Too long threads (too many pages)

Fair enough only giving a suggestion

I also don't see a benefit of a topic splitted up on multiple threads - it's still a long reading.

(2012-07-05 22:39)Ray_N Wrote:  "some topics require on-going discussion as an XBMC feature, skin or addon is developed".

Another kind of topic that can cause long threads is "persistent issues" (example: AMD drivers) or other topics that never get solved, like "which is the best..." (e g hardware and accessories). I few threads that are pretty long:

HOW-TO use a Logitech Harmony Remote with XBMC (74 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=77519
[WINDOWS] External Player Support Thread (118 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43511
DSPlayer (136 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=106629
Danish repository (20 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=82238
Aeon MQ 3 skin (322 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=107793
TV Show Episode matching (26 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=51614
Raspberry PI (58 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=113824
MythTV (76 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=2297
VDPAU (131 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=45525

Or the topic I struggled with myself: Searching for AMD HW acceleration support I found Robotica's xvba-vaapi thread (86 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=99154 which I found out had been summarized by chessplayer (4 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=106898 but I never got that to work and at it turns out there exists a better solution without vaapi by wsnipex (94 pages) http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996, in total I read 184 pages!

Also it is too bad apparently the number of characters per post is firmly limited, otherwise it is a good idea like in the XVBA thread to try to summarize the entire thread in the first post. Shouldn't this be easy to fix? Either by a setting in the admin part of the forum or by a simple hack of the php code?

Among forums, linux and XBMC seem to hold the record when it comes to long threads. With XBMC it is great how helpful the community is. But when facing a 50 page thread, I think most users don't feel they have the time and energy to read all that. And if he then starts a new thread or adds a repeated question, he makes the situation even worse. Or perhaps he just gives up.

(2012-07-12 16:16)MassIV Wrote:  It would be nice if posts that solved peoples problems (or just good posts) were a different color.

Sounds ok but the idea is similar to what I proposed to be able to hide parts of the thread. With different colors you still have to click through all pages.

An alternative to selecting parts for hiding might be if the thread starter could select posts of high general interest (which is essentially the same idea but inverted) and for the users to be able to see only these. Would also be relatively simple to handle for the thread owner.

how about adding the how-tos to the wiki once resolved? Hacking the php code of the forum is no option, because we loose the possibility to upgrade the software.

Sounds like a good idea.
To get back to the suggestion of giving the topic starter rights to close it; I think this would only be a permission issue. Most (as far as I experienced; all) forum software have included this.
Giving the topic starter this rights will prevent others to add information that's not totally relevant to the topic.

The suggestion of giving the answer another color is a very good idea if you ask me. That's why people go to the topic; they want to know the solution.
Giving the topic starter rights to select this would be awesome.

Another suggestion I want to add is to have a sort of karma (or reputation as we use already) but then use it for posts.
Of the posts reputation drops to a certain value it should be minimized and the reader should be able to click and see the message.
If someone posts a message that's not relevant at all, other users can give it a negative vote and eventually it will be visual for minimal.



As you can see in the header of the message (sorry, it's dutch but I had no English example) there is at the right side a 'reputation' of the message.
The second message has a bad reputation so it is minimized but I still can click the arrow at the left side to expand it and to read the message.

Cracking the PHP code wouldn't be necessary if the forum software supports mod(ification)s?

the forum supports plugins which can adjust the behaviour up to a certain degree (depends if you can hook in with a plugin at the desired point in code execution). The term "mod" always means that they hack the code - so mods are no option, plugins would be though.