Great forum. Just had a suggestion. Other forums have page numbers for each thread. When a thread is very lengthy Will multiple replies, it’s much easier to revisit the thread page that you need to go to rather than scrolling to get to the reply that you want to read.
For example, there is a really lengthy thread about brainstorming fixture ideas on the forum currently. That thread might be 10+ pages on another forum, but on this site it’s one single page. The thread has a bunch of good ideas from multiple people, but in order to get to each specific reply you are looking for, or even just to scroll to the bottom of the thread to get caught up on latest discussions, you have to do a lot of scrolling. And if you read the forum on a device like a tablet or smartphone, it takes a looooooooooong time just to scroll to the bottom of the thread.
This forum architecture takes some getting used to but it actually works quite well. You can see where you are in a long thread by looking at the scroll on the right of the screen, you can also use this to move up and down really quickly. One of my favourite features is that if you’re reading a thread, then scroll back up a way to re-read something, the scroll will give you a ‘back’ button to take you right back where you were. If you type [shift+L] it will take you straight to your first unread post, although it should take you straight there when you open the thread anyway. There are loads of other keyboard shortcuts - open the hamburger menu then click the tiny keyboard at the bottom, or type a [?]. You can also use bookmarks to keep track of where you are.
Having said that I usually only use forums on my desktop, never on a phone or tablet. I don’t know if/how these sort of features work on mobile devices.
Thanks for the suggestion. I looked into it, but there is no way to do separate pages in discourse. The only navigation tool is the side bar:
It’s not ideal either.
I think the best solution is to condense and archive the good information. In the case of the frame fixture, I was hoping to create a new thread and consolidate the information into the EDU forum.
