oles67 inquires if Discourse can display forums in a threaded “conversation mode” similar to Outlook, noting that flat threads with many branches become difficult to follow. merefield responds that this is not how Discourse works, citing Jeff Atwood’s past statement that users requiring full threaded discussions should choose other software. oles67 counters by referencing their experience with Usenet and IRC, arguing that conversation mode allows for a better view of discussions with digressions and suggests that both flat and conversation modes could coexist. merefield explains that Discourse’s philosophy relies on active moderation to move off-topic branches into separate topics. Finally, Dituar provides a link to a meta discussion about testing nested replies.
Hello,
Is there a solution to display the forum in conversation mode like in outlook for example?
It quickly becomes complicated to follow a discussion with lots of branches like in a tree.
Some discussion threads have hundreds or even thousands of posts.
THANKS
No, that’s not how Discourse works.
I’m an old guy who knew usenet in its early days and IRC ;o)
In flat mode it is unreadable and in the end, few people read when it exceeds ten messages (except the people concerned) Too bad for the others.
The conversation mode, like Usenet, allows you to have a correct view of the entire discussion with the “disgressions”
Nothing prevents you from having flat and conversation mode. Everyone makes their choice
The only argument I understand is the size of the screen on a smartphone. But here, I think that the solution exists in other types of software
I stop here. I have the answer (old->2012). Thank you for pointing that out to me
Sincerely
Part of the Discourse way is to have active Moderation, to move branches into their own Topics.
