NEED TO REMOVE THE 'NEW POST' PINK BUTTON TOP LEFT OF THREADS PLEASE 13 July at 7:43PM edited 13 July at 7:44PM in Site Feedback 13 replies 216 views

Coupon-mad

As above, this is now causing havoc on the parking fines & tickets forum, where people hit 'NEW POST' when reading a sticky thread and don't bother to actually read the thread they are suddenly hijacking.  

There is no need for a NEW POST button at all, surely, given there is the option to 'reply'?

Newbies have no clue how to start a new thread and on the parking fines forum, we need 'one case, one thread' due to the specific dates and case info we need relating to people's court cases.  We regulars do a great job there (unsung 99% win rate in court v all the rogue parking firms ripping people off and court wins are proving easy - so yes I'm singing about it!) but patience is wearing thin with the forum.

duncanthedog

All the New Post button does is bring you down to the reply box.

waamo

duncanthedog said:

All the New Post button does is bring you down to the reply box.

Whilst that is true there remains the problem that it goes straight to the reply box. It isn't obvious you are replying to a thread. The preceding posts are skipped so you could be starting a new thread m.

duncanthedog

waamo said:

duncanthedog said:

All the New Post button does is bring you down to the reply box.

Whilst that is true there remains the problem that it goes straight to the reply box. It isn't obvious you are replying to a thread. The preceding posts are skipped so you could be starting a new thread m.

We all know that newbies can't read so removing the button would still make no difference.
If they can't tell the difference between New Post and New Thread then they are probably beyond help anyway.

Coupon-mad

They could tell the difference with the old forum and this is almost ruining the parking fines forum.  We've just had someone reply on a 2017 thread, which is just pointless.  Why can't the button be replaced by a forum jump to page one?

MSE_Ben_H

That's a good point, @Coupon-mad - We want the button to be a bit clearer so maybe changing to 'Reply' might provide even some clarity.

I'll see what we can do  

pogofish

That could only make things worse - we really don’t need people hijacking old/outdated threads on the parking board as it could see them missed altogether or will not get them the most current help they need. 

MSE_Ben_H

Hi @pogofish
Can you provide any further context on that? Just want to make sure we understand the problem fully.

Interested in digging in to thoughts around 'hijacking' of threads - what you mean by that and how that might cause threads to be missed.

Thanks,
Ben

thingamaBob

MSE_Ben_H said:

Hi @pogofish
Can you provide any further context on that? Just want to make sure we understand the problem fully.

Interested in digging in to thoughts around 'hijacking' of threads - what you mean by that and how that might cause threads to be missed.

Thanks,
Ben

@MSE_Ben_H Re "Hijacking of threads, it is important on the Parking Fines & Tickets Board that each thread only relates to one persons case. If multiple cases are included in one thread it can become very confused with the "experts" trying to give advise to several different people. It needs to be one person, one thread but it quite often happens that a Newbie will come on, see that a thread looks similar to their own problem and they just add their case into that thread, i.e. Hijack that thread for their own problem.

If the current "New Post" button at the top of the thread becomes a "Reply" button, it may well still encourage Newbies to add their post to a thread rather than start their own thread.

Is this button really necessary at all when all it does is to take you directly to the reply box at the bottom of the thread?
I have replied on many threads but have never used this button. I might add, I am not one of the Parking fines experts and most of my replies have been on the Competitions boards but I am aware of how the Parking fines board works and how much of a problem "hijacking" is. 

I must say a word of thanks, Ben, for all the efforts you and the rest of the team are putting in, in these difficult times.

pogofish

MSE_Ben_H said:

Hi @pogofish
Can you provide any further context on that? Just want to make sure we understand the problem fully.

Interested in digging in to thoughts around 'hijacking' of threads - what you mean by that and how that might cause threads to be missed.

Thanks,
Ben

Its more or less what thingamabob says - plus the approach to challenging a private ticket has evolved since POFA 2012 came into force and will continue to do so, so new posters hijacking old threads will likely not get the most current advice and people seeing an old thread will likely (and rightly) assume that the advice already given has been taken an not go through it all over again. So the new poster won’t get the sort of and quality of help that their own thread would attract.

However, what it could do better is to direct the new poster to read the Newbies Sticky, which in all cases would help inform them effectively and lay-out the basic framework of a challenge, which would then largely (ovbs exceptions for folk with language/reading/other issues if course) help make their individual threads far more productive  - because far too many have clearly not done anything to help themselves by reading it before posting.

DoaM

pogofish said:

However, what it could do better is to direct the new poster to read the Newbies Sticky, which in all cases would help inform them effectively and lay-out the basic framework of a challenge, which would then largely (ovbs exceptions for folk with language/reading/other issues if course) help make their individual threads far more productive  - because far too many have clearly not done anything to help themselves by reading it before posting.

Whilst that would be ideal I think it would be problematic to implement uniquely in the Parking board. C-m's suggestion of making it a forum jump to page 1 (of the thread listings) would be something that could work for all boards.

(Edit: corrected typo)