Having watched a couple of threads in the forums (and having been caught out myself), may I be so bold as to suggest a couple or three changes to the sorting method?

1. (Simple text changes).  In each forum, there are Threads. Within each Thread there are Posts (aka Replies).  So what does "Sort by Post date" actually mean? It could mean either.. it's ambiguous.

Suggestion: Change text of "Sort by post date"  to be "Sort by Thread Date".  (Or possibly "Sort by Thread Start Date"). After a month or two has passed you may then want to change "Sort by reply date" to "Sort by  Post date" to keep things accurate, but I'd advise against doing that immediately, pple would only get confused further if the meaning of "sort by post date" flipped sides..

1. (some work required). It would be nice to have a drop-down menu from a "Sort by" option, with the current option check-marked. Click on the other option to change. At present, we can see what the (as it happens, only) alternative is, but unless you've been here a while and played with it, it's not obvious what is going to happen.  There's no indication to show what the current option is. So you click on the button, wait while 'rosity reloads, then realise that wasn't what you wanted and have to click again (and wait again...)

3.  (More work required). The ability to customise this via "MyOptions" :-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Who has had to design some computer<-->human interfaces (aka GUIs) in the past... It's a difficult problemt trying to get the mix  of "ease of use" between newbies and long-term users right..

I'll second this, I set the tab at the top of the posts to "sort by post date" but when I log out it reverts to "sort by new posts" or whatever and I kept forgetting to look for it so I waste time looking at threads dated December last year etc.

The other point is: When I want to see posts by the date they were posted, What actually shows on the top right is "show posts by last reply".    Now this confused me initially because I expected that what I saw would be what I got but it wasn't!

In other words when it said "sort by date posted" I though that's what I would get not have to click that inorder to get it!!!

I hope you can understand what I'm getting at 'cos it's giving me headaches trying to explain it!!

:scared:

Quote - Having watched a couple of threads in the forums (and having been caught out myself), may I be so bold as to suggest a couple or three changes to the sorting method?

1. (Simple text changes).  In each forum, there are Threads. Within each Thread there are Posts (aka Replies).  So what does "Sort by Post date" actually mean? It could mean either.. it's ambiguous.

Suggestion: Change text of "Sort by post date"  to be "Sort by Thread Date".  (Or possibly "Sort by Thread Start Date").

It sounds like you're confused :(

Sort by Last Reply = Any thread with a new post in it gets moved to the top of the list. This type of sort system is also called "Post Bumping" and is used on the majority of forums that I've ever frequented. Renderosity was the only one that didn't have that until recently.  This is also similar to what used to be called on the old forum as "show new posts".

Sort by Post Date =  Threads remain in their posted position no matter what.  Making new posts do not alter the position of the thread. Which means you have to go page by page looking to see if there are threads with new posts in them.  Sounds to me like this is the method you want?

We see threads from 1999 and 2000 being posted in sometimes.  If the threads are sorted by "Sort by Post Date" which also means thread date, then the chances of anyone getting a reply to a question they posted in a thread they found while doing a search is NIL.. unless people spend hours clicking dozens of pages going all the way back to 1999 to see if there are replies to any old threads.  Doubtful that would happen.

Quote - Iwhen it said "sort by date posted" I though that's what I would get not have to click that inorder to get it!!!

I hope you can understand what I'm getting at 'cos it's giving me headaches trying to explain it!!

:scared:

Yes, what you see isn't what you get :)  You have to click the link to be taken to that method of sorting.

Ah! Acadia you're with me on this, excellent!!!

:thumbupboth:

"Sort by Post Date =  Threads remain in their posted position no matter what.".
So why isn't it called "Sort by Thread Date"? It's the whole thread that's being moved in the sequence, not the individual posts WITHIN the thread.

That's what I meant by it being confusing.

Think of another way:
Threads are analgous to folders/directories (except you can't have sub-threads). Posts (replies) are analogous to files within folders.

If you wanted to set up a system to sort foders by either "Folder Date" or "Most recent file-added Date", you wouldn't call the former "Sort by file date".

Yet that, in effect, is what the options appear to offer you.

Note: There are 2 dates in the "threads" list. The date of the 1st post (ie when the new thread was started) and the date of the most recent post to that thread. Now, I realise that new threads start with a post, but how do you put that post ther? By hitting "Start a new thread".

That's why I'm suggesting that terminology change. The term "post" seems to be being used to represent both threads and replies in different parts of the interface. They should be consistent..
So I'm not being silly (not that anyone suggested I was) when I say that "Sort by last Post" is ambiguous. I'd also like to add that "Sort by last reply" doesn't make sense either.
What is the last reply in a new thread that doesn't  have any replies? Answer: it's the 1st POST.

I'm just trying help. Honest...

Cheers,
Diolma

Quote - "Sort by Post Date =  Threads remain in their posted position no matter what.".
So why isn't it called "Sort by Thread Date"? It's the whole thread that's being moved in the sequence, not the individual posts WITHIN the thread.

That's what I meant by it being confusing.

Cheers,
Diolma

Ahhh!  Gotcha!  I guess I'm used to it as it's the same on other forums I go to.

But yes, I guess if you aren't familiar with it, the terminology would be confusing, since "Thread" is the whole, while "Post" are  the individual parts that make up the thread.

And yes, fixer, I'm with you on that :)  I was confused about that for awhile too. You  should have seen me clicking and clicking trying to figure out which was which and everytime I came to the forum I clicked it for good measure  and kept clicking it until it showed all of the new posts at the top.   Now it's default like that, so I stopped clicking :)