Some sort of tree-threaded discussion?

Yep, exactly that.

In that case, could 'reply to this post' not quote the post being replied to, since it'll be visible just above, and remove the 'reply to this thread' link?

Well, posters should be told to remove unnecessary quotes.

Alternatively, perhaps 'reply to this thread' should refer to either the last post in the thread or the first post in the thread based on whether the link is at the top or the bottom. Most commonly people *do* want to just reply to the last post in the thread, the behaviour of the system should reflect this.

'Reply to this thread' will still mark the message as 'has no parent post', so then I can write whatever code to "guess" what post it's replying to; including setting the parent post manually. Note I can't really tell which link was clicked, because I plan on not modifying the forum code at all. Generating the thread tree will be a post-processing done on the forum database (or even scraping pages).

Incidentally, this is going to ruin the flow of existing threads, so perhaps the threading should use a new field instead of the existing field. It has long been the advice on the CPDN forums to always use the 'reply to this thread' link in order to avoid unnecessary quoting (a lot of quote-only posts from newcomers are caused by them clicking on the 'reply to this post' thread and then not knowing what to do with all the quoted text).

I will manually filter out long threads (like LOTPHWs) that have no hope of having a proper flow anyway.

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Some sort of tree-threaded discussion?

Yep, exactly that.

I wouldn't mind a tabbed version.

Just think you have an application that is running into problems. Now you have to sift through all messages on all platforms. With a tabbed version you can set the main thread, tabbed off to Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.

Or have 14 different threads for 14 different platforms. ;-)

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I wouldn't mind a tabbed version.

Just think you have an application that is running into problems. Now you have to sift through all messages on all platforms. With a tabbed version you can set the main thread, tabbed off to Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.

Or have 14 different threads for 14 different platforms. ;-)

Hmm... That would need posts to get marked as to what platform they refer to.

Anyway, this is the interface I'm working on: [video].
Without needing to change existing forum code.

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I tried that video with 3 players, they all crashed. But that's probably me missing a codec.. I still have to reinstall the divx/xvid codecs, but never seem to find the time or interest. ;-)

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And how long threads look like (that's why "Last one to post here wins" threads will be filtered out).

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Thanks for posting it all, Nicolas. The video played problem-free for me in WMP.

But will it be a problem if most people use Reply to this post and almost always quote the post they're replying to? I find that unnecessary quotes really slow down the quick reading and flow of a thread.

On Pirates the quote option has TRIM_THIS_ in front of it. If you don't trim that, the quote won't show in the post. Very useful for those who don't want to learn to trim quotes before they add a smiley, a word or one sentence at the bottom.

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But what does trimming a quote mean? Deleting part of it?

How could you quote a complete previous post?

But what does trimming a quote mean? Deleting part of it?

How could you quote a complete previous post?

Removing the TRIM_THIS. What the feature does is: the user must trim the text and remove TRIM_THIS. If he doesn't bother to read the instructions and he just adds his text below the huge quote (leaving TRIM_THIS), then the whole quote would be deleted.

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But will it be a problem if most people use Reply to this post and almost always quote the post they're replying to? I find that unnecessary quotes really slow down the quick reading and flow of a thread.

The issue with people not trimming the quoted material is a problem for any forum, regardless. It is a problem with the forums we currently use for BOINC today.

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

If he doesn't bother to read the instructions and he just adds his text below the huge quote (leaving TRIM_THIS), then the whole quote would be deleted.

I like that. It would put a stop to "ex-BBC" people constantly quoting long posts, just to comment on a part of it.
AND those who press Enter immediately after clicking on "Reply to this post"
Often several times in a row.

I like this idea because unnecessary quotes are a problem on all the boinc-format forums. It's an imaginative solution.

mo.v wrote:

I like this idea because unnecessary quotes are a problem on all the boinc-format forums. It's an imaginative solution.

Thank you. We also put the "post to thread" (not marked "reply") right next to the "reply to *this* post" link, to encourage people to choose wisely between the two.

And we automatically populate the "quote=" part of the quote. All a part of the superior service you'll find on Pirates@Home. :-)

(Some day when I have time I'll forward the changes to Rytis. Someday...)

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-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

Wormholio wrote:

All a part of the superior service you'll find on Pirates@Home. :-)

It was really superior service back then when one could preview the written posts (now finally on regular Boinc forums too) and embed images :-D

Peter

Peter wrote:

Wormholio wrote:

All a part of the superior service you'll find on Pirates@Home. :-)

It was really superior service back then when one could preview the written posts (now finally on regular Boinc forums too) and embed images :-D
Peter

You mean attach files. Yes, and I'd like to get both back on Pirates. What happened is that I added those features and then Janus made a completely separate revision of all the forum code. The version I needed is still in use on my project, but Pirates went back to the main BOINC line of code. At some point I hope to bring the two closer together again. Attaching files would be useful for long logs or other output for alpha testing or other things.

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-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats

other things.

Porn spammers with porn videos? ;-)

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other things.

Porn spammers with porn videos? ;-)

Only if we're lucky.

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Reno, NV
Team: SETI.USA

Another advantage I just noticed while skimming some SETI threads: since it's separated in posts, you mark individual posts as read while you read them. On web forums (this one included), when you open a thread, all its posts get marked as read.

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Another advantage I just noticed while skimming some SETI threads: since it's separated in posts, you mark individual posts as read while you read them. On web forums (this one included), when you open a thread, all its posts get marked as read.

And a big disadvantage of the tree shaped thread is that you can't really browse the thread as a whole, you have to click each and every post separately. That's far too inconvenient, I would not like to have this "feature" in this forum, imho it makes it less readable.

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

And a big disadvantage of the tree shaped thread is that you can't really browse the thread as a whole, you have to click each and every post separately. That's far too inconvenient, I would not like to have this "feature" in this forum, imho it makes it less readable.

*Optional* feature. Don't like it, don't use it; but keep the tree structure (by not replying to the thread when you're answering a specific post) to let others use it.

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