Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Forum Functionality

This is topic Forum Functionality in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004319

Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :

It would be a nice feature to be able to organize the list of topic by number of replies instead of just by date/time. I say this because I am hunting for the fragments and feedback that have the most responses because I want to read that.

I realize that no. of responses is only weakly correlated with most-interesting-writing, but it is correlated. The same is probably true for most-interesting-writing-topic in the normal forum. Anyway just an idea.

Posted by meg.stout (Member # 6193) on :

Yeah, it would be nice to be able to click on any column and sort (kind of like what you can do in eBay, sorting on Price or End Date, etc.)

A feature I've seen at another forum is that any threads I haven't read are dramatically highlighted. When I click on a highlighted thread, it takes me directly to the most recent post since I last visited the thread.

I would hang at Hatrack more often if it had that kind of obvious channeling toward new content.

I know there are vaguely similar things that could be used to serve the same function almost, but they seem to be buggy (e.g., the little lightbulbs turn yellow independent of my actions) and I would have to remember the time-date stamp corresponding to my last visit to a particular thread - a thing a computer can do easily - me, not necessarily).

Posted by meg.stout (Member # 6193) on :

Oh, and it would also be nice to know who posted the most recent response, since that is more likely to pique my interest to see the 'latest' about a thread than who started a thread.

Posted by Grovekeeper (Member # 5650) on :

I operate a forum that makes use of the Simple Machines Forum software, which is about the nicest free bulletin board software I've found (I migrated to it from phpBB several months ago and have never looked back.

The capabilities you are looking for may not be available in UBB (I honestly don't know), and if they're not, then this whole forum would need to be converted to use different software.

I believe there is a converter for UBB to SMF conversion, but even so such a conversion is not a thing for the faint of heart.

If KDW is interested in looking into alternative forum software, I would happily volunteer my help in any administrative issues such a conversion would create. But since this topic has been raised before, and UBB is still the order of the day, I imagine that there's a reason for that.

-G

Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :

Just because a topic has had a lot of posts (particularly in F&F) doesn to mean that is necessarily a more interesting read. Ironically, I used to look for the least replied to, considering those to be the writers who made the least mistakes--thereby making them the better reads. Wrong. There is no standard (statistically) to judge the material in a post by. If you can get into it, you can;if you can't read past a line or two without wishing you were reading something else, that tells you something. With tastes being vastly different, which they are here, you have to make your own decision.

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited October 15, 2007).]

Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :

Well, irrelevant. Because I see a correlation and I would find that functionality useful regardless of whether you agree such a correlation exists, my friend.

But, personally, a distribution of replies isn't random, I don't think, I believe people are drawn to read/reply to things that interest them, hence topics of greater general interest tend to attract a greater general number of viewers and get a greater general number of replies.

Not saying it is causation, but the correlation exists, I think.

Posted by Wolfe_boy (Member # 5456) on :

In my opinion, most posts equals one of two things...

1. Multiple revisions, which isn't a good thing in my opinion, it leads to writing for the critiquers to satisfy specific points that are made.

2. Arguing, which while possibly interesting to read, are horribly counterproductive.

But, as IB said, this isn't a hard and fast rule. Just the way O think when choosing which to click on.

Jayson Merryfield

Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :

Arguing is interesting, it's like conflict in a story. I wasn't stupid enough to say the correlation is between productivity and number of posts, haha give me some credit.

[This message has been edited by Zero (edited October 15, 2007).]

Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

Sometimes the most replied-to posts are the ones that end up getting locked by Kathleen. They are sometimes the most interesting (or funny at least) but often don't have that much to do with writing.

A function where you could view by number of posts would be useful. But then I was at work one night, bored out of my mind, and browsed through postings and topics going back as far as the forum would let me. My eyes burned after that exercise. So, it may be helpful, or it may not.

Posted by halogen (Member # 6494) on :

Well, if you use something like VBulletin you would have all of those features and then some.

Making a forum more functional will, in all likelihood, increase the number of users. Do you really want that to happen?

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Grovekeeper, thank you for the offer, but I'm only the adminstrator here, not the webmaster (who decides things like what forum software to use).

I'd like to have what I think are called sticky posts, but UBB doesn't do those either.

Oh, well. <shrug>

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Oooh, sticky posts would be nice, indeed. I bet UBB will upgrade to include that type of feature in the future (try saying that 10x fast!) someday.

I participate on a board system that doesn't support threading. It makes me absolutely INSANE! Posts are organized into "discussions" - basically large topics (analgous to this forum, vs. the F&F-short stories one) and then all posts within are organized in reverse chronological. It makes keeping up with conversation topics almost impossible, finding a previous conversation almost impossible, and otherwise makes me nuts.

So...you won't hear me complain much about UBB. This forum software can clearly take a large amt of traffic and does a lot of things well.

But then again, sorting by # posts, date, unread status, and some other stuff would be nice some day.

Posted by Grovekeeper (Member # 5650) on :

KDW,

That's unfortunate. Well, if things ever change, consider the offer open.

Or we could subvert the dominant paradigm, and move this entire forum to a server we control! <chord type=minor>Bum bum bum</chord>

Or we can be polite and leave things as they are.
-G

Posted by AaronAndy (Member # 2763) on :

Do you know what would be really neat? An RSS feed of new topics, or new posts in a given topic.

I do agree that this forum is due for a software upgrade. Perhaps the issue could be brought up with the webmaster or someone who does have that ability...