Order of Posts
 

Not sure if this has previously been discussed (I'm sure that it must have been mentioned at some point) but what are the feelings of having the order of posts (and pages of posts) arranged in order from the most recent, going backwards to the oldest? I find that the majority of time, I find myself opening every thread and going right to the last page to view the most recent posts. The longer that a thread gets, the more prominent this is. I would think that viewers interested in a particular topic would have been following that thread from the beginning so no need to begin at the given starting point every time.

Thoughts?

I don't think it is an issue the way the threads/posts are organized now. Its easy to notice a new post (the topic is marked as such). So, if you've been reading, you just go to the end.

In your defense, if there are several new posts, you'd have to go backwards and read the ones you didn't earlier. Of course, your way, you still would.

posts
 

You can go to "user cp"- then "edit options" then "thread display options - and you can select to have the newest posts come up first.

Rick

always open
 

I/we are always willing to listen to new ideas concerning board improvements. That being said we have been slow to change what isn't broken. Personally, I like the way it is set up now. I probably read the forum as much as anyone and the order of the posts in the threads is sort of second nature. Sometimes (many times) I want to read that first post again too.

One thing that probably will happen is I am going to make the Watercooler Lounge area, the totally off topic place, be where new folks can introduce themselves if they want to. I think that would help a bit as I have seen that question (is there an introduction area?) posed many times.

Thanks, Rick, I didn't know about that.

There is another option as well - if you click the little 'v' icon to the left of the thread title (instead of clicking the thread title itself), you will be taken to the first post you haven't read in the thread. I use that when opening threads.

Several other Hobby Chat Boards
 

Have a sticky with something like

"Did you recently join us, if so please introduce yourself

May not be a bad idea for this board

Regards
Rich

Personally I have a worse time with a "most recent first" arrangement. It's passable if you're reading all the time, but if you're new to things reading the most recent leaves no context, and going to the oldest page means starting from the bottom of the page in most systems. (See you tube)

Maybe the software has an option to make the order selectable? That could work.

Steve B

I like Phil's idea, because one of the problems I have is if a thread has too many photos, it takes so long for my computer to download them that at some point I just abandon the thread altogether. Of course one solution is to get a better computer, but I'm too cheap to do that.:o

It would be good if clicking on a thread took one to the last read post. Seen that before elsewhere.

Missed your post, sorry. Didn't know that. Thanks

I think you just changed my life...
--S

What Greg said +1. Even better, I would like to have the "View First Unread" option appear on the main page where all the threads are listed, because I use this option all the time; as it currently works, I have to first open a thread before I can click on this option, and this is a wasted step IMHO.
Val

Always good to read all posts in a thread before replying. You already can do this.

I guess I thought this was common knowledge..I had no idea people didn't know about that function.

Matt - Many thanks for pointing this out to me. Actually, I did read all of the prior posts before I replied, but obviously, I didn't read your's carefully enough to absorb the info.
Val