Creating a thread should be much simplier like this

That's actually a good idea, I still quite often get an e-mail about how to start a thread. This is "Stupid user" proof :LOL: (y)
It would come with an extra overhead tho.

It could be a simple one line text box that loads the editor once you start typing or something...
 
That's actually a good idea, I still quite often get an e-mail about how to start a thread. This is "Stupid user" proof :LOL: (y)
It would come with an extra overhead tho.

It could be a simple one line text box that loads the editor once you start typing or something...
Exactly, 1 simple line and/or add another box that can EXPAND. Plus someone could just click on 'GO ADVANCED' or 'MORE OPTIONS' to actually go to the main create new thread.

Is any of this even possible or are we too late in the game @Brogan @Mike

Also how many ppl do we need to get to 'like' something like this in order to make it happen or is this more of an 'addon' discusssion.
 
I mean they use this approach for profile posts and I see why, those are extremely simple. I don't see how having a button that stands out saying "Post Thread" would be confusing for a user when creating threads, we're talking about a single click here. I'm not opposed to the idea but what about users who just like browsing existing threads or don't feel like creating a thread. Should they have to scroll past some random title box/reply box to get to the content itself.

If a user can't find the Post Thread button I'd venture to say there are some styling issues going on, colors or spacing.

The whole why can't you just click a line to expand a box, isn't that still just a click away?
 
I mean they use this approach for profile posts and I see why, those are extremely simple. I don't see how having a button that stands out saying "Post Thread" would be confusing for a user when creating threads, we're talking about a single click here. I'm not opposed to the idea but what about users who just like browsing existing threads or don't feel like creating a thread. Should they have to scroll past some random title box/reply box to get to the content itself.

If a user can't find the Post Thread button I'd venture to say there are some styling issues going on, colors or spacing.

The whole why can't you just click a line to expand a box, isn't that still just a click away?
If thats the case then Facebook and other networks wouldnt be so successful. It all honesty, the create a thread box should be on the forum home up top. Your thinking is still old school forum minded, dont take offense to that im just saying
 
If thats the case then Facebook and other networks wouldnt be so successful. It all honesty, the create a thread box should be on the forum home up top. Your thinking is still old school forum minded, dont take offense to that im just saying
Facebook and other networks aren't forums though. They are places where people go to post something quick (often about themselves) and that's it bar a few comments on posts. They aren't really places for discussions like forums are.

I posted the following over on the demo site but will say it again here:

There could be [a create a thread box at the top of a forum page], though if you look at the Create Thread page, there's a chunk of stuff to fit in at the top of the page (title box, editor and editor box, attach files etc). That could look rather cluttered and unnecessary especially for someone who is just browsing the forum content (and it'd be worse on mobile). Facebook's is smaller because it doesn't have the editor buttons (there's no formatting) and you can't position any attachments exactly where you want them, they are just appended to the post. Basically Facebook's scope for creating posts is rather limited compared to those in a forum.

Similar to above [if this was on the main forum home page], the clutter would be on the main forums page - yuck! Plus you are then relying on people to choose the correct forum presumably from a dropdown list that consists of forum titles only. Some will be lazy and simply choose the top option. Others may choose incorrectly because the forum titles may not be sufficient to help them make the right choice. Often seeing other threads within a forum gives a better context as to what that forum is about and whether or not the thread you want to create should go in there or not.

Even forums like Flarum and Discourse have New Thread buttons. I don't think I have seen a forum that has found any sort of solution that you are suggesting (probably because they all agree that it looks ugly and cluttered). If you can find a forum solution that has implemented something along these lines then please do share it. :)
 
I do like this idea. Something like the Quick Reply box threads just simpler.

Start a new discussion:
Input box with "Enter Title" and a next or Go button.

FWIW, I think what throws people off is the placement of the new thread button. It's on the right rather than left by default. Most forum systems have it on the left. I've had a couple of people well acclimated to vB ask me how to post a new thread. It didn't occur to them that the button was right aligned. The button is also fairly small and doesn't pop out.
 
It actually varies. From the ones I have used/am aware of:

XF - right
Discourse - right
SMF - right
myBB - right
WBB - right

Flarum - left
vBulletin 4 - left
Lithium - left
phpBB - left


It's pretty hard to miss in XF 2.

View attachment 143833
I stand corrected. :) I've always been partial to XF and vB. I tend not to join forums running other software.

On 1.x the create thread button is easy to gloss over. It does look better on XF2.
 
Great. Now we need an add-on, which does it for xf 1.5 already, since I won't be able to move to xf 2 before 12-24 months...
 
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