Showing more forum posts on one page.

Hey all.

I was advised to start a thread asking what other members thought about this, so here goes.

Do you think it would be better for each individual page in the forum to show more posts?

Example - The News Comment section. It seems that there really aren't many posts available on page 1, and a lot of posts get pushed to page 2 and 3 very quickly, leaving them forever in obscurity.

I think having a default option to show many more posts on each page would increase the longevity of the forum discussion and possibly attract more posters to the news bits that Couch and others take their time to post.

I think as a whole we could get a lot more discussion going for these news bit than what there is currently, and I think seeing them all on one page would be a big step toward that.

Thoughts on this? I really think it would be best for the site going forward.

I agree but dont blame lack of coverage for not starting discussions Fluent. It's mostly the unwillingness of members to post a single comment on half of the news-bits.

Most news-bit/articles stay on the front-page for two days, and never receive a reply. So maybe a better way can be found to start better discussions then we have now?

I'd like the front page recent comments under "News Watch" and "Posts Watch" to be about double in length. Sometimes these rollover too fast.

Couchpotato said:

I agree but dont blame lack of coverage for not starting discussions Fluent. It's mostly the unwillingness of members to post a single comment on half of the news-bits.

Most news-bit/articles stay on the front-page for two days, and never receive a reply. So maybe a better way can be fond to start better discussions then we have now?

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It's not lack of coverage that's the problem. You do a fine job of posting news, it's just that it seems that most of the newsbit that get commented on in the News Comments forum section roll over to the 2nd and 3rd pages rather quickly. When they disappear to those pages they usually aren't commented on anymore. As they say, out of sight, out of mind, so once those posts move on they get forgotten about quickly.

This is a thought I just had. Maybe when posting newsbits, we end them with a question or 2 we would like to ask the forum members. Maybe that could help spark conversation.

Thrasher said:

I'd like the front page recent comments under "News Watch" and "Posts Watch" to be about double in length. Sometimes these rollover too fast.

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That would be nice. I was talking more about the News Comment section, where it seems the topics run so fast that many newsbits get pushed to subsequent pages and never discussed again.

I think it more people saw those posts on one single page, they would last longer on that page and could entice people to post in those threads if they see them there.

Look at the Codex, for example. In their RPG sections they have a lot of posts there, and many of the discussions go on for a long time. Part of that is probably the fact that they can be seen on the first page for quite awhile, rather than rolling over within hours and disappearing into oblivion.

Ah but you forget Fluent a news-bit wont show up on the forum till someone posts a comment on it. I've also been told half of our members only use the forum.

True, Couch. I didn't think that thought through too much, it just came to me as I was typing.

Do you think a question or two in the original newsbit could help, though? Something to entice comments from the community. I learned that if you want people to do things, you have to be very basic and ask them directly.

I do think the News Comments forum needs to show more posts on the page, though, that's for sure. Just my opinion.

I sometimes do add a question or reply first to a thread Fluent. I usually get told to keep my opinion to myself, or I'm to biased when reporting certain news.

A simple fix for Arhu or Myrthos to implement would be to create a larger side menu, or make all news-bits appear on the forum without needing someone to comment first.

I don't know how much work it would take to implement though?

That would be a cool feature, but for it to work, the post amount on each page would have to be greatly increased.

If you guys look at how the Codex does it, you can see what I mean. Since some of those topics hang around on the first page for a longer time, they naturally get more discussion over time. Compare that to the 'Watch where the discussions are short and get pushed to the other pages fairly quickly, the discussion is harder to maintain for a longer period of time, if that makes sense.

It makes sense Fluent don't worry.

I just dont know how much work it would take to implement. Remember only Arhu or Myrthos handle the tech side of the website, and they are very busy lately.