. But to accomplish it as a choice means the software stores forums very differently. The reason the upgrade wasnt done instantly was concerns about importing. Progress looks good and (looking nervously around for Murphy) an answer one way or the other looks imminent.

[Cironir]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Any forum built around customer support (you know, the ones that do trouble tickets) tend to be ordered this way.

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".

Anyway, I feel a bit bad that my very first post here was criticism. The different order was the first problem I ran into, so I used the search command and found this thread. It's meant as feedback, not as *****ing.