Feature #13358
openImproved UI for group forum threading settings
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Description
In #13341, there was some user confusion about the display of threaded content in a group forum. Whether it's displayed in a threaded way or in a linear way is controlled by a per-user setting, but this is not surfaced very well when looking at an individual thread, and it also means that logged-out users always see the default view (currently set to linear).
Let's consider the following:
1. Should we introduce a per-topic toggle? Something like: "Threaded view: On | Off" or "View replies as: Threaded | Unthreaded" or whatever. Where would this toggle appear on the page? Presumably it would be visible to all users (logged-in or otherwise) but would default to the global setting of the user. When implemented, we should be sure that the setting persists through pagination, so that if you click 'Threaded' and then go to page 2, it should be page 2 of threaded results (presumably via URL param)
2. What should be the default display? Currently, it's linear. I would suggest that perhaps it should be threaded. For discussions that have no inline replies, the threaded view is the same as the linear view. But for those that do have inline replies, it can be confusing to default to linear.
Tentatively placing in the 1.18.0 milestone.
Related issues
Updated by Boone Gorges about 4 years ago
- Target version changed from 1.18.0 to 1.19.0
Updated by Raymond Hoh almost 4 years ago
- Related to Feature #14018: Forum design improvements added
Updated by Boone Gorges about 3 years ago
- Target version changed from 1.19.0 to Future release
This feels like something it would be good to tackle if we have bandwidth in an upcoming release.
Updated by Colin McDonald over 1 year ago
- Related to Feature #18565: Groups Redesign added
Updated by Raymond Hoh 3 months ago
- Target version changed from Future release to 2.5.0
Let's tackle this one in 2.5.0.
so that if you click 'Threaded' and then go to page 2, it should be page 2 of threaded results (presumably via URL param)
bbPress doesn't support pagination for the threaded view, so the paginated page number is only a requirement for linear mode.
What should be the default display? Currently, it's linear.
Currently, the default display differs if the user is logged in or not. For logged-out users, linear is the viewing mode, while threaded is the view mode for logged-in users.
But for those that do have inline replies, it can be confusing to default to linear.
I think we should prefix an "In reply to" block to the post content if the forum post is a reply to another post.
Updated by Colin McDonald 3 months ago
Thanks for picking this back up, Ray. I've added Sara as a watcher in case she has any thoughts.
Updated by Sara Cannon 2 months ago
What is the reason for not always having things be threaded? Could we have all the posts be threaded and not give the option for linear?
Updated by Colin McDonald 2 months ago
Based on today's call, we're going to table the per-topic toggle idea for now. We'll leave the option to toggle to linear viewing mode for power users and/or busy topics, but otherwise the default view should be threaded.