My habits are to read the top 10 or 20 threads (whatever fits on one screen), so, I wouldn't see a thread that is old, by a few weeks.
On the other hand, there's a thread about the treehouse in the redwoods which will likely take months, as each stage has multiple questions for improvement.
Is it better to post each separate question, and then each thread goes to the top? Or, better to re-use the old thread?
Would you even *see* posts in an old thread? (I wouldn't.)
If it is pertinent to the thread, post a reply to it.
I would if I had the display sort order set to "Sent". Which I do.
New posts to old thread will show up as a part of it. News servers can keep posts for years so your record will be a part of it for reference. That is handy for anyone searching for a particular subject.
Ed Pawlowski wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 16:17:00 -0400:
But that's not the question.
I, for one, have all threads expire after a month (which is the default for my news reader so I never changed it).
Even if they didn't expire, I have all my headers "threaded", such that all the posts to any particular thread stay together.
Since I sort by reverse date, I only see about 1 week or, at most, 2 weeks of "thread initialization" dates. Anything older than about 2 weeks, even if someone updated it today, never shows up on my radar.
Of course, if I didn't thread the headers, and if I sorted by reverse date, I'd see ALL the recent posts, but then I'd never have threads.
So, I was just asking what most of you do, since I know this treehouse thread will take months to complete.
Why would you want to start a new thread for each question on the same topic? Even if a thread has dozens or even hundreds of posts they are all in one thread and easy to follow. With several different new threads how could one even follow all of the nested threads that with your idea wouldn't be in the other threads?
Yes. Why wouldn't you?
Gordon Shumway wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 17:41:32 -0500:
For me, "old" threads (anything older than a day or two or five) don't show up since they're on the bottom, and I don't scroll unless I'm looking for something.
Plus, my newsreader expires articles after a month, automatically (by default).
We keep up on a regular basis
So turn the wheel on the mouse or do a search.
Change it
+1
+2 just because he's to lazy to change his settings or use the scroll wheel, we have to see him repeat himself over and over? bean counters
I agree. Plus, my newsreader -- Outlook Express -- let's me mark topics or threads that I want to "follow". They then show up in red as "watched" threads. So, if I wanted to follow your thread about the tree project, I would mark it as "watched". Then all I have to do is scroll down and if there is a new post in an old "watched" thread, it shows up in bold red and I see what new posts were added.
I certainly see your problem. I have the same one. For example, if someone re-uses a subject line, like "AC problem" it sorts with the earliert post with the same subject, and I probably don't see it. I subscribed to one NG for years, forgetting that it posted a monthly FAQ, with important details, because every month it had the same subject name and sorted way up (in your case down) at the beginning of my posts. So I never saw them after the first month.
(On most groups I have the expiration date set for 10 years, and may increase it when the 10 years gets close.
(This group is so busy that I was having technical problem when I kept all my posts so I had to lower it to 85 days, I think. (Well checking, I see that I didn't do this for the new computer, and I haven't had any problem, so I have about 38,000 headers going back to march of 2011, although I haven't retrieved bodies for 13,000 of them and it's too late to retrieve all but the more recent bodies now. )
In one group, I sort so they show up in the order they were retrieved, no threading. This makes it easier to see every post, but I don't read them by thread, and that's not as good. When I get mixed up, i highlight the post in question and change the sort to "by thread" and then I can see the context. Forte Agent is good at quickly resorting, even old versions.
It sorts by author too, although I've rarely used that, and even by length of post. The last one helped only once or twice when I was searching for a post that was very short or very long.
I see posts as they arrive. Unthreaded. I think they go after ten days, but I can't remember. If you post onto an old thread, they show up here.
ChairMan wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 18:39:55 -0500:
OK. OK. I got the point! :) I'll keep it to one thread (but there are already three).
TomR wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 20:32:47 -0400:
My newsreader does the same, but, I don't use that feature; however, I do understand what you're saying.
micky wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 20:44:48 -0400:
Egads. I have about 100 threads in this newsgroup showing.
micky wrote, on Sat, 11 Oct 2014 20:44:48 -0400:
I do the opposite, which is to sort by thread by default, but, if I know, in a long thread, that I need to find a recent post, I can sort unthreaded by date. But I rarely do that unless I'm looking for something I know was posted.
I also automatically mark the entire thread read, the moment I exit, which means that only new threads show up in bold, so, that in reality, I only see new threads or a marker that an older thread was updated.
I see almost everyone does it differently than I do, which changes what I would do for a thread that takes months. Thanks for the details.
What newsreader are you using?
If a thread is one in which I am interested, I "watch" or flag it. Sorting set to "Sent" in descending order then "Watch" gets me threads sorted from newest to oldest with watched treads grouped on top.
I have my reader set to keep headers for 30 days. If someone replies to a thread for which I no longer have headers, the reply is shown unthreaded, sorted by the date it was sent.
If I'm not interested in a thread, I don't care where it is or what does or doesn't show up :)
Does your newsreader have a "Next unread" button?
It doesn't expire them, just removes them from your computer.
They still exist on your server and if someone posts a reply to a thread which no longer exists on your computer that reply will be downloaded to your computer by your newsreader. If that doen't happen, you have your reader settings screwed up.
dadiOH wrote, on Sun, 12 Oct 2014 05:42:54 -0400:
Pan.
Pan can do that (although I don't use the feature).
I'm pretty sure Pan can do that also.
I just sort by last in on top, but it's threaded, so, all responses go into the threads.
Me too.
Maybe that's why the very top of mine has single articles from threads a million years ago. Most I ignore as they're really old.
Me too.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.