Spun off from a topic about Intel Mac threads mixed with PowerPC Mac topics:
With that as an example, I experimented with a combination of sorts (sort first by date, then by number of replies):
Result: only one sort order applied – a limitation of XenForo, I guess. And there's the popular emphasis on pushing newness to the front.
Suggestion
I'd like a quick and easy way to identify topics where a person has waited most politely, most patiently for a response.
Loosely speaking, that means:
Observations
Things such as the Spy can be fun, but there are emphases on rushing, on pushing and (to a degree) on noise.
Also: where reverse chronological order is forced, that force can have unexpectedly negative consequences. Subtle, but negative.
In a nutshell: ignorance. The person who waits most patiently, most quietly, is very likely to be ignored. Whilst crowds of people in front engage in pushing and in noise: the quiet, polite person at the back is lost.
Pause for thought. That phrase above – "emphasis on pushing newness to the front" – when that happens with people and their stuff in reality, it's recognised as queue-jumping. Recognisably rude and inconsiderate. When the same is done with people and their stuff online, it may be treated (mistreated) as acceptable. Crowds of people pushing is encouraged, yet a gentle one-person bump can be a break of the rules. Yeah, online can be weird.
Background and workaround
With the current arrangement of things, community-minded people may occasionally click the Replies heading in a forum – once, then once more – and then page through the results (to work around the forced reversal) until:
– in that area alone, more than nine thousand, eight hundred and fifty posts with no reply.
It's reasonable for most of those to gain no reply. And then somewhere between page 1 and page 198, some of the previously ignored stuff can …
Side note
To anyone who screams "RESURRECTION!" in response to this topic: please pause, then read again. Keyword: reasonable.
With that as an example, I experimented with a combination of sorts (sort first by date, then by number of replies):
Result: only one sort order applied – a limitation of XenForo, I guess. And there's the popular emphasis on pushing newness to the front.
Suggestion
I'd like a quick and easy way to identify topics where a person has waited most politely, most patiently for a response.
Loosely speaking, that means:
- beginning with zero response topics
- an assumption that many of those topics include an unanswered, non-rhetorical question
- a reasonable, unselfish, punishment-free approach to differentiating between current and outdated content.
Observations
Things such as the Spy can be fun, but there are emphases on rushing, on pushing and (to a degree) on noise.
Also: where reverse chronological order is forced, that force can have unexpectedly negative consequences. Subtle, but negative.
In a nutshell: ignorance. The person who waits most patiently, most quietly, is very likely to be ignored. Whilst crowds of people in front engage in pushing and in noise: the quiet, polite person at the back is lost.
Pause for thought. That phrase above – "emphasis on pushing newness to the front" – when that happens with people and their stuff in reality, it's recognised as queue-jumping. Recognisably rude and inconsiderate. When the same is done with people and their stuff online, it may be treated (mistreated) as acceptable. Crowds of people pushing is encouraged, yet a gentle one-person bump can be a break of the rules. Yeah, online can be weird.
Background and workaround
With the current arrangement of things, community-minded people may occasionally click the Replies heading in a forum – once, then once more – and then page through the results (to work around the forced reversal) until:
- a reasonable point in time is found
- then – as @Gamer9430 put it – attempt to help.
– in that area alone, more than nine thousand, eight hundred and fifty posts with no reply.
It's reasonable for most of those to gain no reply. And then somewhere between page 1 and page 198, some of the previously ignored stuff can …
Side note
To anyone who screams "RESURRECTION!" in response to this topic: please pause, then read again. Keyword: reasonable.
