Every board you know does this?! Weird, I had seen this some other times but never got the impression that most did so! []/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/]
Even then, just because others do so is no reason to not try to find a better way of doing so. WWWThreads has been quite unique not copying other boards... just checked right now and guess what, it is rated number one in
HotScripts Perl, and it has been there these last weeks (among first 4 positions!)... If w3t just starts copying other boards it can be just any of those boards you go to. Dont get me wrong, I think there are great features in other boards that can be implemented here, but this is a leading software, wwwthreads pretty much leads the way for others, not the other way around. And I think it is fine to add this feature, it makes sense for those of you who have 50.000 posts or so... But hey, I think we shouldnt just copy, we should give it more thought, what makes it easier for the user to understand, for the user to use, and if we come up with a new method that is more simple why not use it? Just because others arent?
So with this feature we are debating I do see it quite useful, its just that I am not sure I agree on the method used to use this feature. Lets get into the users mind, and by the "users mind" I dont mean our mind, the administrators mind (even if we are users), I mean the average user. Believe it or not, yesterday I watched someone in his computer at my boards, he has been a regular these last two months, replying and all. But yesterday was the first time he wanted to post a new thread, and I just happened to be there watching. He did not know how to start it. You have that "Post" button that I never thought wouldnt make sense to someone... he finally clicked on it, hit the browsers back button, back and forth for a while, started asking out loud, even left the room to ask someone elsewhere just to make sure he was starting the new thread as he was seeing it seemed like if it was the same form as for when he replies... it was confusing to him! What a surprise for me! I still cant believe it, but have we been able to watch our users at the boards? The point I am trying to make is that we need it as simple and as best explained as possible. The way it is now it was confusing for me on my first visit for a while till Scream explained it some more... what about my users then if even I got confused!
OK... so back again to this debated feature... as a user if it is set to a week or a month and I dont see the posts I am looking for, and by any chance I do happen to notice this option to show more active threads I would try to get them all. For most visits and on most people the server load is already greatly reduced by, say, setting the default active threads to one week. Time is already saved, 99% of the users will never change this, believe me. So I dont care if 1% of them request a full table (all dates) postlist as it has been till now, its no big deal, its just 1% of the users, just a few that really want to see more, let them see them all with no need to choose a bunch of other options.
So yes, if you all want this as it is now I guess I will live with it. Its just that I feel there is way for improvement. Sometimes improvement is not meassured by the many options but by how easy and intuitive it is to use it. I also feel it is too cluttered up there, too many things taking space, but hey... if you all want it I can live with it. Just visited ubb as you mentioned and it doesnt seem this cluttered, I guess because we also have the search box there. I still believe that search box should be at the bottom next to the "Jump to box", but hey... you know... I will live with it if you all want it there.
Uff! What a long post! Sorry for that! []/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/]
Mateo Byler
CruceDeCaminos.com
