Recently we've had a few requests to help make the comments easier to navigate. So as an experiment we've decided to reverse the ordering of comments, meaning that the newest comments will now appear at the top. This has the added benefit that e-mail notifications will now open the web page at the correct position.
For those who preferred the old ordering (or those who like to tinker), we've added some new options at the bottom of the comments that allows you to configure them to your own preference.
Comments
We've just created a poll to help us judge your opinion on what we should do. Please vote and let us know what you think.
Surbiton.com webmaster
What are peoples thoughts on turning the site into something like a Wordpress setup which is much cleaner and easier to maintain.
Also a phpbb2 or "proper" forum software to make reading, posting and general mangement easier to do?
I like this site, i find it informative and interesting but at times it's a nightmare to navigate!
Cal.
What particular features from Wordpress and phpbb do you have in mind? The Surbiton.com content management system has many features we're not using at the moment.
We'd be especially interested on people's view on what we can do to make the site easier to navigate.
Surbiton.com webmaster
[quote=Surbiton.com]What particular features from Wordpress and phpbb do you have in mind? The Surbiton.com content management system has many features we're not using at the moment.
We'd be especially interested on people's view on what we can do to make the site easier to navigate.
Surbiton.com webmaster[/quote]
As mentioned before, simply allow the thread to be posted in sequence, 'one after the other', oldest first
If you hit the 'Recent Comments' link (on the right) it takes you directly to the message posted but you cannot see what its referring to without panning up/down
I don't quite understand. For example, if you change the options at the bottom of this page (Comment viewing options) to the following settings, would that give you the order you'd prefer?:
> Flat list - expanded
> Date - oldest first
> 90 comments per page
Do you realise if you log in and change these settings, they will stay that way each time you visit the site?
List all the comments as they appear. Sometimes we may be answering the thread and another answer appears before the one we are writing so it it all out of order anyway. I prefer the original method but if you state how many pages there are we need to be able to jump to the last page
Agree, I also think the comments should be in serial rather than replying to each message directly. ie 'quoting' and pasteing the original message and posting one after the other
The present setup is a mess
Sort it out surbiton.com !
[quote=Anonymous]Agree, I also think the comments should be in serial rather than replying to each message directly. ie 'quoting' and pasteing the original message and posting one after the other
[/quote]
Are you saying you'd want the comments listed chronologically regardless of the thread of the conversation? If so, there's already an option for this. You can change your viewing options to one of the 'flat lists', but I think you'll find it even harder to follow the conversation.
We've just added a quote button.
Surbiton.com webmaster
Yuck no. I hate it when everyone starts quoting the eachothers message... Makes it just as hard to follow. Listing them backwards is confusing though.
Do you like the reverse comment order? In which the most recent comment appears at the top, and the old comments at the bottom?
I do not. While it's great to see the most recent feedback at the top of the page, it's annoying as heck to try and figure out who that recent comment is responding to (farther down the page). You end up reading backwards, trying to locate where the conversation/post question began. Really annoying.
Since the reverse comment idea is still in it's trail period, if enough people complain the webmasters will put it all right again with the old comments at the top and new ones following on below.