Being able to individually talk to people within a main thread without disrupting other conversations is what allows us to get to know each other properly. I urge you to give it a try, you'll learn to love it.

It would simply be pleasant to have the option of changing it; I understand and appreciate how your community enjoys the individual threads. However, it's really not my preferred method for reading SF/F conversations. For example, on imbd.com, once you log in you can view board conversations as either threads or, post by post, which is the format readandfindout.com currently supports. When I view everything as a long thread, I can quickly discern the tangents and focus on the parts of the conversation I would l like to participate in.

It would be enjoyable for RAFO to support a variety of reading preferences.

After going on five years at wotmania, I can see the charm of nested threads; the threadjacks and one on one conversations wouldn't be possible otherwise. To say I've "learned to love it" would, however, be a stretch. The overwhelming majority do love it though, and the community is so caring, intelligent and witty it's a small price to pay to be a part of it. In time it becomes a small and seldom noticed annoyance, and real, significan, benefits would be lost without it. Having both interfaces and/or a hybrid, I'm told, means duplicating a LOT of code. Hence, while I'm in no position to say it won't happen, my own impression (nothing more) is it won't happen very soon, because too many other things have priority. I do reserve the right to be wrong about that though, and would be overjoyed to be so.

Yet the most important thing to understand is my initial statement: It would be a tragic shame to let something ultimately so minor to prevent enjoyment of the rich and varied interests, perspectives and relationships that made the end of our communitys online presence so unthinkable to us all. There's nothing else like it on the net, and it really does have to be savored to be appreciated. So howdy, welcome and please have fun during what I hope will be a long stay with us.

The format for the messageboards is the reason I never went to the wot boards. Seven years I was on wotmania and I never got around to liking the style. And I don't like it much here either. On wotmania there was the chat and the theory boards and other stuff which didn't have this format so I could still be a contributing member...but I really can't here. five minutes on a board and I start pulling my hair out.

I can understand wanting to not have to see everything at once but the options aren't nothing or everything. You could just as easily have collapsible/expandable posts which load on the same page, rather than having to open up a new page every time.

That way, the people who like to just see titles and not read everything can do that and the ones who want to see everything can do that too.

they can set whether they want their default to be collapsed or expanded in their profile and never have to worry about it again.

I present for example: http://allpoetry.com/board/topic/268613867

if you click on the little minus button, the replies collapse, click on the plus and they expand again. happiness abounds.

Everyone wins, no one is forced to endure a format they find onerous, and, perhaps most importantly, no one who'd otherwise be a valuable contributor to the site heads for the hills after five minutes enduring a format they find tedious and inefficient. I generally consider the community worth the headaches of nested threads, but I'll never learn to LIKE them, and it seems obvious there are plenty of others for whom the balance tilts the other way. I'm the last person who'd suggest taking away a feature so many wotmaniacs have enjoyed for a decade, I just intensely dislike it being the only way. Maybe RAFO has so many active members and such constant activity that the site can afford to restrict itself to those who like the current format, but that was not my understanding.

Its also very difficult for good RPs to be played out if you have to open every thread.

It certainly would be nice if the replies could be collapsed or expanded, and it is a very nice compromise for every one.

and while I do like nested boards, where you can reply to a certain person rather than just in general, I have to say this is the easiest conversation I've ever had on either RAFO or wotmania.

When playing a good RP, it's essential that the players read EVERYTHING or they end up making posts that...just don't make sense.

Everyone wins, no one is forced to endure a format they find onerous, and, perhaps most importantly, no one who'd otherwise be a valuable contributor to the site heads for the hills after five minutes enduring a format they find tedious and inefficient. I generally consider the community worth the headaches of nested threads, but I'll never learn to LIKE them, and it seems obvious there are plenty of others for whom the balance tilts the other way. I'm the last person who'd suggest taking away a feature so many wotmaniacs have enjoyed for a decade, I just intensely dislike it being the only way. Maybe RAFO has so many active members and such constant activity that the site can afford to restrict itself to those who like the current format, but that was not my understanding.

Ignore the duplicate (sorry. )

It would eliminate a large amount of clutter, especially in threads with large post counts. I for one would like to be able to start reading a thread 200 posts long without having to load 200 new pages. It just gets plain irritating after a while. This is a good compromise, as it keeps the same nested style everyone prefers, and limits the amount of page loads etc.

I spent a lot of time looking at implementing systems exactly like the one at http://allpoetry.com/board/topic/268613867, where the whole thread is viewable but there is still indentation and nesting of replies.


The issue is mainly down to the method and content of discussions here at RAFO. First of all, lots of posts end up being one-on-one conversations between two or three people, ending up in a long subthread. With nested threads, that's not so bad; the title of the post generally isn't long, and can easily wrap onto two lines. When you start showing whole posts *and* indenting at the same time though, you quickly run out of space.

Secondly, people at RAFO tend to be quite verbose. The system linked above works very well in a large number of sites where comments are generally short and sweet; most people leave a single sentence, and the most that's written is 2 paragraphs. If you started cramming that much next onto a page, it just becomes unreadable.


That's not to say there isn't a compromise to be had; I just haven't found a half-way-house that is anywhere near usable, with the type of posts found here at RAFO.

that way, people still only open up the posts they want to read but the posts load on the same page rather than a seperate page.

It's commendable you're willing to try though, Ben, so I can hardly argue for LESS functionality in good conscience. It just seems, from my limited perspective, that those who want the indents want them for nested threads and those who want pages will either keep track of things in their head or by quoting and sub-quoting the previous replies (not that that never gets confusing when two verbose people discuss things at length, but it's still a heck of a lot better than the alternative; well done. )

Just a thought that you already have the bugs and suggestions section coded in a open post straight down method.

And while it's not the idea solution we're looking for, another option would be simply to have an option to choose between this and the other format...both are already available on site so it would really be largely a copy and paste job.