Your screenshots show the expanded version of the topic map in both cases - is that what you’re largely interested in or would this discussion relate to the collapsed version, too? I actually hadn’t noticed the expand arrow until now (though I’m new-ish) to see the additional info it contains.
In general, I appreciate having a summary, even if I don’t use it every time.
I am curious whether its location might impact how much it’s used. Since it’s the metadata about the thread, rather than the topic, having it live between the topic and the first reply seems like it would be easy to miss and difficult to find. Would it be more useful floating somewhere on the page or in an expandable section on the header bar with the title? Because you point out that much of the info is duplicated between the topic map and the timeline scrubber, tucking it somewhere accessible could be a reasonable choice since much of the more crucial data is visible already.
While I appreciate the icons of the Frequent posters, which makes it possible to quickly assess who’s joined in, I’m curious whether there could be utility created by using their icon to highlight or jump to their posts on the thread. While the expanded card can be used to filter to that user’s posts only, I lose the context by having the rest of the thread hidden when I do. When I expand to the full thread again - it appears to latch onto the post at the top of the screen to anchor the page, which is good if that’s the post I’m interested in, but not if one below it is.
Instead, if it worked more the find feature in a document or webpage, it shows markers in the scroll bar where that text appears and I can hop between them quickly. If such a feature were implemented, I could select a participant (or multiple?) and it could show indicators in the timeline of where those posts are, letting me quickly see when they posted. It could also give a previous/next option to hop between them.
Anyway, I definitely see opportunity but it’ll be interesting to see how much people use it to determine if it makes sense to invest in improvements.
Aside, when it comes to duplicate info, I wouldn’t necessarily consider “users” and “Frequent Posters” the same for a couple of reasons:
- the user count is all-inclusive, so while it’s frequently the same (as in your second example) it isn’t always (as seen in the first).
- They serve different purposes - the count lets me know how many people, the avatars give me a quick idea of who.