The Way Responses Are Formatted Within a Posting

[Guest Tristan]

For those of you who know the answer, this may seem like a dumb question, but I haven't been able to make sense of it. Replies are cascaded and each reply is further indented within a posting. But in many cases, the replies go back to the left margin. What determines when the replies start a new chain? Does it have to do with who is replying to whom? What am I missing? Please be kind now. Thanks.

[jackhammer91406]

AS I understand it ,

The post you reply to dictates the position of your reply. If you reply to the original post, your reply will be flush left. But if there are 20 or so cascading replies drifting to the right , that is because posters have responded to a reply, not the original post. At least that how I think it goes .

[Chuck50]

Damn Jack and you are new on here Way to go. HUGS Chuck

[+ deej]

It's called a threaded discussion and it's the way most message boards behave. Jack nailed it. (Pun intended.)

[Rick Munroe]

>Replies are cascaded and each reply is further indented within

>a posting. But in many cases, the replies go back to the left

>margin.

 

Everyone knows that the more liberal postings always lean to the left, while the nasty ones keep going further and further to the right until they're almost off the page. :+

[VaHawk]

You're on a roll today! :7 Now, you didn't have anyone in particular in mind did you? :+

[Rick Munroe]

>Now, you didn't have anyone in

>particular in mind did you? :+

 

I'm keeping my mouth shut on that one! :*

[jackhammer91406]

Well, at least I can still nail something.

:9

[Guest Tristan]

Thanks for the explanation, Jack. Makes sense. I learned something about message board formats. I didn't realize my question would prompt an additional stimulating exchange.

[Rick Munroe]

I think you're still a bit confused, Tristan. You wanted to reply to Jack's post but you really replied to mine. You don't reply to the bottom post on the thread; you reply directly to whichever post you're replying to (or 'to which you're replying'). Get it?

[OneFinger]

Well, as long as we're asking formatting questions, let me chime in with one that I can't figure out.

 

Why do some posts *not* show the indentured listing of posts. Most do have this "indexing" but a few are without.

 

How do you turn this feature on and off?

[jackhammer91406]

Your welcome.

It's always fun and interesting when Rick Munroe is around. He never fails to get a laugh out of me except of course when I look at his avatar, then I can't breathe.:o

[jackhammer91406]

I am not sure I know the answer to this because I am not sure I understand the question. On the off chance that I do understand, some threads under a certain number do not require threaded format, that is there are not enough replies to require it. You can always view all threads in linear format by hitting the button at the top of the main page threads. Some threads that end up with many replies, organize the threads in the "indexed" format. Now if I am wrong or didn't understand the question correctly, maybe one of the moderators will log on and explain it and we can both learn, but thought I would take a stab at it and see if I could go 2 for 2.

[OneFinger]

Well, Jack, you "hammered" that answer also. :+

 

I clicked on the linear mode and the "indexing" disappeared. But, I don't recall ever hitting that option before. So, I can only assume that you're also correct that on short discussions, the "threaded" mode hasn't kicked in yet.

 

Thanks for explaining that mystery to me.

[VaHawk]

The only dumb question is the one not asked! :-)

[Luv2play]

This may be another dumb question but why do some icons appear as VaHawk's did, a square box with a red cross inside? I find it a hit and miss thing when I post.Sometimes the icon appears, sometimes it's the dots and brackets etc, and sometimes the box. Is there a way to get a consistent result? :-(

[+ deej]

That's a bug in the software.

 

The 1st smiley icon in the "compose" page is broken. Use the 2nd one, instead. (Technically, it's the rendering software that's broken, but the effect is the same as the icon being broken.)

 

1st Icon: :-)

 

2nd Icon: