Icon to easily identify OP in long threads.

meher

Actually why do we want to know who the OP is? Woudn't we see it anyway when we enter a thread? Or is there something profound that I'm missing

davetrousers

meher wrote: »

Actually why do we want to know who the OP is? Woudn't we see it anyway when we enter a thread? Or is there something profound that I'm missing

So you can scroll through quickly to see how the OP has responded or indeed if they have responded.

davetrousers

kermitfrog wrote: »

davetrousers, you've made 14 posts in this thread about this. In post #36 the Webmaster says they're looking into it. Don't you think it's time to let them get on with it if they want to, or accept that it's not going to happen?

If my posts were highlighted then it would have made counting them easier for you.

davetrousers

OK shameless bump after (16 months)

I was reading a long thread and wanted to scan through it to see what had happened (to the OP) and wasn't too bothered about other responses so once again I thought that an icon, symbol or use of colour should be used to more easily identify the OP.

torbrex

I tend to find that identifying the OP by their username on a post is good enough, if need be there is always their avitar to seperate them out (if they have one)
I think that adding another icon ar colour change would just add to the clutter that is already on the page.

If you are determined to read the OP's posts only, there is a facility for seperating them out already, just go to the forum board concerned and when you have identified the thread required, click on the number of posts in the right hand column and you will get a list of members that have posted in that particular thread, you then click on the OP's number and you will get a list of all their posts in that thread.

Mandelbrot

davetrousers wrote: »

OK shameless bump after (16 months)

I was reading a long thread and wanted to scan through it to see what had happened (to the OP) and wasn't too bothered about other responses so once again I thought that an icon, symbol or use of colour should be used to more easily identify the OP.

davetrousers,
I think you have every reason to bump this. (after 16 months )

It was a reasonable suggestion.
custardy demonstrated that it was already being done on another forum (might be using different underlying software, but functionality tends to be copied).

And finally Webby himself - the head honcho (with apols to ML) - responded that :

MSE_Webmaster wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion davetrousers, we've actually been looking into a way to highlight the original post(er) and we've been toying with reproducing the original post at the top of each page for easy reference.
However, I quite like the idea of highlighting their subsequent posts too so I'll take that into account when I sit down with the Devs on this.
Cheers,
Webby

So why the delay?

Have to agree with BeenieCat though. Don't like the idea of reproducing the whole of the original post at the top of each page. What if the original post had been 200 lines long? Beenie's suggestion was much more practical.

ETA (on seeing my post ): They already highlight the background in blue for quoted sections, so there would need to be a suitable choice of colour for highlighting the OP that wouldn't jar with that.

JDPower

This was, and still is, a great idea. I've seen it used on other forums and it's a huge help, especially on long posts.

Mandelbrot wrote: »

They already highlight the background in blue for quoted sections, so there would need to be a suitable choice of colour for highlighting the OP that wouldn't jar with that.

The other forum I use that does this simply uses a different colour background for the left section of the post where the username, avatar etc is. There isn't much choice if site colours are to be stuck to, can only really be blue or darker green (the latter of which I don't think would be a good idea as it might make it look like a more official post/user). Having said that the other forum I mentioned has a blue colour scheme yet uses orange for the OP post highlight and it doesn't look nearly as out of place as you might think.

custardy

custardy wrote: »

we have this on a site i am a moderator, in the blogging section
so the OP's posts have a different coloured background in their posts



so blue is the OP

I should update this
we now have this over the whole site

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Hi Folks

Have just asked Webby to have another look.

Former_MSE_Webmaster

Hi folks,

I'll be honest and say that we had more pressing issues at the time and I forgot all about this until the Forum Manager came over and pointed out that you had resurrected this thread. Nothing wrong with bumping an old query like this one I guess.

It's still a good idea and we have more resources for the Forum these days so the Devs are getting their heads together on this now. We hope to have something to test pretty soon and when we do, we'll post it here.


Webby