New forum feature: Thread prefixes

Now that we've upgraded the forum software (see announcement), we have the ability to define thread prefixes, which appear in front of a thread name in the forum display, or at the top of the page in a thread display.

Prefixes help classify threads within a forum. Unlike tags, they are selected from a pre-defined list.

Here's how thread prefixes work:

• The forum administrators and moderators will decide what thread prefixes make sense in what forums, and make them available.
• When you create a new thread in a particular forum, you may see a drop-down list with prefix choices in front of the thread title. You can choose one if you like, or let it default to "no prefix".
• If you go back later to edit the first post in your thread, you can change the prefix if you click Go Advanced.
• All users see the thread prefixes in forum and thread displays.

Where prefixes will be used

Our first test of thread prefixes is in our Marketplace forum, which only eligible users can access. If all goes well, we'll be looking for appropriate uses of thread prefixes in other forums.

We haven't yet decided where else to use thread prefixes, and your suggestions are welcome. For example, perhaps the Mac OS X forum would benefit from thread prefixes that indicate that a particular thread is specific to Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger, etc.

In addition to suggestions, we'd also like to hear from you if you have any trouble with the thread prefix feature.

alphaod said:

I would recommend a "Sold" prefix and a "Rescinded" prefix for the marketplace.

It's nice to be able to just mark as sold (and undo it in case someone backs out in the last minute). Rescinding happens too (since sometimes the market price isn't what you expect it to be or you changed you mind).

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Thanks. We took your suggestion.

The [Resolved] prefix

You can now use the [Resolved] prefix in most forums to flag your own threads when the issue raised by the thread has been resolved, the question has been answered, the problem has been solved, or the equivalent. It's especially useful in the Mac Basics and Help forum.

The [Resolved] prefix does not mean that the thread is closed or that others shouldn't post, just that you don't consider the thread to be waiting for resolution of the issue, question, or problem. You can also think of it as a thank-you flag when you've gotten the help you needed. It doesn't make sense to use [Resolved] for certain types of threads, such as open-ended discussions and current events, so use it only where it's suitable.

To change the prefix of a thread that you started (which is recent enough that you can edit it):

1. Click the gear icon above the thread to see the Thread Tools drop-down.
2. Select the Edit Title option.
3. Select [Resolved] from the drop-down in front of the thread title. If there is no drop-down, you can't change the thread prefix for that thread.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

If you change your mind about the prefix you can use the same procedure to change it back to (no prefix).

balamw said:

The Resolved prefix (at least) doesn't show when the forum is viewed from the mobile site.

B

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It's too bad that the mobile forum software doesn't support all features of the full site interface.

jessica. said:

Too bad resolved cannot auto-close the thread.

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We wouldn't want it to. [Resolved] means that the O.P. considers the problem solved or question answered, but other users may still have comments to make, for example if they encountered a similar problem, had a similar question, or didn't understand the previous posts.