Shall we update Talkchess' software?

[Don]

+1 Ron and Harald

The ideal solution, which will never happen of course, is that forums should have some sort of universal protocol and that you can use whatever software you prefer. That's about as likely as getting high by lightening.

[Andres Valverde]

Wow !!! Why would anyone be against upgrading the software ???

It's a valid response, we have to respect everyone's point of view here. To me the answer seems obvious but there is the thread view issue.

+1

[ernest]

The only draw back, for a few users, is that the thread view would be unavailable.

Well, thread view is sometimes useful to check what post answers what post (often there is no "quote").
Outside thread view, how do you keep/display that info?

[Don]

The only draw back, for a few users, is that the thread view would be unavailable.

Well, thread view is sometimes useful to check what post answers what post (often there is no "quote").
Outside thread view, how do you keep/display that info?

The fact that a few use thread view is actually a handicap for those of us who do, because a few forum members assume that everyone has thread view. So you will occasionally get a post such as "I agree" without any context. So I actually like the idea of NOT having it as on option for this reason. However, I still would prefer that people have their choice. If it were up to me we would have both.

If I used thread view I would still quote anyway just out of kindness to those who don't use it. So for me it would be no real benefit unless I knew that everyone used thread view. Even then it would be of limited benefit (to me) because as annoying as quoting is, it's important to me. If you don't quote, you cannot address specific issues without doing the extra labor of providing context unless you are just responding to the entire post in generalities.

So there is no question that each method comes with pro's and con's. Nobody is disputing that.

[tmokonen]

That's not a draw back: removing thread view is a great feature! Typically in thread view you have pages and pages of bla bla going on about a single thread, and you can't see the other threads without clicking flat view (which is the first thing I do when logging to this forum).

If there were a button to expand or collapse the thread of responses to a post, it would be real cool. That way, you could have the best of both the flat and thread view worlds - less clutter on the main page of a forum, with the ability to follow the thread.

[Ron Murawski]

So people should ask themselves whether they are willing to adapt to something better which won't be the exactly the same and whether what you get is worth anything you lose. I think it comes down almost solely to only this one issue because as far as I can tell everything else is superior.

I agree Don. Changing the software to something new would be a big step forward.

My suggestion is to avoid using flat-view-only phpbb software. There are other forum software choices that can support flat view or threads. A phpbb alternative would be a better starting point for adding on the chess enhancements.

[casaschi]

The ideal solution, which will never happen of course, is that forums should have some sort of universal protocol and that you can use whatever software you prefer. That's about as likely as getting high by lightening.

Your ideal solution exists since the early days of the Internet. It's called USENET (or Internet newsgroups) and it's based on the NNTP protocol.
You can setup any group you like, you can have it moderated if you prefer and as you seem to like you can use whatever client you like better to search, read and post data: there's plenty of dedicated applications and web based readers to choose from.

[hgm]

The only draw back, for a few users, is that the thread view would be unavailable.

Well, thread view is sometimes useful to check what post answers what post (often there is no "quote").
Outside thread view, how do you keep/display that info?

Even for that the current implementation of threadview is often useless, as the nesting is already so deep that the indentation saturates.

What would be much more useful is if every post contained a 'parent' button (e.g. next to 'reply'), which would scroll you to the post to which it was a reply. Then, when in doubt, you could hit that button, and the browser's back to have a peek at to what the post refers.

[Don]

The only draw back, for a few users, is that the thread view would be unavailable.

Well, thread view is sometimes useful to check what post answers what post (often there is no "quote").
Outside thread view, how do you keep/display that info?

Even for that the current implementation of threadview is often useless, as the nesting is already so deep that the indentation saturates.

What would be much more useful is if every post contained a 'parent' button (e.g. next to 'reply'), which would scroll you to the post to which it was a reply. Then, when in doubt, you could hit that button, and the browser's back to have a peek at to what the post refers.

That would be a great feature, I agree!

[Steve Maughan]

OK - 83% in favor of upgrading - let's GO!!

Talkchess isn't community where everyone has a veto on any change.

IMHO if you get 66% of a vote then I think the vote should carry. If you get 75% then that's a mandate for change. 83% is overwhelming.

Steve