bobef suggested a different web interface. Jan Knepper has installed it, and here it is for everyone to try out. What do y'all think?

http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php

Walter Bright wrote:
> bobef suggested a different web interface. Jan Knepper has installed it, and here it is for everyone to try out. What do y'all think?
> 
> http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php

First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.

I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.

Hasan Aljudy wrote:
> First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.
> 
> I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

Walter Bright wrote:
> Hasan Aljudy wrote:
>> First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.
>>
>> I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.
> 
> Yeah, I noticed that too.

I think I know why this happens.
The newsgroup overview shows only the N most recent posts (25 by default) and seems to first get those posts and _then_ sort them by thread. This results in subthreads whose common 'ancestor' post is not in the N most recent posts getting split up.
This may look a bit weird, but I think it makes sense: who wants to get a 500 post thread back because a single post was added?

Also, note that the thread overview in below the text of a post seems to show the entire thread.

Frits van Bommel wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Hasan Aljudy wrote:
>>> First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.
>>>
>>> I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.
>>
>> Yeah, I noticed that too.
> 
> I think I know why this happens.
> The newsgroup overview shows only the N most recent posts (25 by default) and seems to first get those posts and _then_ sort them by thread. This results in subthreads whose common 'ancestor' post is not in the N most recent posts getting split up.
> This may look a bit weird, but I think it makes sense: who wants to get a 500 post thread back because a single post was added?

I actually like this as it can take forever to find a post in an old thread.  Often I'll give up and sort by date, just to figure out where it is.  Also, "More Options" link allows the reader to grab more than just the 25 default messages, so this isn't fixed behavior.

My only real complaint is that when I collapse/expand a thread it reloads the whole page instead of just fixing up the bits that changed.  But that's a pretty small issue compared to the other features offered.


Sean

Frits van Bommel Wrote:

> Walter Bright wrote:
> > Hasan Aljudy wrote:
> >> First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.
> >>
> >> I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.
> > 
> > Yeah, I noticed that too.
> 
> I think I know why this happens.
> The newsgroup overview shows only the N most recent posts (25 by
> default) and seems to first get those posts and _then_ sort them by
> thread. This results in subthreads whose common 'ancestor' post is not
> in the N most recent posts getting split up.
> This may look a bit weird, but I think it makes sense: who wants to get
> a 500 post thread back because a single post was added?

I think you're right about this.


> Also, note that the thread overview in below the text of a post seems > to show the entire thread.

That's great!

Walter Bright wrote:
> bobef suggested a different web interface. Jan Knepper has installed it, and here it is for everyone to try out. What do y'all think?
> 
> http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php

My first impressions....

It's much nicer to have one that actually shows threads!  But the threading interface has a few caveats:

(a) The message list interface seems to just count off 25 (or however many) messages and then thread them together.  While this can be useful in that it helps to avoid excessive indentation in very busy threads, it can also be confusing.

(b) The expanding/collapsing is done on the server side.  While the advantage is that it still works for users who have JS/CSS disabled, it would be nice to have a user pref to do it on the client side, thereby saving both the user's time and the server's bandwidth.

(c) Collapsing doesn't make any more threads visible as some may expect it to.  I don't know of a good way of dealing with this together with points (a) and (b), but maybe somebody has an idea.


It seems to be hard-coded to one timezone.  And it fails to indicate which timezone that is.

But it's good to see that it displays dates in an unambiguous format.

Stewart.

Walter Bright Wrote:

> bobef suggested a different web interface. Jan Knepper has installed it, and here it is for everyone to try out. What do y'all think?
> 
> http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php

The threading view looks great (especially the threaded view under each individual post)!

Also, it allows attachments to be downloaded.

It seems to be a huge improvement over the current web interface!

Frits van Bommel wrote:
> Walter Bright wrote:
>> Hasan Aljudy wrote:
>>> First impression: much better than the old one, some what slick.
>>>
>>> I Just noticed that some threads are scrambled .. or broken into multiple threads.
>>
>> Yeah, I noticed that too.
> 
> I think I know why this happens.
> The newsgroup overview shows only the N most recent posts (25 by default) and seems to first get those posts and _then_ sort them by thread. This results in subthreads whose common 'ancestor' post is not in the N most recent posts getting split up.
> This may look a bit weird, but I think it makes sense: who wants to get a 500 post thread back because a single post was added?
> 
> Also, note that the thread overview in below the text of a post seems to show the entire thread.

The reason I first thought of was that it sorts by date first, then figures out the threads for each day.
But then I saw several replies to the thread "MIT Technology Review: An Interview With Bjarne Stroustrup" scattered around in the same day, so your explanation makes more sense, I think.

Walter Bright Wrote:

> bobef suggested a different web interface. Jan Knepper has installed it, and here it is for everyone to try out. What do y'all think?
> 
> http://www.digitalmars.com/webnews/newsgroups.php

Lots better than the pnews version. It has a few "qwerks" that will take getting used to. Also the post window is tiny

it's not thunderbird, but I like it.