Desperate for a new Forum layout!

Hi all,

I'm sure this must have come up in the past and wondering if it could be added as a feature request for the future?

We primarily use our network for Forum discussions. When the discussions become numerous, we can't tell which replies go with which responses, and we are constantly hitting the limits on thread levels. Our members are SO frustrated with this and we've actually had people leave over it! Any chance this can be fixed, or another option offered?

In the meantime we've implemented a separate free PHP forum to get us by, but people don't like to use it because it forces you to connect to a separate site. So would really love to hear this might be fixed in the future, or if I can at least put it in as a feature request? It is really the only complaint with our network for the most part.

Thanks!

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Phil McCluskey on June 22, 2011 at 8:52pm

Hi Paul,

Have you tried the Flat forum option? That option removes the threading entirely and posts appear chronologically. You can change from threaded to flat by going to My Dashboard > Features > Forum tab.

Thanks,

Phil

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Permalink Reply by Paul S on June 22, 2011 at 9:54pm

Thanks for this tip, Phil. We prefer a threaded set up since there is a lot of back-and-forth and it is important to see who applied to who. Though once we get to like 5 or 10 pages of responses, the little arrows that are supposed to group responses, simply do us no good.

I just tried the flat forum option that you mention and it does remove the confusing arrows which attempt to tie responses together. Though at the same time it is now not obvious who is responding to who unless the person quotes the person they are responding to (kind of a nuisance to expect that from each person - especially the less computer savvy people).

I have been using Ning networks for about three years and have noticed this problem the whole time. So when I started my own network three months ago, I was surprised to see the issue still there. Would love to see some more options here in the future!

Thanks for the help...

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Michael Combley on June 22, 2011 at 10:44pm

If it was like the phpbb forums it would be excellent

This software and layout has evolved exclusively in the forum world and is brilliant

It would also enable the easy migration of people who are still Web 1 based to migrate to the new multi function Ning environment more comfortably

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Permalink Reply by Paul S on June 23, 2011 at 1:26pm

This is exactly what we are using as an alternative under a "Forum2" tab. Everyone loves the layout hands down.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Combley on June 23, 2011 at 3:46pm

I have not seen this can you please show me via a URL

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Permalink Reply by RF on June 22, 2011 at 11:08pm

Sub-categories would be wonderful!

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Permalink Reply by Lisa B on June 23, 2011 at 2:30am

I dont like the look of the forums...they just don't seem very inviting..

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Permalink Reply by Tyler Durbin on June 23, 2011 at 6:53pm

The forums need a "Quote" button on each response then there would be no need for a threaded forum. IMO, threaded forums are confusing to follow for most people. I have almost 300,000 posts on one site and they would kill me if I went to a threaded forum. I use vBulletin.

If you want to reply to a post, simply click the quote button and it quotes the post so you can then reply to it.