Idea for forum: resume on first/last page?
 

Hi, I have an idea:

Can we have a all-users editable (wiki like) box for each forum thread? Kind of a "tl;dr" or "faq" or "resume" box.

That could be useful to insert into that all the useful bit and pieces that come up in a thread and that just get buried between dozen of repetitive post / noise.

Like for huge threads with hundreds of posts. Most of the interesting posts are from someone that ask a relevant question, or falls in a common mistake and someone else post a helpful answer.

Skimming into that is interesting but time consuming.

I would like to be able to copy/paste useful info into the resume/tldr/faq box, so that someone will just have to look at it to have an idea if something has already been addressed or is a common flaw or else.

In a 100+ posts thread, when I do read all the pages, I'd like to be able to help other people, resuming all the interesting stuff.

Do you think it's a good idea? yes?no? why? =)

Thanks all.

Re: Idea for forum: resume on first/last page?
 

That's an interesting and potentially good idea :)

If this wiki snippet is displayed on the same page as the thread, it can have a bigger effect (and traffic) than if the wiki is 'manually' linked elsewhere, like the common practice now.

The downside is that this thing will lie outside of the current moderating scope & tools, and it'll most likely be used as messy battleground if the thread is a debate thread too.

Perhaps if this wiki widget/snippet/area is only opened by request (have a poll to calculate public's interest)? Then again, for something with that much interest, usually the OP gets motivated enough to maintain his/her first post on the thread to act like a moderated wiki.

Re: Idea for forum: resume on first/last page?
 

A simple yet very effective idea.

This would only work for some threads - and that is fine too. The wiki is needed for larger evolutionary areas.

Re: Idea for forum: resume on first/last page?
 

For debates it would be irrelevant, as in debates there's not a "faq" or a real "tl;dr" thing, out of the points pro/against something. I don't think it would be massively misused. This is a very respectful board, I think.

In the other hand it would be much useful for how-to threads, like nitdroid, pre-env, scripts, etc..


That sometimes is not so obvious to understand, and sometimes I just don't know if the first post is kept up to date (and how much up to current date). In those cases I have to read the whole thread, and then I have all the informations, but then I cannot contribute and add the up-to-date info to the post.

Maybe this could be automatically linked to a section in the wiki? Or else, this could be just a sort of pastebin implemented in the forum script?

Thanks for your considerations.

Anyone else? Ideas?

Re: Idea for forum: resume on first/last page?
 

The main problem with some topics is that the relevant forum threads are huge, with 1000s posts, and are just too scary to have the will to read through all of them.. and the search is of little help in managing that high information/noise ratio.. and I'm too polite to risk asking the same question the 1000th time :)

Just adding ideas: maybe it would be useful the information "wikibox updated XX posts ago" so one can have an idea if it's up to date.