Thread starter should be able to add posts at top of thread anytime: Getting rid of the "Reserved"

Digital Doctor said:
If you start an important thread, and have lots of replies ...
... wouldn't it be sensible to allow the OP / Thread starter to add a post under his/her original one .... say for documentation, screenshots, etc.
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you know how many users keep writing to me (i'm the admin of my board) to add something to the main thread they created? I support this suggestion... it should be an option per usergroup
 
Lance: Oh *gosh* if you like this one, my Addon idea will blow your mind !! :)

aculate said:
you know how many users keep writing to me (i'm the admin of my board) to add something to the main thread they created? I support this suggestion... it should be an option per usergroup
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Just try hanging around a big thread a xbmc.org ! and when the OP goes away ... everyone whines the original thread can't be updated.
 
cheeseshredder said:
Certainly an idea for an add-on, but I don't know if I'd like this in core.

The edit function usually works well for this purpose.
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Not really. On a forum I'm a moderator on there are a lot of tutorials including screenshots to help illustrate what to do. We also have a maximum image per post setting as we don't want every post with 10000000 images. I think we have it set to around 18~ish. For a tutorial this might not be enough. But we can't set the image setting higher just because *some* posts require it. Just take that staffmember here on this forum that is writing the addon-tutorial. He's locking that thread because he doesn't want people commenting - I'm gonna guess that it's because he wants his posts in order. With this feature he can open that thread up for discussion and be able to insert posts after the firstpost before the replies.

So this idea definitely gets a like from me. Obviously with permissions per usergroup and per forum of who can use it.
 
Tanax said:
Not really. On a forum I'm a moderator on there are a lot of tutorials including screenshots to help illustrate what to do. We also have a maximum image per post setting as we don't want every post with 10000000 images. I think we have it set to around 18~ish. For a tutorial this might not be enough. But we can't set the image setting higher just because *some* posts require it. Just take that staffmember here on this forum that is writing the addon-tutorial. He's locking that thread because he doesn't want people commenting - I'm gonna guess that it's because he wants his posts in order. With this feature he can open that thread up for discussion and be able to insert posts after the firstpost before the replies.

So this idea definitely gets a like from me. Obviously with permissions per usergroup and per forum of who can use it.
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Good points I never considered.
 
yoghurtfarmer said:
Certainly an idea for an add-on, but I don't know if I'd like this in core.

The edit function usually works well for this purpose.
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Indefinite (or extended) ability to edit posts also allows for possible abuse (e.g. an angry, rebellious member removes the content from all of his posts).
 
There was a mod on vB3.8 that allowed you to change the date of any thread/post with ease.
I used this a lot for pushing relevant posts in the middle of a long thread to the first page.
It had a lot of other useful features though, i forget the name of the mod atm.
 
Tanax said:
Not really. On a forum I'm a moderator on there are a lot of tutorials including screenshots to help illustrate what to do. We also have a maximum image per post setting as we don't want every post with 10000000 images. I think we have it set to around 18~ish. For a tutorial this might not be enough. But we can't set the image setting higher just because *some* posts require it. Just take that staffmember here on this forum that is writing the addon-tutorial. He's locking that thread because he doesn't want people commenting - I'm gonna guess that it's because he wants his posts in order. With this feature he can open that thread up for discussion and be able to insert posts after the firstpost before the replies.

So this idea definitely gets a like from me. Obviously with permissions per usergroup and per forum of who can use it.
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Exactly. For nostalgia reasons ;)... I invite people to check out this thread if you have access to it: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...o-INSERT-a-posting-inside-an-existing-thread. That suggestion is almost 7 (that's... s.e.v.e.n !!!) years old.

However, what is nagging me and my board more now then the inability to insert postings is the fact that all our posts are 'protected' by a time-limit to edit them. Making it impossible for a regular user to change or add any information in the first posting of a thread. This is ofcourse the benefit of such a time-limit, but this limit is now working against our work-procedures in those cases that regular users need to edit their first posting of a thread. Very annoying, as I expressed on our former 'home' earlier:

Absolutely supported!

Yes, here's your feedback :):

I think your english is great (that was the most important point I wanted to make ;)) and your suggestion about 'adding operators to the topic' so people can work together on the first posting of a thread is simply brilliant.

Like a lot of other boards out there, on my board we also make use of 'the first posting in a thread' extensively to centralize information from that particular discussion. For example : on thread/user discussions in our private Satf Zone we couldn't do without those first postings, Reported Posts redirected to a new thread (build-in functionality) in the Staf Zone are also all about the first postings anyway, aren't they? The organizations of Meetings on our public forum use the first posting to update all relevant information (time, place, people attending, etc). When users 'maintain' informative threads they also use the first posting to gather information and publish it in a central place, like you stated above already. Well... I could go on and on with examples.

