I would like to see forum topics and forum posts treated as the same thing. The way EE does it creates a hierarchcy which does not appear to serve a purpose and causes much confusion with any type of recent or pending posts lists. It’s as if the standard hierarchy of blogging protocol, where the actual blog entry is important and the comments are less so, has been applied to a forum platform. In every other forum platform I’ve ever used (SMF, Joomlaboard, XMB, PHPBB) the intial thread starter (what EE calls a topic) is just considered the first post. This makes creating lists of any type of forum activity much easier. Thanks-

I understand what you are saying, but can you turn it into a practical example?  What are you having to do now to get the output you desire?

Thanks for responding. Right now I can’t make a list (without some type of custom work that I don’t know how to do) that displays the latest activity (both new posts AND new topics) on the forum. In my experience with forums, 90% of visitors use these types of lists as their starting point when they go to a forum. On EE, if I choose to display new posts option, the first post (what EE calls the topic) may not be seen because it’s classified as a topic not a post and could very well get buried before anyone sees it. As a result, potentially great discussions could get lost in the mix. On the flip side, if I choose to display the latest topic, new posts will not be displayed so you don’t get an accurate representation of the actual activity on the forum. I’ve personally chosen to display the latest posts but this still seems to leave a lot to be desired. Some users on my board have figured out that the first post (EE’s topic) doesn’t display on the activity lists and as a result they have actually gotten in to the annoying (but understandable habit) of ‘bumping’ the topic that they JUST created so that it makes it on to the latest post lists. Likewise, this posts / topics issue seems to be what’s causing a lot of confusion with the “View New Posts |  Active Topics |  Pending Posts” at the top of the forum index.

The forum is actually the most active portion of my site so this is pretty important to me. The whole concept of how EE handles forum activity is actually very foreign to all of my users and has raised a lot of complaints (we were coming from SMF and before that XMB). I love EE’s core installation but I probably would have used a 3rd party forum if I had known that this would have been an issue. It really seems like it precludes one of the most basic and fundamental aspects of a forum that all software on the market currently has (i.e. viewing ALL latest posts or what would be considered posts + topics in EE speak).

Sorry for the rant.

Are you talking about in your forum templates or in your regular templates on other parts of your site?  If the latter, you can do exactly what you want with the recent forum topics tag.

I was actually speaking of all of the above (in the forum and in the core install). I’d like to have maybe a latest 10 on the front page (core installation) and then a last 30 on the actual forum page (as almost all other forums do).

I believe I tried using the recent forum topics tag and it returned less than ideal results. This was a while back but I recall it returning the original posts name, author and time stamp. I could be mistaken but I thought that was the case. I would LOVE to be corrected if I’m wrong on this one. It would actually make my day.

Another issue with making the topics and posts structured in hierarchy is that you can’t change the subject line of a post…there’s only one subject line for the entire topic.

I was actually speaking of all of the above (in the forum and in the core install). I’d like to have maybe a latest 10 on the front page (core installation) and then a last 30 on the actual forum page (as almost all other forums do).

I believe I tried using the recent forum topics tag and it returned less than ideal results. This was a while back but I recall it returning the original posts name, author and time stamp. I could be mistaken but I thought that was the case. I would LOVE to be corrected if I’m wrong on this one. It would actually make my day.

If I’ve understood what you want for your front page, the tag will do nicely.  Here’s a very simplified example of one way it might be done.

Another issue with making the topics and posts structured in hierarchy is that you can’t change the subject line of a post…there’s only one subject line for the entire topic

Correct, in the ExpressionEngine forum module, only a “thread” has a title.  Individual replies do not, nor are replies themselves threaded.

Thank you very much. I tried that out but even that isn’t quite what I was looking for….for example, if the last 5 posts were all in the same topic it only displays the latest of those 5 on the list. It doesn’t indicate that there were 4 before it. I’d like it so that both of the following are able to be placed in a single list chronologically:

1. Newly created topics
2. All of the most recent posts on any given topic

I’m really not sure how else to describe it and it seems several others have been perplexed by this as well. For frequent forum users, the way EE handles this is really foreign.

It also occurred to me that another drawback of the current setup is that when you go to the front page of the forum and glance through all the forum categories, newly created topics do not appear on the front page at all. The only way you might have an inkling that something is going on in the forum category is that the folder will be highlighted.

Look at the Recent Posts template, Mike, that is what its purpose is: to highlight the latest and the most popular threads.

Is that the same thing as the recent forum posts template? If so I don’t think it does what I’m asking for. It only displays the latest topics and not the latest posts.

Not your first request, no, however, it addresses this precisely, emphasis mine:

another drawback of the current setup is that when you go to the front page of the forum and glance through all the forum categories, newly created topics do not appear on the front page at all. The only way you might have an inkling that something is going on in the forum category is that the folder will be highlighted.

Interesting. Is that for the forum? Because that’s what I was speaking of (being able to see new forum posts on the main page of the forum). Can you point me in the direction of that template because I don’t think I’ve seen it.

In the Templates section of your Discussion Forum module back end, look in the Archive Templates.  For a live example of how it’s implemented, try out the included Developer theme, which uses this by default on the index page of the forums.

Thanks for pointing that out. I just implemented it. It provides an acceptable short term fix for that problem. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle the others or is there any likelihood that a solution to this issue may appear in future versions of the forum. Thanks for all your help!

The Query module could be employed to get the results you want on your main site templates - I think if you search the forums there may already be some example implementations.  If not, feel free to post to the How To forum and I’m sure the SQL wizards in the community can assist you.

As for whether or not (or when) requested features might be adopted, we do not speak to those points, and this KB article on roadmaps explains why.  We do incorporate many user suggestions, however, as our Change Logs bear out.  That said, it is not the goal of the ExpressionEngine forum module to match forum application X or Y’s feature list.  The state of the forum software market for the past 3-4 years has been a tit-for-tat feature war, and we decided to offer something unique with our own take on things instead of being a clone of this or that application.

Thanks again. I actually have asked 2x in the how to forum but was basically told it wasn’t possible without a custom query.

As for the feature request, I totally understand. I actually don’t want EE forum module to get in to the feature war because I like it’s simplicity but this issue seems to be a fundamental and important part of every forum software that I’m aware of it…not a special new feature.

Thanks again for your help.

I was a vB user for a number of years before coming to work with EllisLab, and for what it’s worth, I haven’t missed these specific features you’re mentioning.  That’s part of software, though, what is an expected feature to one person may be ancillary or even unwanted by another.  Thanks for your suggestions, though, we’ll definitely keep them in mind.

(And yes, a custom query would be required, using the Query modue)

Just wanted to add that another implication of this issue is that RSS feeds of the forum only display new topics / threads and not new posts.