Forum needs to show Most Recent Posts

[Marc Deschenes]

Please make that a priority.

We also need a way of previewing post. I only see a submit button.

Thanks.

[David Webb]

The “Active Topics” in the sidebar on the right always shows the most recent topics (the most recent at the top). Anytime a reply is posted to a topic, the topic with the most recent reply makes it float to the top of that list as well. There’s also discussion about wanting to add that list (the most recent topics) to the homepage, which is in the works.

What also might help you navigate the forums is the “Read/new” marker to the left of each forum and topic. Forums and topics that you haven’t read yet (you have to be logged in for this) have a dark blue bar next to them which should make them easy to spot if you’re scanning that list.

As you’re editing your topics/replies, besides the font being a little different, it looks just like it will when it’s posted. You can also edit your topic/reply even after you’ve submitted it (there’s an “edit” link at the top of all topics and replies that you’ve submitted).

Let me know if that addresses what you need.

Cheers.

[David Webb]

Here’s another thing we can do – if you find it more useful to see when the last reply was made next to a forum or topic, we can turn that on and turn off the other 2 columns (the number of topics and number of posts). Here’s what your post would look like in the list:

Let me know if you’re a fan of that and we can turn that on.

[Marc Deschenes]

To me, the simplest, fastest and most intuitive way to navigate the forum would be to have a chronological list of Most Recent Posts.

Highlighting unread post would be a plus.

 

[Marc Deschenes]

I just clicked on the topic “2020 Bylaw Changes & Vote Discussion” which was on the top of the “Active Topics”.  I expected to go to the most recent post.  Instead I went to the top of the page.  There are twelve posts in that topic.  I had to search the dates to find the latest one.  I missed it the first time and had to go through them all again.

Obviously this is a big problem in a long thread that has replies to both the topic and individual posts.

Is there a reason you can’t create a chronological list of recent posts?

[David Webb]

Problem with that is if everyone clicked on that they would all be taken to the last reply in a thread that they may not have read yet (confusing). In the screenshot I posted, the link on the right side links directly to the reply which would do what you’re describing.

[Jerome Daoust]

I agree that it is important to avoid having to re-scan a recent topic, to hunt down what we have not already read.

I agree with Marc to see a “chronological list of Most Recent Posts”.

I recommend preventing recent postings to be inserted between older ones inside a displayed topic (the cons outweigh the pros). Other forums I use (like the international Paragliding Forum), only have postings in chronological order within a topic, and then it becomes possible to have a list of links to the oldest unread posting within a topic and read the newer unread ones that follow.

Thanks for your good work David.

[David Webb]

Ok – if I’m reading the above right, we’re looking to sort the main forum listing (and each forum’s list of topics) chronologically (by whichever has had the last topic/reply posted). Will work on that today.

As for sorting all of the replies chronologically, that will seriously mess with nested replies (I think that will completely break that functionality). Seems like we would have to choose one or the other, and personally, I think being able to reply directly to another reply (and see it visually) has value. What I think we should try first is enabling that other column (the one I posted the screenshot of above), which provides a link directly to the last reply. We can try that out as a group for a while and see if it fills the need.

Sound ok?

[Marc Deschenes]

Nope.  We’re talking about adding a third forum list.  Leave “Forums” and “Active Topics” the way they are. Add a third list called “Recent Posts”.

That’s the way the old forum worked. Was easy to see all the new post.

I suggest adding a subject line for every post.

Thanks.

 

[David Webb]

Ah – gotcha. Did you mean “posts” as in topics, or posts as in replies?

EDIT: Replies are now on in the sidebar.

[Marc Deschenes]

Photos at the top of the WW pages shuffle, if that’s the right term. Be great if the top of the CSS home page cycled through a bunch of different shots.. I’ve seem some great photos taken by CSS pilots and their friends. Change the pics once a week or so.

It would be a way to promote the club. If I lived somewhere else I’d like to see what those lucky Crestline pilots have posted each week.

[Marc Deschenes]

Both.  Maybe I’m using the wrong term.  I think of both a reply and a new topic as a post. Both should appear in the new list. Chronologically.  Would help if each reply/post had a subject line.

[David Webb]

Having an image rotator (several images that cycle through) is bad for load times, since all of those photos need to be downloaded when you visit the page.

We ARE definitely open to having you all submit photos to use there though, and we’d love to swap them out regularly.  Since it’s the most prominent photo on the entire site (first thing everyone sees when they go to crestlinesoaring.org), we wanted to make sure that we were being inclusive of both wing types, so I think photos with both HGs and PGs would be preferred.

Also, when looking at shots that you have to submit, try playing around with scaling and cropping it (try cropping it so it’s quite wide) – if you resize your browser on your computer, or look at the site on your phone, you’ll notice that all of the photos resize to accommodate whatever screen you’re using. The one that’s up now fits that space particularly well since the HG and PG remain nicely visible at all screen sizes. Just something to consider.

Also, I don’t think any of us want to spend our time combing through the forums to find nice photos to post on the homepage, so if you have one that you want posted, send us an email at info@crestlinesoaring.org. That gets checked often.

[Jerome Daoust]

The benefit of visually seeing nested replies, is less important than the benefit of having replies in chronological order which then allows to:

• Provide a list of links to the single (only 1 per topic) oldest unread posting in a discussion/topic. No need for multiple links for each unread posting/message, which make that list too long.
• Entering a discussion/topic and reading posting in chronological order.

The only disadvantage of not seeing post/message chronologically (instead of visually nested) is that users replying to another just need to start by a short quote or say who they are replying to if it isn’t obvious (like the message just above). This doesn’t seem to be a problem on the international Paragliding Forum, which provides the ideal list of links to the oldest unread message under each topic (click this  to see). The attached image  shows a typical result, and you just click the orange “UNREAD” link to get into that topic’s oldest unread message, great!

[David Webb]

Those are fair points. I think it depends on if the majority of replies to a topic tend to be comments on the main topic, or if there are a significant amount that are direct replies to other replies (just my opinion, but I’m not a fan of the extra step of quoting text elsewhere on the page, but it’s not the end of the world to me).

Let me give that one some thought to see if there’s a happy middle ground. Possibly a link/button at the top that flattens and re-sorts the comments so that both methods remain available? Will think on that.

[Author]

Posts