Discourse mods

Meta
#1

Most lines threads seem to benefit from Discourse’s flat reply style (that can show nested replies on demand.)

But Junto threads are a bit unique in that each Junto is almost like a subforum, with each track a new thread that then has its own comments.

I’m wondering if there might be Discourse mods that make threading more obvious. I’m further wondering if such mods could potentially apply only to a Junto category.

I gather that some Discourse mods only require CSS while others require more in depth knowledge of Ember and Discourse internals. I’m not familiar enough with Discourse to know where these threading ideas might fall in terms of level of effort.

Any more knowledgeable Discourse experts out there?

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#2

I’m pretty sure threaded discussion is entirely against the design ideas behind discourse, at least that’s my understanding based on Jeff Atwood’s comments in numerous places. He’s highly in favour of flat discussion styles with only links to parents and children available from a given post. There’s a pretty extensive discussion on it here:

#3

By the way, the “Summarize this topic” button is a pretty good way to see all the key posts, such as the music pieces in the junto discussion. Then you can follow the replies from each one.

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#4

I hear you. I needed quite some time to get used to this approach and I’m still struggling to really like it.

@kisielk That makes totally sense as a whole.

I also think it would be weird if only certain topics were threaded.

#5

That point of view might make sense if Junto had its own Discourse site. Each track would have its own thread then.

If Junto were to do such a thing on lines, Junto threads would quickly outnumber other threads here.

So my suggestion is somewhat unique to the situation of Junto-within-lines.

Perhaps “subforum” is a better way to think about it than “threaded”.

#6

My concern about the summarize feature boils down to not being sure what “key posts” means. I’d love to have that view for all posts.

#7

I think it would be pretty silly to have a separate post in a forum for each junto piece. It would take forever to browse through all of them, having to switch topics for each piece. If they are all in one thread it’s quite easy to scroll through and listen to all the pieces as well as leave comments. The discourse software is pretty good at making browsing large threads fast too, and always jumps to to the last viewed message. I actually find the way it’s currently presented far better than a traditional forum layout…

#8

I’m glad you are happy. I’ve noticed some folks are less so. Perhaps they will adjust.

As a UX designer, it’s my line of work to imagine different ways that software can work. I’m sorry if it bothered you.

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#9

The alternative possible in Discourse would be to have a separate Junto category, with a new topic for every piece, and people who weren’t interested could just hide that category. But I that would just lead to fragmented conversation. Mostly I think it just comes down to all the new people joining the forum getting familiar with the UI.

#10

Hi,

I’m not sure if you are proposing a single Junto thread… In my opinion, a thread per week would be ideal. A Junto category would be the icing on the cake.

Cheers,

Pedro

#11

IMO a thread per week in a category makes the most sense.

#12

junto category has been almost certainty-- i’ve wanted simply to first assess how the junto community liked working within discourse.

also i wanted @disquiet to have the option to jump ship if he saw fit, and adding a category and everything felt like added pressure to make it work here.

so, let’s take a breath and decide what works over the next week as the dust settles. yeah?

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Worth making a junto category?
#13

This seems like a great plan. Many thanks for the warm welcome and encouragement.

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