AlefBet
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 979
Registered: 07-16-2003
IP: Logged

Here's something that can maybe make its way onto a low priority maybe-we'll-do-this list for the site.

When a post is moved, it might be nice if a note could be left on the old board where it went to so people who were following it know where to look to find it now. Perhaps a simple annotation below the sticky posts left there for about a day.

Also, I'd kind of like this type of thing for another reason. I checked the General board today and saw a posting with a puzzle in it. Below that, someone said essentially "this is pretty cool, but it probably belongs in the General board." Then I read Erik's posting saying "I moved it to the General board."

But I'm thinking to myself, this is actually more of an "anything" post or perhaps a "forum games" post. But I don't want to say anything because maybe everybody else knows that this post was actually moved from one of those boards. Anyway, if there were "forward address" notes, I could check those boards and see if that's where they came from.

Well, anyway, thanks for reading my idea.

____________________________
I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

I think this is a pretty reasonable suggestion. It is a feature on many message boards that when a post is moved, a "ghost" is left behind. A prominent "Moved:" is placed before the title of the post, and clicking on it immediately redirects the reader to the new location of the post. The # of posts and # of views values are set to "---" or something equally uninformative, providing another indication-at-a-glance that the post is not a typical one. Eventually, the "ghost post" disappears off the bottom of the screen onto an earlier page as new posts and topics displace it. I think it works well and would be a worth addition at some point. Although it would also be nice for admins to be able to delete a ghost post in the rare situation that a post is moved several times. And I don't know what the procedure would be for a post that was merged into another...I suppose the same thing would work okay.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

When I move posts, I usually PM the person who made the post and let them know where it's gotten to. I'd be very happy if there was a paper trail left.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I disagree with this suggestion. The reason to move posts is to reduce clutter. Ghost posts are clutter. I don't see why the development forum (where the post Adam noted started out) should be cluttered just because the poster has a bad sense of which forum to post to.

Maybe instead of leaving a marker where the post started, a marker should be added to the moved post? I.e. the post subtitle should get "originally in forum X" appended. That way, it's possible to know where the post is from by looking at it and Adam's problem wouldn't have occured (side note - that post doesn't belong in "forum games" since it's not a game to be played IN the forums. I prefer "general" to "anything" since it is DROD related, even if a bit obliquely.).

In fact, I don't see how adding ghost posts or announcements to the original forum would even help with the problem Adam had - if I see a post and I want to know where it came from, should I have to go to every forum to see if it left a ghost there?

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

TripleM
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1373
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

eytanz wrote:
In fact, I don't see how adding ghost posts or announcements to the original forum would even help with the problem Adam had - if I see a post and I want to know where it came from, should I have to go to every forum to see if it left a ghost there?

I think the point is that someone who had seen the post originally - including the poster himself - may go to where it was and not find it, and then have to go to every other forum to find it.

On the other hand, I agree with you - when I've seen this idea in other forums, I do notice that it does clutter up the forum. I wonder if theres any nice compromise.

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

TripleM is exactly right...it is for the benefit of those who return to the exact same place they made the post in, or to where they read the post in the first place, and aren't checking every single other board on the forum.

I am not really concerned about forum "clutter"...the reason that posts are moved from one forum to another is because keeping posts in their appropriate forums helps other people find them more easily. I suppose that we don't want to "punish" people reading the forums that the posts were moved from, in which case a time limit of a few days to a week on any "ghost post" would be appropriate. Or the admins can just make sure to pay attention and delete them after a suitable time has passed (even immediately after the original poster acknowledges the move in some way).

Since the "ghost post" cannot be replied to, it will never move higher on the page. On a busy forum such as General, where people might resent the clutter more, the post will quickly disappear. On a less-used forum such as Development, the time limit would be more important. At the very least, the post will always disappear faster than if it just stayed where it was and was never responded to, so I don't really see an issue.

And finally, it's not like posts are moved that often. Maybe 5 times in an average month. The question is more whether Schik thinks it is worth making this change for something that doesn't happen very often anyway. PMs work for the original author, as Cramp says, but it doesn't help anyone else who read the post and then doesn't want to search through 13 boards to find out where it ended up...or maybe it was deleted, and they won't know until they search all the forums. This way at least everyone knows that it was just moved, and not deleted.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams