Posts are backwards why?

[Cironir]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Any forum built around customer support (you know, the ones that do trouble tickets) tend to be ordered this way.

Not the customer support forums of companies I've worked for. Admittedly, though, the "newest first" order was more common a few (many?) years ago, I don't encounter it often anymore. I also agree that there are some advantages to it, but they are far less significant, or even non-existent, on community-focused Boards (where threads are usually on-going discussions rather than question/answer small-scale exchanges).

A number of forum packages support the "automatically go to newest message in a thread since your Last visit" (or "... Last time since you opened this thread") feature, which would probably meet the needs of customer support reps who are pressed for time, and still allow a more "natural" order of Messages in a thread. The current system is as tedious as top posting in Usenet, though not entirely comparable since threads are still ordered "properly".

Anyway, I feel a bit bad that my very first post here was criticism. The different order was the first problem I ran into, so I used the search command and found this thread. It's meant as feedback, not as *****ing.

[Suicide Junkie]

You can click the "Printer friendly" link if you need to catch up and read them all from oldest to newest.

[Ragnarok]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Not switch it. Just extend it. (hopefully. Knock on virtual wood)

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Oh ok. Well it would be nice to have the option of picked which way you want to view the threads. I personally love this way over the conventional method. In fact when I first came to Shrapnel I absolutely hated the reverse (correct for me now) order of the threads, but now I have gotten used to it and it makes more sense to me to have them this way. So instead of opening a thread and needing to click to the Last page to view the newest post I can just click open the topic and boom the newest are right there on top.

But going to the conventional way of doing things would not be so bad as long as we have the option of chosing which way we want to view it.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Cironir:
Not the customer support forums of companies I've worked for. Admittedly, though, the "newest first" order was more common a few (many?) years ago, I don't encounter it often anymore. I also agree that there are some advantages to it, but they are far less significant, or even non-existent, on community-focused Boards (where threads are usually on-going discussions rather than question/answer small-scale exchanges).

A number of forum packages support the "automatically go to newest message in a thread since your Last visit" (or "... Last time since you opened this thread") feature, which would probably meet the needs of customer support reps who are pressed for time, and still allow a more "natural" order of Messages in a thread. The current system is as tedious as top posting in Usenet, though not entirely comparable since threads are still ordered "properly".

This is all very true. No one here is in disagreement with any of it. The "trouble support" Version which was started here years ago is no longer "commuity chat" that these forums have become.

And switching to a newer package which allows it both ways is the answer. Done and purchased. Its no longer a question of IF it should be done.

But Im not sure if you realize yet the wealth of information which has built up in these forums. In some cases it has gone beyond a manual, beyond a strat guide, its become an encyclopdeia of knowledge which exists nowhere else. THATS the scarey part. Making it easier for some Users now does not tip the scale over precautions about the data. Since we are between conventions it has become the "project of the day"

[narf poit chez BOOM]

On one hand, I like having the newest Posts right there where I can look for them. On the other hand, it can be a strain to read the Posts backwards.