I'm really getting frustrated trying to distill information from some of the Owner club threads. Specifically when someone tosses a tech issue on the table. It's a great audience...everyone is there, however it's hard to pick out one bit of content from another. Overlapping conversations cloud the issue; continuity is lost.

Because the poster has dumped his tech thread into the bottomless pit of the club thread prattle the clear statement of the problem, trial/error, resolution can be difficult to track.

I'd like to see an ability to cluster posts together. This actually feels pretty tough to do automatically but if a new option is created to create a 'sub-thread' rather than a 'new' thread we have the ability of both. A feature of a sub thread is an internal identifier that isolates that sub-thread content (so it looks like a separate thread). This way after the fact, you can search a post and reconcile the conversation.

The context of the game is solid.
The post get's the visibility of those watching the thread.
The sub-thread can be reassembled to form a story from start to finish.

What would Martijn & Robin need to do?
** A new "Reply - Create Sub-Thread" button would be needed; this is at the THREAD Level. This would create a new unique identifier allowing tracking associating the subThreadID with the post.

** A new "Reply Sub-Thread" button would need to be added on a POST....NOT the Reply button at the bottom of the thread. This allows out of order replies the ability to associate the reply to a sub-thread rather than the main thread. Furthermore, if the selected post is NOT a pre-established sub-thread, a new sub-thread would be created and as such the "Reply Sub-Thread" would be tied to the original post.

** A new "Re-assemble sub-thread" button would be needed on a POST. This allows pulls all the sub-thread posts together in one seamless report.

** A "Reply" on the thread goes into the pit of doom that is the shared thread. Perhaps a prompt to confirm that a generic post to the thread is desired, rather than creating a new Sub-Thread and/or post a reply within a preexisting sutb-thread. I would think the extra prompt would ONLY be needed on "Club" posts, but the ability to post a sub-thread on any post could extend outside of the "club" context.

** Something cleaver may be possible if someone "Quotes" a section of text from a post and hits the "Reply" button. Obviously, the person at the keyboard wanted to associate their post with another. The same pattern could be used to associate to a sub-thread or create a new sub-thread/associate.

More than one quote from multiple posts crossing multiple sub-threads could get weird. Picking one is possible but picking neither probably makes more sense.

Thoughts???

faz

Agreed... Rather than kill the concept altogether, I'm trying to offer a solution to the problem with the construct.

Agreed, to find a POST, but to follow the tech issue from start to finish... sometimes over several weeks or MORE is very tedious.

I'm trying to diagnose a Stargate issue. The SG Club thread is all over the place.
faz

Busy all weekend... never even had a chance to look at SG. But...if I do need assistance...
I'll start another thread
faz

I was digging into another great schizophrenic thread with at least 10 sub-topics. Really hard to see who's replying to what.

"A Beautiful Mind" Bump

faz

yup... hence this approach. We're never going to stop the sidebars...but at least we could attempt to keep them clustered together
faz

I'm going to tease this idea again. The DW Member thread is a jumble of conversations that overlap.

robin ... please consider this.
faz

Thanks very much!
faz

Absolutely! I try to get people to post their own tech threads rather than the dumping ground of the Club Threads. It's a great place to post a fun fact or a resolution to a problem from another thread.

My 2¢.
faz