UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums News and Releases Pre-Sales Questions Threaded Forum views

Is the ability to view the individual forums in threaded view (expanded) no longer an option? An example is HERE.

What do you mean by FORUMS ? Aren't those all part of the "Centerline" forum ?

Apparently, at least currently, forums can't be expanded like that, only the specific topics (in threaded mode)

Yes, I see that. Hence my question. I run two sites with UBBThreads, one that you saw, http://www.natcazjx.org , which doesn't matter for spidering anyway (not looking for exposure), and another one, http://www.fish-tails.net , which benefits from threaded views in the forum. The thing that drew me to wwwthreads, er, ubbthreads, in the past, and the reason I stay with it is due to the "expand/collapse" ability. Without it I can not upgrade. It is an integral part of my forums, and my users like it, and want it. They like everything about the new 7.x series except the inability to expand/collapse the forums. I would also add, for those of you that are concerned, spiders will do better for your forums if you have your forums set up in expanded view as a default, in other words, non member or guest use. Believe it or not, each post will be spidered individually as seperate, instead of one. Say you have one thread with 15 replies. It will be spidered as one page, but if it is separated via threaded view, you hav 16 pages. See the benefit?

Either way, I've GOT to have expanded views in forum mode. I hope Rick decides to put this ability back. It was configurable before, why not now? Rick, you've had an excellent product that many have wanted and are loyal. Please give us back our original functionality. Don't take away to improve, just improve and build upon what you have.

Hopeful in FLA, Mark

Any major feature that was pulled will definitely be coming back. This one didn't make the initial rewrite because it really made the postlist code complex and bloated. We'll be getting this back in within the next version or two.

"Centerline" is one forum. What you see is an "expanded view" of the original topics with their replies. If you've been a long time wwwthreads user, (I'm sorry, UBBThreads) then you would know the functionality of the expand/collapse views.

Rick, thanks for the reply. You may or may not remember me, but I've been a loyal customer since the PERL days, and I'm glad you'll be putting this back in. With this re-assurance, I might can convince my partner with going ahead with the upgrade. Thanks again.

BTW, have you thought about a plugin system? What I mean is, an EASY way for users to share the members system and sessions with other scripts they may write, such as the Threads Links Directory I wrote for the old system?

Thanks again. Mark

Well I've been using it for 6+ years but rarely use the threaded view. Aside from the VIEW/REPLIES/RATING isn't that what you're still seeing in this version?

Not debating you, curious what I'm not seeing as being different that you miss now aside from those columns.

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Rick knows what I'm talking about and he has addressed the issue. The fact that you rarely use threaded view does not aleviate the fact that many others do, which is the reason for using this software. All too often I see software developers try to emulate someone else when in fact they have a unique feature that NONE of the others have, and yet they forget about the uniqeness of their software and end up losing what they had before trying to be like someone else. Rick had byfar the simplest to use forum software around (I've used them all, from UBB Classic to VB to the freebees out there and yet all of them are still not as easy to use as the previous versions of threads). But that's another story.

So you know what I'm talking about when I say threaded view in the forums, I'm talking about the postlist. You will note that there are threaded views when viewing a topic in the current version, correct? In previous versions, all the way up to 6.5.2 (actually 6.5.1b4 which is what I'm running now still beta on one site) the postlist.php has expand and collapse buttons. Those are not available now on the version being run here at ubbcentral, which is the version available for sale. It is that feature that has been there for a long time and that drew me and ultimately made me decide on this software, not to mention it's simplicity in navigation. Yes, the current software is pretty "neat", with the sidebars and all, but the basics seem to be dissappearing, such as a simple "INDEX" link on a post (yes, I see it, but it used to be at the top AND bottom of the thread, I suppose I could hack it back in) or thread leading me to the forum index, which has another "INDEX" link leading me to the main forum list, etc.

The "breadcrumbs" that many developers are so quick to use, all too often are very cumbersome to use to the average user. I say average user freely here by the way. Many of my users are not computer literate, (just got their computer and use it infrequently) Even I, experienced with forum software, have to look closely to determine which forum it was that I was in to get to the "postlist" I realize I'm getting off track here, but it's just an example of how software which was great and "different" before can sometimes become "ungreat" while trying to out maneuver the competition. At any rate, it's features that were there before that myself and my users like, those that you yourself do not use apparently, that I am asking for. It's the old addage that, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". In this case, why remove something that worked great to begin with? An example is what Basil (I believe that's the username,) was talking about. The dark tables in a post list that signified unread are gone in this version. They were there before, why take them out? Anyway, I don't want to sound critical, because this is by far my favorite forum software, I just don't want my 'fav' to go away. Don't remove great features that were there before, just make them better. Just my humble opinion, of course.

As Rick said, it's all coming back, so no worries! I'm from Classic so have a different perspective, but have been seeing the value of Threads. Luckily, those things that you're accustomed to will be returning eventually. Keep in mind that just one person (Rick) has been doing 100% of the development here; and since this wasn't a critical upgrade, he deserves a little time to work things out. And I must add, he's been doing a great job.

indeed... Most of us beta testers saw the huge amount of work on Rick's plate and offered to help here with policing the forums too, you know, make it so he can spend more time on dev and his fam vs just posting here .

I do not doubt one bit the amount of work Rick has been putting into the product. I applaude his efforts. I merely mention what was there before which is what sold the product to me to begin with, and that I wish those features to be maintained, which will keep me as a loyal customer. That is all. It sounds like my hopes will be fulfilled. Thanks for the discussion.

I appreciate you're sticking it out Fishtails Anyone that goes back to the perl days is definitely a long time customer

Well not sure who started this different colors per post thing but did happen to notice it today as I visited about a dozen boards that almost all of them do seem to have that enabled.

.

How is it going with threaded view? On a roadmap or already implemented? (and i missed some releasenote?)

Rick.
Is this feature in 7.2 or when will it appear again?

It didn't make it into 7.2 because we did some consolidation of some scripts to make things easier to work on. I haven't got the feature set planned out completely for 7.3 yet, so it might make a return there.

:crosses fingers: "video blogging (embedding)"