Support Nested Replies

[_apple_apple_]

This forum is very old-school, where replies are always at the bottom, even quoted ones.

I'll be very surprised if the forum tech MacRumors uses does not have an update with the modern style; comment branches/nested comments. It's vastly superior for discussion since users can actually discuss a specific point in depth via a comment branch vs the random/negative stream of consciousness that is the current format. Ideally you could sort by longest branch as well.

I am a web developer although I don't specialize in PHP, which forums tend to be written in (older ones anyways). It should be possible to add this feature if desired enough.

 

[maflynn]

Personally I prefer the current way that replies are handled. I find nested replies like on reddit have a negative impact on how I prefer to follow the discussions. Old-school isn't bad school, sometimes the simplest approach is the best.

I don't mind if MR adopts this, as long as its voluntarty and I can disable it.

As for programming this in, MR uses xenforo which does not support nested replies - at least that's what google was telling me, but there are add ons that allow it to occur.

 

[S.B.G]

I'm with Mike; I am happy with the way the replies are structured. I don't like the way they are on Reddit and thus I rarely ever visit the site.

 

[hg.wells]

I prefer the current layout.

 

[_apple_apple_]

Personally I prefer the current way that replies are handled. I find nested replies like on reddit have a negative impact on how I prefer to follow the discussions. Old-school isn't bad school, sometimes the simplest approach is the best.

I do a fair amount of UX work and I'm curious how that works for you. Unless a person quotes my post I have no idea if someone is responding to my specific post, and having to quote to form a 'connected reply' (i.e, nested reply) seems kinda archaic to me. I'm not saying nested replies would replace quoting, I consider them separate features.

I still read the new posts but I rarely come across a quote chain where I become interested partway through. Meanwhile I still have to skim those posts to determine if I'm interested or not, which eats up time.

I guess I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid snarky posts and contribute to commentary posts.

 

[maflynn]

Unless a person quotes my post I have no idea if someone is responding to my specific post

The seemingly unofficial etiquette here is if you're referencing someone's post, then quote it, either entirely or portions of it, as I have.

Additionally many of us also use

@_apple_apple_

which triggers a notification.

Finally, most people tend to stay active in threads, so they read subsequent posts. Is there a risk that we miss someone typing something I said with "" instead of using [ quote ] tags. Yes, there's a handful of members who purposely chose to use "" and thus we're notified unless we're active - that's a risk.

Now with that said, even with nested replies, you have to stay active and read through the threads, so I don't believe you're gaining anything with the nesting other then making it harder to follow imo

 

[fatTribble]

Currently you can click on the quoted text to see the full post it came from.

I’ve always wanted similar functionality for the other direction. Have a way to jump to the next post that’s quoting a post.

 

[_apple_apple_]

I’ve always wanted similar functionality for the other direction. Have a way to jump to the next post that’s quoting a post.

Exactly, the UI would need a data point of some sort to visually indicate that the post you're reading has been quoted downstream. If that indicator is in the form of a direct-to-comment link, it'll likely redirect the entire page; that seems much worse to me than clicking an expandable region under the post and waiting a second for it to fetch/load the next X messages of the chain.

 

[floral]

This forum is very old-school, where replies are always at the bottom, even quoted ones.

I'll be very surprised if the forum tech MacRumors uses does not have an update with the modern style; comment branches/nested comments. It's vastly superior for discussion since users can actually discuss a specific point in depth via a comment branch vs the random/negative stream of consciousness that is the current format. Ideally you could sort by longest branch as well.

I am a web developer although I don't specialize in PHP, which forums tend to be written in (older ones anyways). It should be possible to add this feature if desired enough.

I would like this but only a 'Jump to original comment' at the very bottom for all subsequent replies so you can follow the thread from there and see the context. Using nested threads would be a lot of space and in some cases result in like 30 whole lines on the left of your screen...