EN World Two potential site upgrades

[Morrus]

There are two potential site upgrades available that I'm considering. I am not married to either idea, so I'd be interested in hearing thoughts.

1) Threaded views. This is the ability to have threads 'fork' into sub-comments, like how Reddit or Facebook does it. You still have all the old functionality; this is layered on top. That way a sub-branch of a conversation in a thread can be easier to follow. The comments won't show in Tapatalk or any other third party app though, which might be a deal-breaker.

2) Blocking. Remember we had stronger blocking before? It's available for Xenforo -- and apparently without the bugs that made the old blocking system a PITA. You can still see the first post in a thread, so you can't be effectively thrown out of a thread, and the post numbering allegedly works fine.

Thoughts?

 

[prabe]

I don't know how many people use third-party apps, but you may have that usage data. I can see not wanting to leave those people blind/deaf/other sensory metaphor, especially if there are a lot of them.

I can see how stronger blocking might a positive for some people. If it doesn't leave people shut out of threads--especially reading them--I don't see much downside to it, especially if it's undo-able (both in the sense you can take it off the forums and in the sense that someone can unblock someone else they've blocked).

 

[darjr]

I like em both

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

1. No. Threading, IMO, makes forums worse for purposes of conversation. And to the extent it's a close call, inability to support third party apps would seem to be a deal breaker.

2. Yes. I'm not sure what you're referring to (re: throwing people out of threads), but good fences make good neighbors.

 

[vpuigdoller]

1. No. Threading, IMO, makes forums worse for purposes of conversation. And to the extent it's a close call, inability to support third party apps would seem to be a deal breaker.

2. Yes. I'm not sure what you're referring to (re: throwing people out of threads), but good fences make good neighbors.

Agreed with this:
1. No threading, makes it very confusing.
2. Yes to blocking.

 

[Umbran]

2. Yes. I'm not sure what you're referring to (re: throwing people out of threads)...

On the vBulletin boards, we had a module for blocking. If a thread started, and the OP blocked you, you could then not see the thread at all, even if you had already posted in it several times, effectively throwign you out of the thread. This was seen as a hefty negative of the blocking feature.

I am not so sure it was that negative. If you want to keep active in a thread, then maybe you should more studiously avoid cheesing folks off.

 

[TwoSix]

On the vBulletin boards, we had a module for blocking. If a thread started, and the OP blocked you, you could then not see the thread at all, even if you had already posted in it several times, effectively throwign you out of the thread. This was seen as a hefty negative of the blocking feature.

I am not so sure it was that negative. If you want to keep active in a thread, then maybe you should more studiously avoid cheesing folks off.

The bigger negative to the blocking was that it broke links to old posts, which made it so you couldn't even follow notifications when you've been quoted if one person in the thread had blocked you, even if they weren't involved at all in the quotes.

There's also usually been a pretty informal vibe that OPs don't own the threads they start here; being able to be blocked out of threads does a lot to curtail that feeling.

 

[aco175]

I'm not sure I like having the original poster being able to throw you out of a thread. Maybe I would like to, but everyone should be able to discuss, unless the mods have problems with violating policy.

 

[Eltab]

I want Blocking that understands the difference between Ignore Other Fellow and Evict Other Fellow.
I also want Blocking that cannot be pre-emptively used by poster A to keep poster B out of threads created by poster C, D, E, ...

 

[Umbran]

I'm not sure I like having the original poster being able to throw you out of a thread.

Well, that's okay, because I was explaining the past issue.

Everyone, read the top level post: Morrus has said that for the new version, "you can't be effectively thrown out of a thread".