Would it be possible to add "@" tagging to usernames? Would you be for or against it?

IvaBigWun

Is it possible to add "@" tagging to usernames with the current software Boards is using?

I ask because there's a couple of currently fast moving (LOTS of replies) threads Ive posted in. Rather than scroll through page after page to see if someone has quoted my comment etc to give their thoughts on my input, it would be handy to get a notification when a poster wants to give you an "@" tag.

Would you like to see "@" tagging made available to usernames?

El Guapo!

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Is it possible to add "@" tagging to usernames with the current software Boards is using?

I ask because there's a couple of currently fast moving (LOTS of replies) threads Ive posted in. Rather than scroll through page after page to see if someone has quoted my comment etc to give their thoughts on my input, it would be handy to get a notification when a poster wants to give you an "@" tag.

Would you like to see "@" tagging made available to usernames?

You could always just go to your profile page and, under the statistics tab, select "Find all posts that quote IvaBigWun"

IvaBigWun

True, but its not very 2014 is it? "@" tags are where its at.

kneemos

Is there any point reading quoted replies without reading the whole thread?It would lead to repeat and off course replies and generally mangle the flow of a thread.

5starpool

No, just no.

Muise...

IvaBigWun wrote: »

True, but its not very 2014 is it? "@" tags are where its at.

#tags, baby, #tags.

Zaph

No polls in Feedback please

nesf

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Is it possible to add "@" tagging to usernames with the current software Boards is using?

I ask because there's a couple of currently fast moving (LOTS of replies) threads Ive posted in. Rather than scroll through page after page to see if someone has quoted my comment etc to give their thoughts on my input, it would be handy to get a notification when a poster wants to give you an "@" tag.

Would you like to see "@" tagging made available to usernames?

It would make more sense to ask for a feature to display the posts in a thread as threads themselves, branching off individual replies (i.e. what Reddit does without the ranking by upvotes) rather than just in chronological order. This was something used in email lists decades ago and makes it far, far easier to follow individual lines of discussion within a busy and fast moving thread. The biggest advantage was that it was easy to ignore one branch of the conversation completely which was handy for the "trench warfare" style tit-for-tat that happens a lot with some topics.

The flipside is presenting posts in the traditional forum way is easier to follow for some time critical topics and is less confusing for people new to the site. Also, if the default is chonological then the threaded view normally is a mess because people make isolated looking points that (i.e. no quotes) that are actually direct replies to a previous post. I'd favour switching the default to threaded but I imagine the majority here wouldn't due to inertia.

StaticNoise

The obvious choice is to integrate it like Google+. When you send a reply, using the + symbol, it identifies the names in the thread, enabling you to pick the correct one only.

Boards could modify it so that only those in the thread can be tagged.

LoLth

Like Nesf I find the threaded option useful in some forums / mailing lists when I want to follow a particular topic or sub-topic. I miss the option to view it chronologically if its not there though. Some lists give both as an option with the ability to alternate between the two views.

This sort of inverted tree-view would work well for superthreads but would possibly make browsing for topics of interest quite difficult.

IvaBigWun

Zaph wrote: »

No polls in Feedback please

Lol. Of all the forums on Boards that polls should be allowed its Feedback.

Why no polls here?

Zaph

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Lol. Of all the forums on Boards that polls should be allowed its Feedback.

Why no polls here?

Because the forum is for feedback, not popularity contests where people can simply click on a button rather than give reasoned arguments for or against a suggestion such as this.

LoLth

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Lol. Of all the forums on Boards that polls should be allowed its Feedback.

Why no polls here?

Because this forum is for feedback on the site to the admins and developers. Feedback is generally only useful when it consists of more than "me too" or "I agree". Polls only allow opinionless responses and if th euser has to post their opinion separately it pretty much negates the need for a poll in the first place

edit: feck, Zaphed.

Ruu

Change your username to @IvaBigWun....

hullaballoo

This comes up every so often. I'm broadly in favour of it. Obviously, users would need the option to remove themselves from being tagged in case it could be abused. For example, in Soccer it might be open to rivals constantly tagging each other for nuisance.

On the other hand, it would be useful in other forums where "I can't help you with your problem but @UserName has a very good knowledge of this type of thing." Similar to twitter mentions, UserName would be alerted that s/he has been mentioned and can go off reply if s/he wants.

This whole post is basically just to point out that I got there first: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=67709613

Zaph

nesf wrote: »

I'd favour switching the default to threaded but I imagine the majority here wouldn't due to inertia.

Wasn't there an option in the past to change how threads were displayed? Or did I just make that up?

Personally it wouldn't be inertia that would make me against switching to threaded. It would be that if it meant Boards looked like Reddit I'd probably end up leaving Boards, and I really don't want to do that. Reddit is a complete mess of a site that's impossible to read. It mystifies me how it's so popular.

kneemos

Zaph wrote: »

Wasn't there an option in the past to change how threads were displayed? Or did I just make that up?

Personally it wouldn't be inertia that would make me against switching to threaded. It would be that if it meant Boards looked like Reddit I'd probably end up leaving Boards, and I really don't want to do that. Reddit is a complete mess of a site that's impossible to read. It mystifies me how it's so popular.

Wreaked my head as well.An option to @ without quoting might be useful for some.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

nesf

Zaph wrote: »

Wasn't there an option in the past to change how threads were displayed? Or did I just make that up?

