Software suggestion (re: topic drift control)

I have a software suggestion, based on the ease with which posters can respond to the previous post while losing track of the actual OP and thread topic. I was just warned for this--correctly--and it seems to be something that a very minor software change would help us to avoid.If there could be a "jump to first post" button or link, with a return feature (the back button would probably suffice for this), we could quickly jump from our current position deep in a thread to the top, and return, having checked to see if we were straying too far from the topic.This would certainly help me to stay on topic, and it may be useful to others as well.Thanks.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Add the "(re: topic drift control)" part to the topic title.

I would like to 'second' this motion. I have very often had a paragraph written in the reply field and then realized that I am responding to something totally off topic; and therefore cannot reply with what I have already been working on.If you can nip the first off topic people's responses (with a new built in system) in the bud, then you can also halt the subsequent off topic stuff as well.I would be in favor of a red text statement somewhere near the top in (or near) the reply field. Being able to access the OP is also important.

Both the forum name and the the (hopefully descriptive) topic title is displayed on both the index pages and probably less noticeably on the individual message pages. Do you ever look at those things?I don't see having the message 1 content more available as having much effect on topic theme awareness.Just looking at the message you're about to reply to probably could supply strong hint about the on or off-topic state. Is there a scatter-shot of themes in the message? Probably most and maybe all of those themes are off-topic.Mooseps: Your topic title sucks.

Let's say you're typing a reply into the message box and you suddenly realize you need to see Message 1. Just above the reply area there's a list of links called the context line. For this thread it looks like this: If you click on "Software suggestion" it will take you to Message 1. When you click the Back button your message will still be in the text box, but I'm using Chrome and I haven't tested this in other browsers.You can also drag-n-drop the "Software suggestion" link to another browser window.If you're using a tabbed browser, you can drag-n-drop the "Software suggestion" link to an existing tab or to a new tab.You can also right-click on the the "Software suggestion" link and selection "Open in new tab" or "Open in new window" (the specific language will vary from browser to browser).

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

It worked in Internet Explorer 8. Holy shit... I had no clue I could do that! Thanks!

Okay, I'll use these solutions. I use firefox and can usually solve these type of situations by holding the Ctrl button and left clicking a link. This then opens up a new tab with the data I need. I had hoped there might be an easy way to show the OP.Maybe some sort of bold statement could be shown reminding the poster, as they write, about staying on topic. Most of us don't need the reminder, but noobs come in without reading any of the forum guidelines and then start posting off topic. Often a long time forum member then mistakenly responds to their off topic stuff. Oddly, not responding at all is in error as is stating over and over to remain on topic.

Before permanently closing Some abiogenesis considerations, I've posted some topic post mortem comments. Some might wish to comment on those comments, here in this topic. Percy/Admin really frowns upon members acting as formal moderators, and indeed doing such can be problematic. But to some degree (IMO) such is sometimes needed.Now, if there is some on-topic message content, a member can properly reply to that content, and then say "the other content is off-topic". RAZD is pretty good at this, including supplying links to relevant topics.Now, the case of the totally off-topic message. Ideally, an admin will flag it as being off-topic, and maybe even "hide" the content. But admins are not omniscient, omnipotent, etc., and may well not get the job done in time for it to really help. As such, ideally members should still recognize the message as being irrelevant and thus not respond to it.BUT, the ultimate judgment of on-topic vs. off-topic probably must fall upon a formally designated moderator (aka an admin). And for whatever reason, and admin may not get that job done. Then there's the problem of members noticing and heeding the admin message.Or something like that.Adminnemooseus

Hi Percy, seems like a while since we had some new suggestions. That's great for keeping on topic and thanks ... but what about when you want to reply and it is off-topic?Suggestion #1: How about adding a new button [reply in new topic]? -- that could automatically link to the previous message and start a new thread in the proposed new topics forum, with a link to the new thread in the [replies to this message] list.

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Suggestion #2: have the reply maker able to toggle between [Admin has not yet responded] and [No response necessary] ?

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Suggestion #3: how about another sorting column at the top toggled on\off section

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Participants (8) ​	No. Posts (9) ​	Member's Posts ​	Unanswered Replies to Member ​
CosmicChimp ​	2 ​	CosmicChimp Posts Only ​	Open Replies to CosmicChimp Only ​
Catholic Scientist ​	1 ​	Catholic Scientist Posts Only ​	Open Replies to Catholic Scientist Only ​
etc ... ​	... ​	... ​	... ​

Could make it interesting to see who's not answering, and useful to see which posts you haven't answered in a large thread.

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I know you've been chompin on the bit to find new work to do ... EnjoyEdited by RAZD, : wasn't done wanted to preview ... mumble mumble blind fingersEdited by RAZD, : added another.

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I'm not seeing the problem. Mozilla introduced tabbed browsing a few eons ago, and that already does what you want. As far as I can tell, most modern browsers now support tabbed browsing.I have the forum topics page open in one tab. To read a post, I use middle-click (click with scroll wheel) to open the unread posts in a second tab. To reply, I use middle-click on the reply button. It I want to get back to the start of the thread, I can go to the first tab (the topics page), and middle click on the thread to open to the first page (and opening post).

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Jesus was a liberal hippie