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Aggregate or Umbrella Forum Topics

An aggregate or umbrella topic is one in which it is intended that more than one improvement suggestion appear. From time to time, members create umbrella topics that are intended to gather together many suggestions for some purpose stated by the author. This has associated with it some disadvantages for the suggesting authors who participate, but a simple method for overcoming them is given.

The disadvantages of posting a suggestion in another’s topic

  1. Linkability - Any suggestion can necessarily only be posted in a reply to the OP (original post) Although it is known that there is a Message ID number associated with every reply, it is not known how to create a link to an individual reply when the number is known. The best that can be done is to say something like, “Re: JoeMember14's post of [date][time] in [link to topic].”[1]
  2. Indexability - A suggestion that is a reply in a topic does not appear on the index page for the category in which the topic exists. Thus readers looking for said topic cannot be aided in finding it by using the category index.
  3. Searchability – A suggestion that is a reply in a topic is, for its author, just another of many replies in the forum that have been made over time. A author typically makes many more replies than he makes topics, so it follows that it is harder to find the suggestion by examining the results of a Show Topics I Participated In search than it is to find it by examining the results of a Show Topics That I Started search (both of which are found at the top of category index pages).
  4. Continuity of Discussion – A suggestion that is worthy of it may generate several replies by members wishing to discuss a particular suggestion (but not other suggestions in the same topic). In such case, a member cannot simply state his position without saying which suggestion he is commenting on; he must reference the particular suggestion’s author, or if he has made more than one, also by the date and time of posting (see 1, above, for the time problem).

The "tease and link" method for posting suggestions in aggregate topics

By simplifying the suggestion to a teaser within the umbrella topic, and then linking to an expanded suggestion in a separate topic to give suggestion details, the following advantages are obtained:

  1. Any forum author at any place in the forum may link to the separate topic.
  2. The separate topic will appear on the appropriate category index page.
  3. The separate topic’s author may be searched by using the easier Search by Author method (found on the Message Forum Categories index page [but not the Forums index pages below it]).
  4. Commenters in the separate topic need not make references to the suggestion, as all replies made will be applicable to the suggestion in the OP.

An example of "tease and link" as typed into a forum message:

Example 1:     I suggest adding the ability to insert images in forum messages. See [L=/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1237&topic=627609]this suggestion[/L].[2]

In order to make a link such as Example 1, you need the topic number. Therefore it follows that you must first create the separate topic, whereupon the system will assign the number. When viewing the separate topic, the URL appears in the address field of your browser. The URL is then highlighted, copied and then pasted into a link in the reply in the umbrella topic. It cannot be done the other way around.

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Notes

  1. The latter statement can be problematic when there are several posts on the same day by the same author. One must take into account that the times on messages appear to the readers of each time zone in the time of that zone. Thus one cannot simply say 2 PM, because when it is 2 PM in one zone, it will be 3 PM in another and so forth, so a specific zone must be referenced and it must be hoped that the reader will do the math. Of course, if there is only a single message in the topic by the specified author on the day in question, this is not a problem.
  2. Typically, there are several parameters in a forum topic’s URL following the question mark to aid in reader navigation; they may all be included in a link, but technically, only the topic number is necessary to reach a topic. See the link guide for the fine points.


Version: 20160910 1:58 PM PST --CampKohler
Backup: 20160910 --CampKohler