Garett

Let's say a thread has 56 posts and the message format is set at flat by default. When one goes and opens up that thread they will only see the last 6 or so posts.

What would be nice to see is at the top of that opening page (first post viewed) was the opening post that started the thread off. By being able to read the opening post it gives one a sense of where the precceding post are coming from. From that point one could decide if they wanted to go to the threaded format to read everything.

Is this doable Jsherman or Wiley?

Wet-n-Wiley

Heh... once I figure out your question I'll see if we can figure out a solution.

Garett

Ok, I see the error of my ways. Lets try this again but with a few changes.


Let's say a thread has 56 posts.
The forum by default is setup to view all threads in the flat format.
Because there is more post than one page can show the viewer only sees the last half dozen posts made to that thread (that's what I get at any rate). For the viewer to see the original question and all of the posts made to that thread the viewer has to change from the flat format to the nested format.

What would be nice to see is: When someone opens up such a large thread and is only presented with the last half dozen or so posts, that the first post showing on that page (which could possibly be highlighted) was the very first post of the thread (the question itself). By reading the last few posts of a thread that is 30-40-50+ large one does not know how far off of topic the posts have slid. So one really has to read the first post to know where the last few responses are coming from.

I think we have all played the game were we sit around and whisper a sentense in someones ear and by the time the sentense gets back to the starting point/person the sentense has changed substantially. Well by having the opening post showing, the reader knows how to anwser the question without having to go to the nested format to read the opening question.

Now of coarse if the reader finds the thread of interest he/she can still click on the nested format to read all the posts.

Aside from the complications of making this happen the only down side I can see to this is: if the opening post is very long......it would eat up bandwidth.

glacierbaze

What you're asking for seems very similar to the "REPLY" format. When you add a reply to the end of a thread, the original post is in a box under the reply box, no matter how many pages there are in the thread. Of course, the longer the thread, the less likely that the last page has anything to do with the original post.

Wet-n-Wiley

A new reply window would do the trick however...

Once we start reverting back to using javascript (ie opening new replies as a seperate window) is when we start running into errors with certain browsers/users etc.

Internet life is so unfair