Lack of interest [Suggestion] Allow threads to be posted to multiple forums...

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BirdOPrey5

Well-known member
I know this isn't the most often asked feature but I made a mod to do this for some other forum software and couldn't live without it...

Basically I want/need a way that when a thread is posted (or edited) I can have it show up in multiple forums if I choose.

In my mod I read threads from about a dozen forums and load them all into my 'off topic' forum using a relatively simple if statement in forumdisplay.php that is "if in off topic" get threads from a bunch of forum id's, otherwise just get threads from the requested forum.

I wouldn't care how it was implemented, either my way or with native support for multiple forums per thread, but I wouldn't be able to live without this.
 
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This feature would be really attractive, and it would solve so much for my site.

Imagine that you have a subforum about alligators and a subforum about crocodiles. Now where does a thread about comparing these two animals go? I have many thousands of such threads that fit in multiple forums. Choosing one subforum over the other means that users that only visit one of the two subforums might miss the thread.

imho this should not be part of the stock code, it would make a nice mod though.
I doubt this can be added as a mod, because it has to do with how threads are referenced to forums. In vbulletin this is not possible to do with a mod. (or at least no one has succeeded yet)
 
This would be a definite benefit for us. We have a number of forums for cars that share engines, amongst other things. For those in the UK, the MG TF, ZR, ZS and ZT all share a common engine. We tried setting up a seperate 'Engine' forum but it didn't work as people prefer to start the threads in their model specific forums. We tried moving the threads around and all it does is wind up members who want their thread in their area!

As a mod, being able to selectively mirror a thread to the Engine forum for related threads would be perfect. That way we get all Engine related threads in the engine forum for others to browse no matter which model they have and the users are happy because they're still visible in the model forum.

Furthermore, being able to specify this ability via a usergroup would be very useful, we could then have mini-mods who only have the ability to create / modify / remove these links so the mod's workload didn't get too high.
 
Just had a work-around suggested by Kier....

It's not something that is supported by the current data scheme - if I want something to appear in multiple forums it's possible to post in a forum, then move the thread to another leaving a permanent redirect, which does a reasonable job of achieving what you want.

That could well be a way to achieve this mirroring of threads, the key thing is that the last post data would need to be updated on the redirect whenever the original thread was updated, that's the bit that could well be done via a mod.

The mod could automate the moving of the thread - you select the forum you want it mirrored in, the mod moves the thread with no redirect to the mirroring forum, then moves it back with a 'tracking' redirect (i.e. a special type of redirect that keeps track of the last post data).

Its the functionality of the 'tracking' redirect we'd need to code as I suspect that wouldn't be added into the core system, along with the automated moving of the thread.
 
Redirects do not work Im afraid. Try doing that for thousands of threads. It becomes a mess. Mind that besides these valid redirects there are also many other threads that have redirects that will need to be cleaned up once in a while. Users need to be able to select multiple forums.
And as you say; redirects do not have last post info. Otherwise they look more like signs that let the user know they are looking in the wrong place. And having too much of those makes a forum look dysfunctional.

Maybe if the above problems can be solved, redirects could work.
 
Yea, I do miss announcements, especially for forums that are separate for various reasons but share the same function. Such as "Advertisements". I have various advertising categories which share a set of rules. Would be great to submit an announcement to that general forum group.
 
I'm wondering ... if a topic is tagged with a thread prefix maybe that coud be used to show it in multiple forums.

ie:

[random prefix] suggestion-allow-threads-to-be-posted-to-multiple-forums.339

Threads with the prefix [Random Prefix] would show up in:

Forum 1
Forum 2
Forum 3

but its the same url so no double content penalty
 
I'm wondering ... if a topic is tagged with a thread prefix maybe that coud be used to show it in multiple forums.

ie:

[random prefix] suggestion-allow-threads-to-be-posted-to-multiple-forums.339

Threads with the prefix [Random Prefix] would show up in:

Forum 1
Forum 2
Forum 3

but its the same url so no double content penalty
I was thinking of having a similar thread type to move thread, that would allow mirroring/redirects of the original post.

I don't think that would be out of scope of the system, and would probably be a slightly easier to implement (Would probably use it as a moderator option).
 
Late to the party, but I +1 this feature, if it could be done in a performant way. Seems that you'd need a reference table between threads and forums, rather than having the forum id in the thread table, which adds an additional join to list a forum's threads.

