Following the main topic of a thread :)

[DianaS]

Off topic

Off topic aside

Hello Bigdjiver,

I've put this in the main conversation 'cas other people may find the tip useful, not to wind you up

I do agree that the way messages are presented here makes it difficult to follow the main thread, and to filter out the asides. I like the asides, but when I'm following a topic and am short of time I filter them out by altering the view.

You may find it helpful to alter how messages are displayed so that asides are more clearly identified for you. There is a simple may to do this by altering the view, you may like to give it a go, it will take 1 minutes to do and 1 minutes to undo if you don't like the effect!

Open a thread and under the menu bar find Display Modes (far right on your screen on my machine) and select Threaded mode.

When you view a message thread you will see the structure of the messages with the first post and every one who has replied directly to that in a small window at the top of the thread. You can also see who has replied to each reply.

What I do is to follow each reply to the main message and when it deviates away from my point of interest leave that branch.

If you don't find it helpful just alter it back to linear mode, this seems to be the default.

Just incase your view is different to mine there is another way of doing this its below

Altering the view from a message list to threaded discussion

You may like to print out this massage or open a second window so you can follow remember instructions

1 Select the tab "User CP" on the top right hand side of the menu bar above this post

2 Select "Edit options," it's under the first side menu option called "Settings and options"

3 Scroll down to "Thread display options" and alter thread display mode to "threaded" its a drop down menu option

4 Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Save changes

Bingo!
[End of aside]

[bigdjiver]

1) I tend to ignore chit-chat - if my mouse button had not happened to hover over the link, displaying some text, I never would have seen it.
2)
3) A useful addition to FAQ, under view modes?
4) Thanks

[DianaS]

1) I tend to ignore chit-chat - if my mouse button had not happened to hover over the link, displaying some text, I never would have seen it.
2)
3) A useful addition to FAQ, under view modes?
4) Thanks

Hi BigD
I'm glad that you found it. I had replied to the main Negative rep thread but Emma sent me a PM to say that she had moved it to chit chat!
Threads can become too complex don't ya think?
Perhaps through we could put in a link so people following the previous thread can find the outcome? I probably haven't got permissions to do that but perhaps someone else could for me?

BTW thanks for the positive rep on the above post. Although it was anonymous, I added you to my ignore list and the rep disappeared.
Don't ya love beating a system!!
BDJ you're a total softie! You back as a buddie now so keep posting!

Diana

[dannyboy]

Some helpful forum tips Diana, thank you