I'm sure I've missed any discussion of this topic, but is the "reply" function to be henceforth dead for all practical purposes? That is, is the only way to make sense of who has reponded to whom in some of these scrambled threads to be just the quoted squib from the post to which the comment refers rather than actually NESTING it beneath the post replied to?
Kent McMillan, post: 351106, member: 3 wrote: ...just the quoted squib from the post to which the comment refers...
Alas, It seems so.
Mark Mayer, post: 351111, member: 424 wrote: Alas, It seems so.
Ah, this is a bad omen for the New Year. What exactly is so difficult about software for a DISCUSSION FORUM actually facilitating discussion by connecting COMMENTS with REPLIES? Raketenwissenshaft? Ich glaube nicht!
The comment function disappeared while I was out............
There were a number of problems with the comment and reply buttons. The two I'm aware of:
1. Replies/comments often appeared out of chronological order. This may have been related to the Tapatalk app.
2. Nested responses more than a few deep displayed as unreadable columns as narrow as 1 character on at least some phones (mine included).
I think Wendell concluded that the level of effort required to maintain those features wasn't worth the end result.
Jim Frame, post: 351129, member: 10 wrote: There were a number of problems with the comment and reply buttons.
Okay, so what had been a discussion forum is back in tweet mode. It's amazing to me that any developer of discussion forum software can't be bothered to actually support discussion beyond tweet format. Indenting a post is hardly the only way that comes to mind to clarify the comment/reply structure of a discussion.
No offense to Wendell but I think the experiment with this software has failed ( https://xenforo.com/ ).
Main Stream software is free, and open source. I have no idea if it is possible to move existing data from this software to phpbb ( https://www.phpbb.com/ ) or some other reasonable package, but the longer this goes on the worse it gets.
Peter Ehlert, post: 351160, member: 60 wrote: ... I think the experiment with this software has failed...
That sir may generate more responses than not capping your pin in Texas.
I am sure Wendell will eventually get things squared away. In his free time if he has any.
Count me as very thankful for the service, but struggling to follow at times myself.
Steve
I was going to comment about the loss of the COMMENT function, but it seems that it is no longer there, so I have no comment.
Were it still there, I would say that I found the nested comments to be a bit confusing with threads that went on for some time and I visited often. There would be new comments above messages that I had already read.
If I was reading a thread that was no longer being updated, the nested comments worked well. But I think I prefer the current status; newer replies are in a more predictable place in a thread that is still active.
BUT YOU REALLY CANNOT TELL UNLESS TOLD WHO THE NEWER REPLIES WERE TO.
When it comes to the layout of the thread, that was the only thing I really liked about that other board.
Paul in PA
My suggestion is probably impractical, as I don't know anything about programming; and anything I think of has probably already been considered. But, it would be nice to have that "comment" function on for the average computer user. I wonder if an "app" could be developed that was made for viewing through a smaller device. Maybe if you viewing through the app, it could just refrain from indenting those "comments", or treat them differently.
It seems like a lot of smaller sites have created their own "apps" just for their sites for whatever that's worth.
Well Kent, it was good having you back. Don't be gone so long next time, okay?
Disorder is the normal for me.
SWMBO and I have been together 15yrs and she still does not know or understand what my job is or why I go to the forest every day.
She does understand that I have a license from the state.
Bottom line, I just tune in and read what is on the screen and in between the lines, have a beer or whiskey and maybe both.
Happy New Year everyone...........
Peter Ehlert, post: 351160, member: 60 wrote: No offense to Wendell but I think the experiment with this software has failed ( https://xenforo.com/ ).
Main Stream software is free, and open source. I have no idea if it is possible to move existing data from this software to phpbb ( https://www.phpbb.com/ ) or some other reasonable package, but the longer this goes on the worse it gets.
That seems to be a matter of opinion, one of which I'm in disagreement with. There will never be a perfect software for any forum. They will all have pros and cons.
Kent McMillan, post: 351106, member: 3 wrote: I'm sure I've missed any discussion of this topic, but is the "reply" function to be henceforth dead for all practical purposes? That is, is the only way to make sense of who has reponded to whom in some of these scrambled threads to be just the quoted squib from the post to which the comment refers rather than actually NESTING it beneath the post replied to?
Yep, it's gone. It was too problematic and the developer wasn't very responsive, so I gave up on it. I really only installed it to satisfy the complaints of about 10 users out of nearly 6,000, but alas, it apparently wasn't meant to be.
The forum works fine without the comment function but I found it confusing anyway.
Wendell, post: 358905, member: 1 wrote: That seems to be a matter of opinion, one of which I'm in disagreement with. There will never be a perfect software for any forum. They will all have pros and cons.
🙂
however will will both agree that you will forever be more diplomatic than me.
Thanks again Wendell for your continued efforts.
Perhaps in the future the developer will fix the problems and it can be tried again. I did kind of like the threaded conversation structure. But I understand that it wasn't worth the hassle now.