Personally it wouldn't be inertia that would make me against switching to threaded. It would be that if it meant Boards looked like Reddit I'd probably end up leaving Boards, and I really don't want to do that. Reddit is a complete mess of a site that's impossible to read. It mystifies me how it's so popular.

You used to be able to change the displayed format but you had to dig around in settings. It may have been pre-VBulletin days or early, I'm not sure. I don't remember it ever being officially supported anyway, never mind encouraged. Plus as I said, best not to mix streams, if everyone else is seeing a flat layout then a threaded one is going to look awful and vice versa.


Reddit isn't hard to read. I mean, really, it's a hell of a lot simpler to read a politics thread on there than on here as you have to "manually" skip past the lines of conversation you don't care about here to try and follow the argument you want to read about. If you'd grown up reading Reddits you'd probably find the layout here to be a nightmare with all the lines of discussion mixed in on top of each other. I found forums initially annoying to deal with because of this issue having come from mailing lists.

As for popular? Barring anything Ireland specific, this site has both a lower volume and lower quality of posts on almost ever topic. It's popular because it has a lot of traffic but it's sub divided enough that you can dig out a little niche to stay in and ignore the rest of the site. E.g. the science forums on there are rather excellent in terms of the quality of some of the contributors, far in excess of what we could expect here given our catchment. Also, you're old and cranky and Reddit is all hip and stuff or something.

IvaBigWun

In 2014 it really feels antiquated to not have things like this to keep forums interesting and of the moment.

Maybe two things could happen:

1) The "@" tag is tried out for a month to see how it goes. And
2) Its either not compulsory or its an opt in.


No drama. No big deal. Just a trial.

I guarantee you it will be the standard thing on 90% of forums within the next 18 months.

Zaph

IvaBigWun wrote: »

In 2014 it really feels antiquated to not have things like this to keep forums interesting and of the moment.

Maybe two things could happen:

1) The "@" tag is tried out for a month to see how it goes. And
2) Its either not compulsory or its an opt in.


No drama. No big deal. Just a trial.

I guarantee you it will be the standard thing on 90% of forums within the next 18 months.

Even to organise a trial could mean major work for the developers. I suspect that changing the current Boards architecture to permit @ tags is not a straightforward task. Perhaps it's really a question for Site Development.

Insect Overlord

Does everything have to go the way of Facebook and Twitter, though? It's nice to have a bit of variety instead of having every site being the same.

nesf

An File wrote: »

Does everything have to go the way of Facebook and Twitter, though? It's nice to have a bit of variety instead of having every site being the same.

Variety doesn't necessarily mean no change though. Just as change for the sake of change plagues the cutting edge, stagnation and decay afflicts the traditionalists. Let the cutting edge run ahead stumbling over the bumps and let us learn from their mistakes and find a better path just behind.

TheDoc

Have to say something that always felt missing from boards was notification when your were quoted, or the option to have it atleast.

In the threads and forums I'm in, it's typically flowing discussions back and forward, and the amount of times someone has quoted me and said something, and I've completely missed it.

there has also been numerous occasions where someone has said to ask me something, and that person has maybe not realised there is a PM functionality. It might also server a greater purpose for a response being viewable on said thread.

It would be a nice feature to have imo, either an "@" function or a notification on quote. Simply provide the option for a user to disable these notifications and I'm sure it goes to suit everyone.

IvaBigWun

nesf wrote: »

Let the cutting edge run ahead stumbling over the bumps and let us learn from their mistakes and find a better path just behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-NrPOMBKnw

nesf

Iva, you miss the whole point of forums. If I quote you, yeah it's relevant, but so is anyone else quoting me arguing your point, as is for me others quoting you and arguing from my angle or a new one. Just getting tagged when someone quotes you is fairly meh. Similar to how Facebook shows other comments on a post you've commented in, not just comments tagging you because this would be fairly useless. What you want is threading or some other alternative ability to sort posts, not notifications.


As for learning from other sites, well, look at Twitter. If I reply to a reply of someone else's the parties involved are preserved automatically. My reply might be relevant to them so they should be kept in the loop. With your idea the same thing would need to happen and we'd need nested notifications as say here Ropedrink gets copied the notification for this post as he's posted in reply to you and presumably interested in other replies. You end up with a complete mess of a thing in terms of notifications compared to the relative simplicity of a threaded post display where you can simple follow the branch you were on and see if there were any new posts and not have to read the other branches unless you choose to.


As for tagging to get your attention and your attention alone, um, they can just send you a PM no? People already do this.

wnolan1992

Perhaps making the "Find all posts that quote you" option a little more prominent (i.e put the option in the dropdown list when you hover over your username, tuck it in nicely between Followed Threads and Visitor Messages) would be a nice alternative?


Whatever happens, please, for the love of Galgamesh, don't go down the Threading route. Ever.

HurtLocker

Nothing worse than reading a long post only to have it quoted a few more times when really it's only a way to show who they are responding to with a simple +1 or "I agree"

The problem is on mobile. I favour @.

wnolan1992

HurtLocker wrote: »

Nothing worse than reading a long post only to have it quoted a few more times when really it's only a way to show who they are responding to with a simple +1 or "I agree"

The problem is on mobile. I favour @.

How about when a post is quoted it's minimised, with an "Expand" link? (TBH I think that feature is needed regardless of stance on @ tagging)