It is virtually impossible to read large threads like this one: http://www.lingq.com/forum/1/13245/ It takes several minutes for the thread to load, and even when it eventually does load something, I can’t really navigate the page (the script seems to be trying to load even more content and the page is as good as frozen).
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I guess this is related to the new TreeView. If you like you can join the referendum: http://www.lingq.com/forum/1/33559/last/
I just noticed it only takes so long and freezes in Chrome. In Firefox, the thread seems to load reasonably fast (considering how long the thread is).
On the one hand, threads like the one you link to would be a complete mess if they were laid out linearly. Can you imagine so many people replying to some post a page back? It would take so much time to follow your part of the thread.
On the other hand, it motivates people to start discussing something unrelated to the topic in question in the comments when it would be better to create a new thread. I think the main issue is to teach people how to use the new “tree” functionality properly.
I know this from other forums and it always prevented me form participating. So this kind of forum is not new to me. I always found it not working properly for me. I know this will prevent me participating in discussions in the future, because I’ll loose track.
Same on my smartphone. It says “Scroll for more” but nothing happens in one of the browser. In the other browsers the third level has one or two letter only on the right side which makes the posts unreadable.
To be honest, I find the tree structure better when used appropriately. It happened to me a few times before that I misunderstood someone’s reply to me because I thought they were replying to a different post than they in fact were.
But it seems to me the tree structure is not working properly. Yesterday I replied to a post and then I saw Steve’s post just under mine, I thought he was replying to me, but he had posted an hour before. In that case why is it below my reply? I add an image to be more clear what I mean.
http://screencast.com/t/z1iZRna465
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I don’t quite follow. Steve’s reply says “16 hours, 16 minutes ago” which is four minutes after your comment.
This looks really strange.
I’ve overseen it before because I didn’t saw the “16 hours” in Fernanda’s post. So Steve answered 4 minutes later to her post. This looks fine.
Jakub, what is difficult is if there are 10 or 20 branches. It is difficult to find all the NEW posts in the threads now.
Oops, forget what I said, I think I only read the “20 minutes” part. Anyway, I think he was replying to Mark’s post. Or would he consider normal to wait more than one minute?
I think he was replying to you and just didn’t realize that this is unacceptable, however slow your connection may be.
Ok, so we both misread it. But it is confusing… I read Steve’s post after mine and I thought to myself “What? how long am I expected to wait before I see the post? 10 minutes? more?” What I’m trying to say is that even with a tree system realizing who is replying to whom is not as evident as it might look.
In the old forum we used @name_of_user to make it clear to whom we were replying and it worked well.
That’s why there should be a function to order posts from newest to oldest. For someone who did not participate in the discussion from the very beginning, it is better to see the tree structure. However, if you want to catch up with a thread you’ve already visited, it is better to see what’s new. That’s one of the tweaks that ought to be done. However, it needs to be done carefully, so that users don’t start breaking the tree structure.
No, I think he was referring to Mark, who said: "you may have to wait half a second after the page initially loads to be taken to the correct spot. "
Another problem with this tree system is that it is limited to 8 replies…after that you no longer have a reply button, unless you pick one above… I wonder where it is going to be inserted.
The fact that the depth is limited is in fact a good thing (it’s not good if posts can get “thinner and thinner”).
What is not good is the implementation. I think users should see the text box for a reply at the exact same spot where the reply is going to appear, not somewhere above.
I’m looking at a moodle forum, and users have 4 options: Display replies flat, with oldest first
Display replies flat, with newest first
Display replies in threaded form
Display replies in nested form
If this could be implemented, it would satisfy all tastes, I guess.
Just giving the users the option to display replies flat isn’t necessarily a good idea. If some people forget about the tree structure and simply start responding “inline” while the others follow the tree structure, it will end up in a complete mess. That’s why this has to be done with care.