UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback Subforums

Perhaps they exist and it's only me who can't find them.
But if not, subforums would be a nice feature. If you have a lot of forums, it's better than only have forums and categories i think.

They don't exist, but it has been mentioned many times over the last year or so.

The official answer is that they won't be adding subforums. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

..."unless we can find a UI that isn't as potentially confusing as just sticking forum rows in a table above topics inside a forum."
Charles Capps

... which is the very definition of subforums. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If we end up doing some nested thing, it probably won't be subforums, but will let you do something similar. This is a post-1.0 thing in any case, if we end up doing anything.

Charles, what exactly is so confusing about having forum rows in a table above topics inside a forum?

That's exactly the way how file browsers views (Explorer for instance) are built up, I think every computer user is familiar with this way of sorting things.

Forums are not like a directory structure - there are four levels at most - categories, forums, topics, posts. Topics are comprised of posts. Forums are containers for topics. Categories are containers for forums.

When you click on a forum, you expect to see topics.

When you click on a category, you expect to see forums.

When you click on a forum and get another list of forums, are you in a category or a forum? Will you scroll down and discover topics, or will you assume that this is another category with a confusing UI and enter a subforum, never realizing that there are topics you can participate in?

But what if the subforums aren't actually listed in the forum? Where would they be displayed? The forum summary seems like a logical choice. But, many users bookmark individual forums, rarely venturing out to the forum summary page. Don't forget about favorites mode, or collapsed categories either.

And even then, how should subforums be represented on the forum summary itself? Do we just list them under the description for the parent forum, or do we create another nesting level and list all of the details? That makes the parent forum even more of a category instead of a forum...

This is not a trivial matter. This isn't a case where we're going to just jump on the bandwagon and do it like everyone else, because we don't feel we'd be doing anyone a favor. We don't feel the UI is right.

Also, keep in mind that while subforums are a frequent request, they're actually only barely inside the top 10 in terms of the number of unique individuals that have asked for them. Yes, we do keep track of these things. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

>Topics are comprised of posts. Forums are containers for topics. Categories are
>containers for forums.

Forums can be seen as Categories as well, since they categorize the threads.
So the distinction really isn't that strict.

Nested categories(or forums, or folders, whatever, there isn't a factual difference) are a very common and useful form of representation of content.

There is a subforums hack finished for V6.5 on Threadsdev.

Yup, the link is www.threadsdev.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/122462

Thanks for this.

Must be one of the most requested features in threads (okay officially we are told not, but my guess is that many have not requested the feature, as we were told that it would not happen)

What's bad in looking to Forums as collector of objects and to topics ad objects ?

>Must be one of the most requested features in threads

Seems to be, as there are quite some poeple who have shown interest in it.

Btw, I relased a new version for 6.51 today.

www.threadsdev.com/forum/showflat.php/Number/122462