Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
While viewing a particular post, there are two buttons in the end newtopic, post reply. The standard in most of the forums is to just have a post reply button as that is the most common thing we do while reading a post.

So can you guys remove the new topic button or atleast interchange the new topic and post reply buttons? I always click new topic instead of post reply

I never even noticed it was there.

neednotebook wrote:I always click new topic instead of post reply

That happens SO often on phpBB boards that I'd have thought they'd have changed it already. It shouldn't need to be modded out by anyone.

Am I missing something here, one button says new topic and one button says post reply and the problem is????????????

Kyocera wrote:Am I missing something here, one button says new topic and one button says post reply and the problem is????????????

I was kinda gonna say the same thing

However ... logically "new topic" should be just in each forum, not inside an individual thread.

But this may be a non-trivial change with phpBB.

I know.

I don't make the mistake myself, but many do. Most themes apply the same colors to both, and with their proximity to each other, and maybe not enough sleep, people will sometimes start new threads by accident. I've seen it happen.

And another viewpoint...

If the reader decides that the post he/she is going to make is related to, but slightly off-topic, then having a "New Topic" button DOES make some sense. Extending that logic for a second then says that there should be two different "quote" buttons and not a separate "new topic" button; one for posting in the thread and a second for creating a new thread, using a quote from an existing post. Would probably be confusing at first and not used that often, but there have been a couple of times that I've started a new thread and had to manually cut-and-paste a quote.

Also, it's hard to accidentally post a new topic because you have to specify a subject line. Not too many people enter a subject line when replying to a thread, but I have seen it happen.

it is an interesting request..

i would be happy to take a vote and if the vote goes to remove the "NEW TOPIC" button and leave only the "POST REPLY" button i would have no problem attempting to integrate that chang if the requesting user would hand me the code changes..

otherwise and until that time, i suggest that people just learn to read..

i would not want to embarass the huge number of new users who sign up each day by pointing out that most of them either, can not read, do not comprehend the english language or just don't bother to read, the instructions and rules set forth in the registration agreement and more obviously, next to the location field when filling in the data..

where it clearly states to enter a CITY and STATE or if not in the US a CITY and COUNTRY far too many enter the wrong data and would probably skip it if the registration process would let them..

then there are those who, when emailed about this, fail to even read or understand the email..

the thrust of this reply is that i tend to agree that it might be slightly counter intuitive to have "NEW TOPIC" and "POST REPLY" buttons next to one another inside a thread, but that this is the way it is and it only takes a small amount of intelligence to NOT hit the wrong button..

if one can read the manual for a thinkpad and operate the software then one can learn to cope with these trivial differences..

Bill, most of the problems that you mention in the post is I guess are not due to poor reading skills, rather would be attributed to use. You expect the close button of the browser to be at the far right. While it is perfectly acceptable to have at the far left, that is not what most of us are used to. It all comes to software usability. I am sure probably after 2-3 months I will be comfortable and remember where the post reply button is and where the new topic button is.

Most of the forums dont require entering the state and place, so I guess many people dont bother. An easy solution would be to make it mandatory or find the country through the users ip and autopopulate a state list field.

Anyway, I am surprised that no one really complained about that before. Probably I have joined too many forums . I will first try to see if the code is available somewhere.

thanks all for the views.

The way people interact and help each other here makes it necessary to provide an accurate location.
We try to maintain a high level of order here.

neednotebook wrote:Hi,
While viewing a particular post, there are two buttons in the end newtopic, post reply. The standard in most of the forums is to just have a post reply button as that is the most common thing we do while reading a post.

So can you guys remove the new topic button or atleast interchange the new topic and post reply buttons? I always click new topic instead of post reply

Why ?

To accomplish a fashion?

If you check a lot of forums they're modded with a lot of chemistry. You find a lot of them using themes, graphics, flash, green/black combinatins, buddy icons and so on.

This one is just an standard forum.

We don't waste time in eye-candy combinations. Just for the interesting thing. Just performance, not appearance... Just ThinkPad.

neednotebook wrote:Anyway, I am surprised that no one really complained about that before

I'm surprised that anyone is complaining about it now!