(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.