I think, that vBulletin really leaves something behind on this matter.

You see, I have set a Time Limit on Editing of Posts (because otherwise people kept changing or even deleting the content of their postings sometimes) and this setting alone causes -obviously because that's the whole point of this setting ;)- that no user is able anymore to edit the first posting of a thread, if they were the writer of that first posting.

But this is not what I want and need. I need a way so that all users of my board are depended on this time limit, except people who are maintaining such first postings. vBulletin is -in my view- not flexible enough to really offer a system where the USERS are in charge of user created content. (it was -and to a certain extend is- a broader problem of vBulletin... the only user-created content were forumpostings, so gladly we now have SN and Blog available so that is a step in the right direction. But still no CMS to be seen or what about a Wiki?). Speaking about a Wiki : what you want is more or less what a Wiki does, but since Jelsoft doesn't offer a Wiki... : an enhancement of the forumsystem would do wonders in this area.

So what I would need is a way that I (as administrator) can assign certain members to a thread so that they can edit the contents of the first posting there, regardless of the Time Limit I have set. This way I can offer my members the ability to generate user-created content in a centralized way, without having to grab to the (group)Blogs for a solution. I want the forum to offer a solution in these cases.

Hopefully this another thing that vB 4.0 will have an answer for.
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Source

And more...

Assign user to thread/change author of thread + free them of Time Limit on Editing

Yes, I certainly agree with you that we need more permissions concerning the first posting of a thread indeed.

Look at this suggestion for example.

Recently I had yet another situation on my board where I badly needed a tool so I could assign a specific user to the first posting so he could alter it:

A moderator of ours opened a thread about a meeting. There was a lively discussion about it and that resulted in a member volunteering to organize things. However, since the moderator opened the thread it was not possible for this organizing member to use the first posting for updates on information on the meeting (time and place, who will attend, goal of meeting, etc, etc)... because he had no permissions.

The first posting of a thread is crucial on our forums to manage these kind of things.

I hope vB 4.0 will give us more flexibility in this, so that we could assign a user to an existing thread, so he/she gets the permissions to alter the first posting. Or if that is not possible...maybe a tool to change the author of the first posting.

And those users also should not be influenced by the global Time Limit on Editing of Posts
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Source
 
Grover said:
Exactly. For nostalgia reasons ;)... I invite people to check out this thread if you have access to it: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...o-INSERT-a-posting-inside-an-existing-thread. That suggestion is almost 7 (that's... s.e.v.e.n !!!) years old.
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You were ahead of your time !

You can insert a XenCarta Wiki entry into a post ALREADY!
Code: 
[wiki]wikititle[/wiki]
Let's try to convince Jaxel to integrate the XenCarta into the forums (ie. items show up in New Posts)
If a few things are added to XenCarta it could be a game changer.
 
To be honest I'd have thought this would be easy enough. Just have a flag for each post which when sets causes the post to be 'stuck' at the top of the thread with all other similar posts, which are then sorted in date order. Following any 'stuck' posts would be the other posts in date order (i.e. as normal).
 
Nick said:
Indefinite (or extended) ability to edit posts also allows for possible abuse (e.g. an angry, rebellious member removes the content from all of his posts).
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Yes indeed, that's why we needed to set the Time Limit on Editing of Posts on 3 days on our vBulletin powered board. I sure hope XenForo gives us the same functionality.

But exactly this time limit function causes serious inconveniences, as I explained here:
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...getting-rid-of-the-reserved.6233/#post-136070

... because editing the first posting of a thread by the author of that posting then also becomes impossible.

The new client I am talking to now who is interested in XenForo, is searching for a system that let's their members edit the first posting of a thread indefinitely. You see, they are going (or want to) use XenForo to discuss all kinds of ideas and they will use the first posting of a thread to gather those ideas into a convenient overview-list. So the first posting always is the central point where you find the latest updated overview of all the ideas that have been discussed in all the subsequent postings in that same thread. This already is how I work myself in my own Staf Zone on my vBulletin 3.8 powered website (they didn't get the idea from a stranger ;-). Unfortunately our regular users (non-moderators) can not work like that, because of this time limit we where forced to set.

Is this new client going to face the same problems as we do on our vBulletin powered sites, or is there some way that XenForo can give us the functionality that we can set a time limit (so that most postings are protected) and at the same time grant thread-starters indefinite access to their first postings in a thread? I do hope so, because this has already been one of the most annoying problems for us in the software we have been using for 9 years. That's why I already suggested this kind of functionality 7 years ago...

Forums are used for much more then simply starting a new post and discuss that further. In this day of age (in my opinion that started already 7 years ago) we use forums for all kinds of content-creation/interaction. The first posting of a thread has -ideally- more uses to it, so I dearly hope to see more flexibility in this.
 
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