Does anyone else dislike the subject line format of this board?

[MrPurple]

I'm new here (started posting after the election). I like the topics/people, having discussions with fellow Democrats/progressives, but compared to other message boards that I've used, I feel like this format, with the altered subject lines, can lead to stunted discussions with one sentence replies because of the the way it's set up with the custom subject lines.

Does anyone else have this frustration?

[Auntie Bush]

1. I guess not.

Thirteen views so far and Nadia .
Maybe you can explain better what you don't like.

[Iggo]

2. Example?

Can you give me an example of how a subject line appears here and how it would appear differently at the other message boards you've used?

[spanone]

3. nope.

[MrScorpio]

4. Works fine for me

Welcome to DU.

FDT.

[riverwalker]

5. No

I like it as it is, can't deal with any more change of anything at this point.

[underpants]

6. No.

State your premise and then support it.

[bigtree]

7. thing is

...I think the format is flexible enough for you to establish your own particular posting format, of a kind, and see how folks respond to it.

[11 Bravo]

8. For 15 years it has worked just fine for me.

[whathehell]

9. No, I like it fine. n/t

[MrPurple]

10. I mean that responses on complex issues are often less expansive

Because people go with the short responses in the subject lines or if a reply is more expansive, some people don't seem to really read it and just go off of the abbreviated sentence in their subject line.

Also, it seems like the same topics get reposted again and again, rather than having moderators who consolidate threads that are about the same thing.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. If you mean you'd rather have the common format of linear replies without any structure,

just listed in strict order of posting, it's a matter of personal preference, but I much prefer the 'tree' structure here, in which you see easily who is replying to whom. Using a subject line means you can see a lot of a tree in one go, and usually get an idea if someone else has already replied with what you were about to say.

While people may just reply to a subject line, I think it's a general failing of online forums that people just reply to the start.

This is a big board, and getting moderators to put in all the time to consolidate threads really isn't realistic - it's become enough of a problem getting people to 'host' in the main forums as it is (being a moderator with significant powers is often a thankless task on any forum, and I reckon it's getting worse on other forums. It's not something many people will volunteer for - the abuse they get can be pretty bad, and DU is sadly not immune to that).

Latest Breaking News does have a 'no duplicate threads' rule, and I think enforcing that takes up most of the volunteer hosts' time already.

[Jim Beard]

11. I have been around the message boards 14-15 years now......

I have been on 2 political discussion boards that allowed forms of

political discussion and those fizzled, then went to Daily KOS and then took a long break.

I kept hearing Thom Hartman mentioning Democratic Underground and though I would try it.

I am partisan and it took me a while to stop being so disagreeable with my own Democrats. Very different rules.

I am not asking for a change, just responding to the thread parent.

[UTUSN]

12. Nope, beautiful format for me, not that I know many other sites. Since you're zeroing in on

the subject line, I'm not clear on how that is "altered" (from what?) or how the format results in stunted discussions. It might be that some of us/me exhaust the discussion by being definitive without leaving much room for discussion. Also, since we are all to the Left of Absolute Center, which is wonderful in my book, the number of facets to be filled-in might be inherently fewer.

[Retrograde]

13. It's clean and simple

The subject lines read the same on my phone as they do on my PC. True, it doesn't tell me what topics are trending now in my location, or what my so-called friends are reading and I should read too, or pop up irrelevant graphics at random times, or think it knows what else I should be interested in. Just elegant simplicity.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

14. If it ain't broke,

don't fix it.

[MineralMan]

15. What altered subject lines?

There is a limit to the number of characters you can use, and right now, some foreign and punctuation characters are not allowed.

Please explain further what you are concerned about.

[malaise]

16. Huh?

You lost me - what's wrong with it?

[hunter]

17. No. DU is by far the best I visit.

As a counter-example, DailyKos irritates the hell out of me, both in attitude and format. (I'm NOT that Hunter, by the way.)

I'm a regular visitor to various technology boards and those are ugly too.

[eleny]

18. The only change I'd like is a wee bit longer subject line. Just several more characters would be gre

at!

[kentuck]

19. Just you.

[Hekate]

20. I find the format clean and easy to follow the threads and subthreads. If your concern is.....

....that readers will not read past your subject line, try using ellipses as I do to indicate you have more to say.

As far as people making a one-line response, some are texting from phones, and some see no need for elaboration.

When you see KnR it means the responder is kicking the thread to the top for more readers and recommending it likewise.

Of all the discussion sites I have visited since 2002, this is the one with the format I find most congenial.

[Lee-Lee]

21. I didn't at first, but after using a while it is great

Only thing I don't like is that on a mobile device it's not quite as user friendly, like not showing post #'s by a post.

[treestar]

22. No I think it's great

I don't like where all the subject lines are the same.

Here you can read some of the debate just in headlines

[Control-Z]

24. It is funny you bring the format into question

as it is the simple, elegent format DU uses that has made posting and reading here such a pleasure for me.

[Motown_Johnny]

25. I like the option of one sentence responses (like this one). n/t

[2naSalit]

26. Haven't seen one I liked better than this one.

[guillaumeb]

27. How about one word replies? eom

[Warpy]

30. Ew

[guillaumeb]

31. Sorry.

[Bradical79]

28. I like the tree format here

The customer subject line exists on most boards I visit, but is generally ignored or not used because of the linear design of the board. It also makes it easier to browse discussions as high volume side discussions can be ignored easier when subjects lines show a clear digression. I think it helps lesson the dogpiling I see on other forums.

[Warpy]

29. No

The subject line is an indication of what the post is about. The only problem is the people who confuse the subject line with the whole post and respond to it instead of reading the body of the post. You can't fix stupid and eliminating the subject line would only frustrate the intelligent.

[TheBlackAdder]

32. The subject line acts like a tweet, when verbosity is not required. It cuts down a lot of clutter.

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Other BBS constructs are arcane--having never fully matured from the late 80s and early 90s.


It's almost like showing someone TSO when they are used to command line editors. Those who use VI or other basic editors resist the fluidity of full screen editors and come up with all kinds of excuses why they shouldn't learn to a higher-level offering. instead, they struggle with added typos and dropped inserts and deletes from time to time.


I can understand that mindset some degree, because VI is stuck in the old Unix days. Many people need to actively use it or else they forget how shitty it is and struggle with remembering the nuances of its crappiness, for when the instability of their builds knock out the full screen editors. But, that actually comes down to the unstructured Wild West mentality of the Unix systems programmers.


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