red chamber dream
re: chat threads
i still don't think this is a good idea.
first of all, what is a "chat thread"? i'm trying to think like a new user here. so ok, i'm not allowed to make long posts in here? what if i want to see people's avatars? i mean, this is a forum after all right? if i wanted to use irc i'd use irc right?
have to remember that tf is a forum primarily. it just lets you do a lot more than what people typically think a forum can do. at least that's the current paradigm afaict.
when designing chat mode i specifically didn't want to lose any forum functionality. that's why it's always optional and people can just disable it if they want to.
for example i don't use chat mode in the anime thread even though it would seemingly make sense. that's because a lot of times users will talk about their avatars or change their personal texts and i want to be able to see those. why should i be forced to not see them? why would anyone care what i see on posts in that thread?
basically, i don't think anyone should be arbitrarily limited in terms of what they can do in a thread. there's no reason posts should be limited to 1 line or whatever just because the thread creator thinks it would be a good idea. i think the anime thread works well because someone can post something huge in there (like nate's done on several occasions) and it will be read. this is contrary to everything kennyman has said -- sure, people casually chat there but when something "serious" is posted everyone jumps on that. so it works.
i still don't think this is a good idea.
first of all, what is a "chat thread"? i'm trying to think like a new user here. so ok, i'm not allowed to make long posts in here? what if i want to see people's avatars? i mean, this is a forum after all right? if i wanted to use irc i'd use irc right?
have to remember that tf is a forum primarily. it just lets you do a lot more than what people typically think a forum can do. at least that's the current paradigm afaict.
when designing chat mode i specifically didn't want to lose any forum functionality. that's why it's always optional and people can just disable it if they want to.
for example i don't use chat mode in the anime thread even though it would seemingly make sense. that's because a lot of times users will talk about their avatars or change their personal texts and i want to be able to see those. why should i be forced to not see them? why would anyone care what i see on posts in that thread?
basically, i don't think anyone should be arbitrarily limited in terms of what they can do in a thread. there's no reason posts should be limited to 1 line or whatever just because the thread creator thinks it would be a good idea. i think the anime thread works well because someone can post something huge in there (like nate's done on several occasions) and it will be read. this is contrary to everything kennyman has said -- sure, people casually chat there but when something "serious" is posted everyone jumps on that. so it works.
