Re: [trinity-users] Trimming replies

On 13/01/13 11:21, Alexandre Couture wrote: No it wouldn't be better, and no forums don't avoid posting issues. Forums are a "pull" technology: I have to actively decide to go to some website and look for new comments or questions, then keep refreshing the page periodically to see replies to questions. Even if there is some sort of notification service (like a RSS feed), nevertheless I must still make the decision to actively open a tab in a browser and go to the forum. Email is a "push" technology: new comments and questions just appear in my inbox without me needing to go out and look for them. So long as I monitor this one location, my inbox, I will see these messages. I already have, at quick count, well over 120 assorted tabs open in five different browsers on two machines. If I had to actively monitor this list by viewing a web page, I wouldn't. As for posting issues, it is probably true that web forums *reduce* the hassle caused by top-posting and failure to trim. But that's only because forum software usually defaults to "no quote" replies: replies have have no context, except that they are part of some thread. In small threads, or in sufficiently well-written and explicit replies, you don't need much to establish context. But as threads get bigger, or as writers get lazier or less competent, you still need to establish context. I cannot begin to tell you how many forum discussions I have seen with replies that give *no clue* who, or which specific comment, they are replying to. -- Steven