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Andrew B.
December 7th, 2009, 11:07 AM
Forgive me for reposting my comment from another board. But I'm upset. Please spread the word to any other forums who need to know about this.

vBulletin is the only php forum software with a thread tree display that appears in a scrollable window. This allows the user to utilize the thread tree while still keeping the messages visible below this display.

Without this window, long threads become so difficult to navigate the thread display becomes useless. The user is forced to pick a header from the tree, then hit page-down several times to see the message, than page up several times to pick the next message to view, then page down several times to see the message -- again and again and again.

vBulletin's support forum is using the beta version of their next release. (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/) It no longer has a scrollable window. The thead display gets longer, with the deeper parts hidden. As one unhides parts, other parts become hidden. And as it stands now, I think it is the worst tree display available.

It might be that this will be fixed in the next beta. But I would not hold my breath. And if you are a license holder who has an interest in the future of threading, now would be a good time to demand that they retain the scrollable window.

Judy G. Russell
December 7th, 2009, 01:37 PM
Forgive me for reposting my comment from another board. But I'm upset. Please spread the word to any other forums who need to know about this.Thanks for letting us know, Andrew. It means, at a minimum, more thread pruning if this is not changed.

sidney
December 7th, 2009, 03:21 PM
Forgive me for reposting my comment from another board. But I'm upset. Please spread the word to any other forums who need to know about this.

The news appear not to be as bad as it could be. I saw the following quote in their forum. If true, we'll have an easy workaround we could use in our forum even if they don't respond to the requests to make it an official part of the software. I will pursue tracking down the details about the necessary CSS change so we are prepared if we do switch to Vbulletin 4.0.

The thread tree (div id="posttree") really needs to scroll—at least after the thread get more than 20 or so posts. I know that this could be done by the site owner using CSS, but it ought to ship that way.

Judy G. Russell
December 7th, 2009, 06:36 PM
I will pursue tracking down the details about the necessary CSS change so we are prepared if we do switch to Vbulletin 4.0.Excellent news, Sidney!

Andrew B.
December 7th, 2009, 07:40 PM
Thanks for letting us know, Andrew. It means, at a minimum, more thread pruning if this is not changed.I think it will mean the end of using the thread tree. It is not practical to cut off threads after half a screen of headers.

My suggestion is that license holders post in their forum and/or email them and tell them that removing the window makes it impractical for use. If nobody complains, why should they worry.

Andrew B.
December 8th, 2009, 09:08 AM
If anyone want to jump on this, here a spot to do it.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?323137-Threaded-modes

sidney
December 10th, 2009, 02:25 AM
I got the details on how to fix it in case the vBulletin people don't do it themselves, so we are all set in this forum.

Andrew B.
December 11th, 2009, 12:10 PM
I got the details on how to fix it in case the vBulletin people don't do it themselves, so we are all set in this forum.Good to hear. I'm also glad you posted over there. Without a lot of people posting, they could easily think that not enough people care to make it worth fixing.