Re: Looking for the best way to browse threads.

From: John A. Bailo (jabailo_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 07/17/04 

Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 03:50:05 GMT

Jeff Relf wrote:

> Hi Uncle Al,
>
> You asked why I am, " trolling a Linux group ".
> ( And you were so very polite about it too )
>
> I'm just killing time,
> Talking to John Bailo and Spooky now and then.
>
> I can't figure out how I want to browse threads in X.
> ( X is my homespun newsreader for Windows XP ).
>
> Buy the way,
> You should checkout Kadaitcha Gurl,
> She is just like you.
> ( Only her balls are plastic, of course )

Here's something I would like to see.

The way I read a newsgroup is to first sort in reverse date order ( most
recent at the top ). Then I scan through and find ones that interest me.
At that point I want to maybe see some, or all, of the thread hierarchy.

But most newsreaders make that *really* awkward. They make you go into a
threaded mode, and hopefully, after the window repaints, you have a cursor
on the article you orginally read.

I suggest a /gentler/ approach.

>From the article header, right click and have something that says, expand
article thread. And it shows, one node up and all the children of that
node -- or all children of the current node. But it doesn't repaint and
reorder all the headers -- nor does it show all the other threads and
certainly doesn't expand them.

Another idea -- show the thread articles as a diagram or flow chart -- so
have miniature pages with pointer arrows to the children and maybe in bold
show the date and author -- something like that... 

-- 
http://kentpsychedelic.blogspot.com/
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