[Rockn]

OK...I have just decided that I don't like the single categories for things like "Computer Related News" and "Breaking News" after the Internet attack story posted by Joe2Cool. I went into look at his post and saw that the story was already posted in one of the other conglomerated sections. I had to scroll down and look through gawd knows how many posts to get to the story I was looking for. If one fo these categories are not at the top of the Random section how would I know there was an important story that someone wanted to share when the "Breaking New" category is near the bottom of the heap? I would much rather see a titled story like "Internet Break In" or whatever floating around the heap than having to stumble upon it by acident. Maybe I will suggest to Mike that he create a section named "Technology News" or something similar.

[Mike C UK]

I'm not too sure about the need for a new section/forum but these agglomerated threads are a real pain.

It's fine for things like the 'Joke/Humour time', 'Show you fav paintings' and the like (there are quite a few!), but when it comes to the two threads that Rockn cites, and others such as 'Articles of note' (and maybe even 'Upbeat news') when they get larger, I have to say that I am not normally prepared to trawl my way through them to ascertain whether or not something has or has not been posted already. Indeed with the proliferation of such threads likely to increase I wouldn't even know where to start looking. Using the search tool in Random is always a headache anyway.
Grouping stuff together always results in information getting lost or shrouded. Far better for individual items to get individual billing. When "Computer related News' gets to 5000 posts, whose going to check for an item? I'd stop looking when the post count got to 30 or more (i.e. a standard forum page length). Newcomers and visitors in particular may miss a lot of useful information that would otherwise be clearly indicated in a thread title because it is 'obscured' inside a group item. Admittedly, single items soon make there way down the lists, but at least they are easier to spot than a single post in a thread of 200 or more.

I shall always start a new thread for news items or something I think deserves individuality, (as with the 'Internet break-in' thread, and many others like it), frivolous or otherwise. And I hope you will all do the same if you want it to be noticed by as many of TSG's members and visitors as possible.

After all, the number of threads is not something we need to worry about. Is it?
[size=0.5](Maybe Mike and the Mods can put me straight there if it IS an issue.)[/size]


Mike

[pyritechips]

Point well taken both of you. I originally started "computer related news" to categorize such related stories "Magazine" style (this was actually inspired by Eggy's thread). My aim was to have one thread where one could go to immediately focus upon such articles without having to search through a myriad of threads.

If this idea has failed then I am sorry.

For posts of relevance, importance and "newness", I would like to see posts within a thread in reverse order; that is, most recent post at the top of the thread, first post at the bottom. That way, newest, most relevant posts are up front and available at a single click. This is like a thread; a new post "bumps' it to the top.

~Jim

[Mike C UK]

Hey Jim, just because a couple of guys have a view that differs to your own doesn't mean you 'failed' at all! Another few posts here and I could be in the minority!! In any event, my comments were in no way meant to be a complaint against anyone person, especially you, as I enjoy reading your posts.
For me the dislike of 'agglomerates' comes, I guess, from early years spent working in a library where I loved organising things into ever smaller and smaller boxes!!

Plus the fact that a move down through the threads in some forums shows quite a lot of these 'group' threads soon get lost just like single item threads do. Human nature I guess to get on with the new!

But as for your suggestion that the latest post on a thread should be the first one you come to, I couldn't agree more. Though at first site a thread displayed in the 'reverse order' may seem odd, it certainly would speed things up a bit and allow us to get straight to the heart of the current thinking on a thread.

Nice one!

Mike

[RandyG]

However, if you are new to a thread, on a technical subject, wouldn't it make more sense to read through everything that has gone on before seeing the last fix?

The only place where seeing the most recent post in the thread might be beneficial, is in threads that go on forever, and those are mainly in Random.

[Mike C UK]

Well Randy, after giving this a bit more thought this morning I think I'll have to concede to you on this. Yep, Random is where it might be beneficial, and in Tech threads it could mean lazy posters re-submitting advice that has already been given. But I wouldn't like to see different methods in different forums, so lets stay as we are!

Randy - 1 , The Duck - 0

Mike

[Rockn]

Change is bad...fear change. If the status quo isn't working I personally won't use it. Maybe I will post breaking news about a particular piece of hardware in the hardware forum, or a great revelation in software design in the software forum.

[pyritechips]

One thing I would like to see and suggest: I'd like to have one thread in a forum in which can bee posted all the useful links to info, references, downloads, etc...

For example, in security, how about a thread that has listed, ad-aware site, security update, etc. Or in Operating systems have a directory thread for belarc, driverguide.com, etc. Group all the sites that are always given out in replies. The when somebody needs a certain link one can reply: goto reference thread and click the link in post #7, for example.

~Jim

[Mike C UK]

Tips and Tricks Forum is a good place for that stuff Jim. Lots of fave utilities and the like already listed there. I've downloaded a few recently from ideas there.

Problem with having a distinct thread for them would be exactly the same as any problems seeing them/finding them in Tips and Tricks, but searches in the latter are easier I think. Problem of course is getting people to post them there.

One problem with listing such things as links etc is that they get out of date. Better, I feel, to refer a poster to the latest version of a program within each thread rather than one that might have been superceded or bettered.
But I take your point.

Mike