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Threading and branching - some thoughts

  
 
w1rebaby
12:22 / 21.02.02
(This might be more appropriate for Laboratory, but I'm putting it here at the moment because it's got relevance to new board software and this seems to be the place where it's being discussed.)

I've been considering some of the usability issues of the traditional thread structure.

One of the problems that I always find annoying with purely linear threads is mutation - more specifically, multiple mutation. Linear threads are great if there's one single discussion going on, question, response, comment, but once something starts getting busy it becomes harder and harder to follow.

Sometimes several new topics arise at once, nobody's quite sure whether they have the potential to develop into threads of their own.

It's also hard to tell what points people are answering or referring to, particularly if they don't quote, and even if they do it can be awkward scrolling back to find the correct post. More importantly, it's even harder to scroll forward to see whether anyone's addressed a point you made. It's possible, but why not make it easier?

It strikes me that a tree rather than linear model would be better at facilitating discussion (more like a usenet-style threading system I suppose - although you'd want to keep as much of the user-friendliness of a board as possible).

Obviously, the board structure is a tree already, but my point is, it needs more automatic branching, rather than people having to make their own branches, because they don't. A "reply to" mechanism pretty much creates branches automatically. There's also a two-deep branching limit with the forum/thread structure (board - forums - threads) which I don't think is enough.

I've been having a few thoughts about what this sort of thing could look like, and I'm going to knock up a few HTML samples. I'll post links when I get a chance.

Thoughts, comments, anything? Oh, and if anyone knows of a system that implements this but which isn't just the usual reply to system (the one I was thinking of was www.plastic.com which makes it very hard to look up a thread as well as down) I'd love to see it. I haven't come across any but I doubt I'm the first person to think this.
 
 
Tom Coates
16:06 / 21.02.02
The main problem with branching narratives and discussion is that you can't easily track the whole conversation and they have a tendency to die off if there's not enough people participating in them.

There are all kinds of different models for discussion forums that might meet your needs better than Barbelith's UBB software - but they all come with their own disadvantages as well, which you have to weigh up. Take www.thecelebnetwork.com - it's not designed to only be used for short pieces of writing, but it tends to be used that way because it's not a good format to read and keep track of large tracts of text. Barbelith is a wordier forum than most, and that means that it can be important to keep it on track in a fairly linear way.

What people don't do enough around here is CREATE branches... For example - if something someone else has said seems to you interesting but to have mutated the thread off-topic, then just start a new one, link to it from the first topic with a little explanatory bridge and encourage people to hop over. The branches remain slightly artificial, but there is often something useful about requiring human intervention - if agency is required things don't fragment so quickly...
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
16:13 / 21.02.02
On this topic I would like to suggest a function for consideration.

On many occasions it is seen that one thread covers many topics but returning to a topic prior to the original is difficult and semi-thread-rotting.

Perhaps it would be beneficial to have a Start New Thread With Quote option or something similar to that and have the new thread listed as a sub thread of the original so that posters are aware of stems.
 
  
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