</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><hr /><font size="" face="">The main one that comes to mind is threaded view. Some users could do without this, and the inability to disable something as structurally-important as this leads to unnecessary problems.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="" face="">You are correct in that threaded view is structurally-important, but on the software side of it. Options are great, and we are definitely going to add more. Like I said earlier, the admin area needs to be overhauled before we add more options because it's hard to find where things are with just what is currently there.
But, an option to switch off threaded view probably isn't going to happen because it is structurally-important. The whole program is based around posts being in reply to an individual post not the entire thread. So, I'll tell you why adding this as an option presents a problem.
Right now, when you delete a post and it has replies to it, the subject of the reply gets set to *Deleted*, so the threading of the topic remains intact. And this leads to a common question as to how to totally remove the post instead of having the subject set to *Deleted*. In order to do this the admin/mod has to delete all the replies to that post as well.
Say, we add in that option to disable threaded mode. And then we give the common answer on how to totally delete a post. If the user has disabled threaded mode, then obviously they would say, well I don't use threaded mode so there is no need to have it say *Deleted* because the threading doesn't need to be preserved. So, this would lead conditional code depending on the option.
Then, we would also come to the next step in that there wouldn't need to be a reply button next to each post but only one for the topic. So, that would lead to more conditional code, and more complex templates to place the reply button in it's position depending on if threading was disabled.
These are only a comple of examples. Like I said, .threads is built around threaded discussion. Options are great, but in some cases the code bloat to add an option just doesn't make sense. That's the big point of writing and developing software. It's not if the developer likes the idea of an feature/options, it's if the feature makes sense. And in the case of having an option to disable threaded mode, it just doesn't make sense since for the reason stated above which is why it's called .threads <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
But really, this whole thread has been beaten to death. Every feature request posted here is read and we have a list that contains every requested feature. As the product develops, features are added. To repeat myself again, the last 4 versions, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 have been mostly related to improving how the .threads functions, database changes, language file changes, etc. These are done and out of the way so we can move on to other things that will be much more noticeable.
So, just hold on for a version or 2. Keep the suggestions coming, just realize there isn't a need to beat em into the ground <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> If it's a good suggestion it will get added at some point if possible even if the post is simple as:
You know, it would be cool if we could have xxxx.
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Rick Baker
UBBThreads developer
