Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Leontiskos]

The Problem

Following a conversation between two individuals is notoriously difficult on internet forums. The difficulty is especially acute in threads with dozens of pages. For example, suppose there is a thread with 100 pages and I am trying to follow a conversation between Bill and Ted. If I am reading a post where Bill replies to Ted there is no way to jump to the next place where Ted replies to Bill. Instead you have wade through all sorts of posts and pages before you find the next piece of the conversation.


The Ideal Solution

I think it would be great to have, within each post, a forward and a backward button. For example, if Bill is posting a reply to Ted the forward button would link to Ted's next reply to Bill, and the backward button would link to Ted's last reply to Bill. That way it would be much easier to follow conversations, and I believe the value of a philosophy forum would be greatly increased.


The Less-than-ideal Solution

Another solution, which is more clunky, is to allow users to search a single thread with keyword and user filters. For example, I could search a single thread for all the posts where Ted wrote a post that included the word, "Bill." The query would have to search the BBCode as well, where the name appears in the quote function. Many forums offer this functionality and it is useful but sub-par. The ideal solution noted above would be much better.


A Partial Solution

There is a partial solution that would not require any updates to the website. It would only require better user conventions. If you generate the BBCode for a quote with the the actual quote button found in the upper right corner of each post, it generates a quote with the user's name, a link to the user's profile, a timestamp, and a link to the user's post that you are quoting. You can follow such links by clicking the upward arrow next to their name ("↑").

If users consistently used this feature then you would always be able to follow a conversation backwards in time. For example, I could go to the last page of a thread and follow a conversation between two individuals by clicking through the upward arrows in each of their posts ("↑"). It's a bit odd because you are working backward, but you can use tricks such as opening each post in a new tab and then reading the tabs in the reverse order they were opened. Anyway, it isn't really possible on this website because lots of users don't have the proper BBCode in their quotations. They aren't using the quote button in the upper right corner of each post.

Below is an example of two quotes, the first with sub-standard BBCode and the second with proper BBCode generated from the quote button. The first quote is contextless. There is no direct way to navigate to the place where it exists on the website, or to verify that it is an accurate quotation. The second quote includes a link which takes us to its origin. (Note that interior quotes can also include or omit the proper BBCode):

If any of the above rules are unclear to you, do not make any posts in the forums at all except to ask for clarification by...

Thanks for your clear rules. I have two questions...

If any of the above rules are unclear to you, do not make any posts in the forums at all except to ask for clarification by...

Thanks for your clear rules. I have two questions...