Threads lost in Discussion-Cyber Space!

[bongo]

Hi Forum Managers!,

One thing that I have noticed and this was not here before the forum was updated recently an it is when you click one of the forums, e.g 'cues' or 'the snooker lounge', the threads are in order of the last post on that thread. If I remember rightly, before, the threads were in order of the thread starter being posted. That means that threads are being lost and sent to the 3rd or 4th page, where people don't normally look, they are getting lost because more posts are being posted on older threads, they are then going to the top of the list. I posted a thread starter and it was 'Your view of Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins'.This was before the update, lots of people replied, then it got lost to about page 5 of the snooker lounge I think it was. Nobody replies to that thread now, they haven't done for about a month, I only posted it about a mont and a half ago.

Can that be changed to what it was (I think it was) before, so the threads are in the order of the thread starter?

You could then click a button and it goes to the ordering of most recent post. So there is two different order of threads that you can read from.

It is just a suggestion to make it sligtly better. The forum is great, really great, the home page with the most recent posts on all areas of the forum is really useful.

Happy New Year,
Chris

[SideShowKeith]

I'd be very suprised if the threads were displayed in order of when they were started.

Every forum I've ever used (and that's a fair few!!) always have the most recent threads as the ones that have been posted in the last.

I'd also be very surprised if the forum software allowed such a change, not with drastic and bespoke changes to the code anyway.

I would perhaps suggest that you're memory is playing tricks on you

[Robert602]

Thanks for the feedback bongo. I think you're misremembering though - the threads have always been ordered by date of last post (I've just been in to the old forum to double check).

The current system actually favours threads like yours with a lot of replies because they stay above more recently created but less popular threads (even though old threads sometimes jump ahead). I just did a quick check - the Higgins thread is 80th in the snooker lounge ordered by last post date (as it is now) but it's 91st when ordered by thread start date (as you propose). Either way good threads all slip down the list eventually, that's just part of the nature of an active forum.

I think it's better to keep active threads near the top regardless of how old they are. If the thread rating system was used more it might be useful, but I think the current system is the best of the bunch at the moment. Adding an option for your method might be something to look at but it's not built in so it'd take a bit of work.

If a thread is particularly useful or timeless you can ask a mod to sticky it, although that's only possible for 3 or 4 threads per section at most. Or, if you want to keep an eye on particular threads, you can subscribe to them - that'll add them to a sort of personal favourites list that you can see from your 'my panel' front page.

And happy new year to you too.

[bongo]

Sorry, my mind must be playing tricks on me,

Actually, putting them in the order of last post on each thread, which the order is and has always been is actually better when I come to think about it!

Sorry, but well done for picking the right order!