Some here mention that it would be good as a mod... anyone tackle this yet?
 
@Xon addon can sth do this similar, but he has to develop it for xf2 yet.
I had my own addon developed for xf1, like where you could display threads from nodeid=x also in nodeid=y (so only whole node in other node, not single threads selected).
 
What I am currently looking for is not a mirroring of nodes, but a mirroring of specific threads.
For example, post a thread in node 1, and mirror it in node 7, 24, 93.
Then post another thread in node 1, and mirror it in node 18, 27, 34

Not unlike redirects.

@Dean describes it well here:
If you have a news, reviews, Flat screen tv forums, and a thread dedicated to Panasonic, then what happens if someone sees a review of a new Panasonic TV, considers it news and posts it in your news forum? And the next person considers it a review and puts it in the review forum, and the next person puts it in your Panasonic thread?

3 different threads, 3 different places.
 
I understand, as I said "similar".
Over the years I haven't seen one addon which could let you mirror selected threads. I've seen 4-5 ones which could mirror nodes, but no threads.
I don't think XF is going to make such an enhancement ever, not with their current and old progress schedule.
You better ask someone to develop it for you.
 
A thread needs to have one parent forum that sets the permissions. I don't think its possible to change that.
But I do think its still possible to make an thread visible in multiple forums. This would be really useful for threads that belong in multiple forums.

There are several related functions that can be of use:
  1. Mirror forums. i.e. display ALL threads from forum A in forum B. IMHO this is a different suggestion.
  2. Display a specific thread in multiple forums. IMHO this is what the current suggestion is.
The former is on forum level, while the latter is on thread level.

The use case I am interested in is as follows.
Forum A: Lizards
Forum B: Turtles
Forum C: Geckos

Thread: 'Can Lizards, Geckos and Turtles be kept in the same space?'

The thread belongs in all 3 forums and no matter which forum it is posted in, the location is always wrong, because it is not visible in one of the two forums. Hence another member comes along who does not find the thread in the other forum and posts the same topic.

The exact same issue is encountered with resources (see related suggestion), media, addons.
 
Honestly, while your suggestion itself may seem valid, I would highly doubt that someone who creates or uses subforums on these kind of level in 2018 is doing it right. Imho there should be a forum or prefix for all of that, and it would make more sense to implement multiple prefixes for that kind of issue.

I would have thought of something like global or local rules which should be displayed in multiple forums, hence my suggestion to go the node option route.

I don't think that there is a reason to show content from other nodes in a node if there is no direct parent <-> child relationship between the nodes, e.g. siblings should not display their siblings content. There's a reason why siblings are siblings. That brings me back to my initial thought that there should be a common parent forum for that kind of questions and child forums for more specific questions, which is the idea behind forums and subforums.

If that's not possible, well, then think about how the UI would look like to allow you cross-posting. I can't come up with something reasonable I would entrust users nor moderators with.

However, I do see use cases for resources and other stuff being categorized in multiple categories, just because that's media and not actual discussion content (although you could discuss there somehow aswell).
 
I swore that I suggested this feature here years ago.

I was positive I even posted a suggestion about it here!

(Maybe I suggested this at the old vB support forum? Shudder... Was it that long ago?)

I still can’t believe this isn’t an addon because like the “turtles, lizards, geckos” example above I also deal with this problem constantly.

Recently it was when a photo was posted of a regiment of Civil War soldiers not wearing jackets, and a discussion broke out because it was somewhat unusual during that era... Then the mods got into a bit of a tif over whether this was a Uniform discussion like the original author of the thread choose, or if it belonged in our Photo Study Forum.

Honestly, the thread and discussion deserved to be in both forums! Dangit, there is no good long term way to do that.

Yes, I know the “redirect” method, but we have busy forums, the redirects would be gone too soon.

The example that I thought I shared here was a thread called "Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address".

Where do I put that? Gettysburg Forum? Lincoln Forum? Famous Documents & Speeches of the Era Forum perhaps?

This thread could really go in all three, and should probably be available in all three.

We also have an A to Z forum, so this particular thread, if it’s our best thread on the subject, should be listed in our “Terms Beginning with the Letter G” forum.

That makes four forums.

Not today I guess....
 
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