Though there is actually less functionality available with the Newest Post on top, I will go with the popular opinion. Voting closes in 4 days.
Post comments on reasons why you would persuade your fellow board members which way you would want it.
(A) I’m not an expert at software usability, but I guess there’s something to be said for leaving software interfaces operating the way users are familiar with them operating.
(B) Using either method, some people will have to open the thread and scroll all the way to the bottom. If the newest posts are on the bottom, then the people who use the crier most often are scrolling to the bottom most often to check the newest posts on a thread. If the oldest posts are on the bottom, people who are new to the thread scroll to the bottom so that they can read the whole thing.
It seems your most frequent users who are always checking for the most recent posts might save time and effort if the newest posts are on top.
(C) Thanks for the “new since last” option, that’s the only method I use to interact with the forums.
I think Avatar covered it pretty well there. If you check the board often, it’s certainly easier to have newest at top - who wants to scroll past the same old stuff every time to get to the new posts (unless you want to carefully click on that little orange box that’s about 3x3 pixels).
Weblogs always have newest entries at the top, newspapers don’t put the old news on the front page, tv news is the same - newest stuff first, so why not forums? Most often visitors that read the forums are regulars, so they don’t need to scan through all the earlier posts, but I think why forums started out oldest first is because intuitively we read from top to bottom (at least in English) and it was kind of logical the entries be ordered that way too, but it’s not really as practical considering the frequency of visits.. if that makes any sense.. :shock:
I agree with Avatar and Weasel.
Newest on top please.
Madmax
Same with emails btw - annoying when I get email replies and their reply follows the orig email, and then someone else responds to that but with their message at the top, and it gets progressively worse as the email is going back and forth. End result: trashed.
It seems your most frequent users who are always checking for the most recent posts might save time and effort if the newest posts are on top.
[/quote:1cclzijk]
I’ll go with the majority decision here, but as I mentioned in a previous post, you can click on the arrow and page link to the post instead of the forum title and it takes you directly to the latest post without scrolling. It’s a subtle difference clicking to the left of where you are accustomed, but on the other hand, it is a change.
Personally, I like the click on left option. Another nice part is that you can refer to conservations on a specific page or pages without worrying about the page changing.
Also, in my time here, I’ve seen about 900 questions on how to have the posts displayed the other way. I know that it’s never been that way here and we’ve asked for it to have that capability and we were told we can’t. Now that we can, we don’t want it :)
I think it would help draw in new players as well. Players looking for a new game are usually clicking through pretty quick and the slightest strangeness can set them off. They simply don’t want to spend an entire night scouting for a game.
I never even knew that arrow was there, I can barely see it.
Ok, I voted for the old way but I’ve changed my mind. Given that clicking the tiny little arrow thing gets me almost-as-good functionality as the old way, and that there are nifty features to be had (RSS feeds) if we do it the new way, I vote new way (so +1 new -1 old).
What I [i:2fdw4lpb]really[/i:2fdw4lpb] want is for the forum to remember what I’ve read and take me straight to the new stuff.
Hm, can this be added to our Profile’s preferences instead?
Hm, can this be added to our Profile’s preferences instead?[/quote:1ma0v4ef]
Someone asked that, but no, at least not on this version of the forum sorfware anyway. If a software upgrade allows that to be an option, then sure, do whatever.
Bump. Vote now, it is closing soon.
I realize it’s kind of late to sway anyone to vote a certain way, but I found a few more reasons to vote for newest on top.
The sloth home page has a pane on the right side of the page that shows a preview of the last 5 forum posts. What order is that in? The ewest post is on top. Why? It makes sense to me, and it seems logical and intuitive.
Second, when you’re adding a comment to a thread, if you scroll down there is a preview pane of the recent posts. If you want to copy text from a previous post you can scroll down to that window to copy text to paste into your reply. What order is that in? The newest post is on top. Why? Again, it makes sense to me and it’s certainly easier to use than putting the newest post at the bottom and people scroll down - down - down until they get to the text that they wanted to include in their comment.
So, it just seems to me that the actual forum would use the same methods. I guess the “Why?” question is best answered with “because it’s easier to use.”
TPosted: Jun 02, 2006 - 12:48 PM Post subject: Town Crier Post Order
hough there is actually less functionality available with the Newest Post on top, I will go with the popular opinion. Voting closes in 4 days.
Post comments on reasons why you would persuade your fellow board members which way you would want it.[/quote:19bxhmq5]
Current Date - 6/9/06
Has it been 4 days yet?
Current Date - 6/9/06
Has it been 4 days yet?[/quote:1cd59l3v] :shock:
you seem to forget we are running on Clink time.. which means time is slowed down until he thinks of a sarcastic comment.. could take months! :twisted:
I would not suggest holding your breath though…
on second thought.. go ahead :twisted:
Because of popular demand I have broken the post order. Newest post is now back at the top. You will no longer have to wait to exhale.
For those of you not accustomed to the generally accepted principle of consistently reading from top to bottom, please scroll down the page and read a section at a time while scrolling back up. It’s not that complicated, but we just like to be different.
Clink
Alternatively just scroll to the bottom of this screen, hit the dropdown next to newest first, select oldest first and hit go.
It would actually be a lot easier to do oldest first if the forum supported - and + for reduce and expand. Or even if you had an option to display all posts rather than screen by screen, that way you could easily scroll down and see where you left off.