vBulletin 3 - Quick Reply
 

The forum software we use here is called vBulletin. We have been using the version 2 software since we moved here from EZBoard. vBulletin 3 is now in development and is being beta tested. Because of some of the changes in the vBulletin 3 software being planned, I thought I would create a thread here and begin collecting opinions ahead of time.

There are a lot of great things being added to vBulletin, some of which only appear on Internet Explorer 5 or 5.5 due to the ActiveX/Java capabilities (I will evaluate switching these features on when the time comes).

For those using Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc. the forum experience will be the same as it is now. Nothing is being lost in favor of the IE5/5.5/6 stuff.

Actually, all browsers will notice dramatic speed increases in vB3. Gone are the "Thank you for posting. Please wait while we redirect you to your message" interstitials. Now you are taken back to the thread immediately and scrolled down to what you added. Page display is easily twice as fast as the HTML has been greatly optimized.

vBulletin 3 brings so many new features, including the ability to subscribe to threads/topics and get daily or weekly synopses of the various replies, or to have a Favorites/Bookmarks selection of topics which you can easily access from the forum to keep an eye on your favorite topics. At the bottom of each topic, there is an optional list of "similar topics" which have similar words in the subject (this is really cool!).

Now it will be possible to delete and/or edit the attachment to a message instead of having to add a new post each time.


One of the major additions of vBulletin 3 is being able to view the forum in a threaded format.

Right now, when you hit Reply or use the Quick Reply box at the bottom of each page, the message appears below all the other messages. This is considered linear posting. There is other forum software out there that supports not only linear posting but also threaded posting.

This means that if there is a topic that is 4 messages long, I can reply to any of the 4 messages and my reply will appear tucked underneath the message I chose. Like this:

1 Elvis sightings
2 The king of rock & roll
--Re: the king of rock & roll
3 More about Elvis
4 Stuff to do in Tennessee

The way the forum works now (linear), the forum would look like this:

1 Elvis sightings
2 The king of rock & roll
3 More about Elvis
4 Stuff to do in Tennessee
--Re: the king of rock & roll


Now, before everyone goes into full panic mode, threaded view is entirely optional. I know I will personally not be using it. But its addition to the forum means a possible change for everyone.

In order for threaded view to work properly for even one person, we would all need to reply to messages in a way that is meaningful to threaded view. Instead of just typing in a reply in the 'Quick Reply' box at the bottom and hitting Send, we would need to find the message we are replying to and click a Quick Reply (http://beta.vbulletin.com/vb3/images/quickreply.gif) icon next to that message. vBulletin would then automatically scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The argument has been bandied about "What is the point of a Quick Reply box if the person has to click twice and pick a specific post they are replying to?" Let's look at an example first...

Here is an example of threaded view (Please ignore the color scheme):

https://www.feldoncentral.com/forumpics/vB3thread.gif

The scrolling panel at the top is the thread view. You click on each post to read the message. What this means is, in a topic, instead of just adding a reply to the bottom of the message, you would reply to a specific post within a topic. This will result in a multi-threaded topic with replies nested under other posts.

If you want to reply to Matt's message, you would click the 'Quick Reply' button next to his post like so:

https://www.feldoncentral.com/forumpics/vB3reply.gif


So I'd like to know what you folks think about this.

Is the extra step of picking a post before you can do a Quick Reply going to be a major pain? How many people think they will use threaded view?

Remember, you can choose to view the forum the current "flat" way. Replies would appear in chronological order in this mode.

If nobody wants to use threaded view, then I will be able to, using hacks, remove it and return the Quick Reply behavior to the way it works now in version 2.2.7.

If you enable it and nobody likes it you can always turn it off.

I'd really rather go into this having a plan of action. Either hack out the pickyness of "Quick Reply" from day 1, or support it for an indeterminate period.

I really prefer linear posting format, the way the forum is now. I've used threaded postings before and it is a pain in the butt. Chronological order is much easier to follow. IMHO.

Getting rid of that annoying "Thank you for posting..." screen will be a very good improvement enough. :)

The question is not how you will view the forum, but whether we should accomodate those people who DO want to view the forum in threaded format.

The problem I see with it being optional is that things can get pretty confusing for the "linear view" people when they are viewing posts posted by the "threaded view" people.

Simple example, numbered in chronological order:

1. I like peanut butter.
2. Yes, with grape jelly!
_____4. Reply: Yes I agree, it does!
3. No, it tastes better with sliced bananas.
_____5. Reply: You're crazy, that's gross.

Viewed linearly as:

1. I like peanut butter.
2. Yes, with grape jelly!
3. No, it tastes better with sliced bananas.
4. Yes I agree, it does!
5. You're crazy, that's gross.

What's #4 agreeing to?

I realize each post is time-stamped, but people probably won't be paying attention to that. And requiring them to, in order to be able to understand the flow of the posts, is unreasonable.

Or perhaps I'm misunderstanding how the linear posts will be displayed.....

They will be displayed as you describe. Hopefully if there's any chance of ambiguity, they will opt to include a quote of what they're replying to.

In that case, no.

And btw, I like peanut butter and jelly. And I like peanut butter on toast with sliced bananas.

If the majority of people would not use it, then I don't think there is any point in supporting threaded view because inevitibly people will get lazy and not reply with the other users in mind, either as in bluwewinterwaves example or from the other point of view, not replying to the correct message.

I also think that the threaded view is to a certain extent redundant. As long as people keep on topic, there isn't a geat need fro sub groupings within a topic

Apparently, there's not much reason to worry. Kier is one of the developers:

If we were using vBulletin 3, I could have copied and pasted his message and the bold and italics would have come over automatically (I had to do them manually). :)

Haha, I was just keeping with the Elvis theme.... :)