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(2011-07-09, 03:17 PM)pavemen Wrote: [ -> ]indented views would also require that post merging of consecutive posts be disabled. also, how do you deal with post/thread merging?

The Flat view is a particular case of the threaded view: indent=0, sort by date.

As such, any operational questions (merge/split/etc.) are solved for threaded views with at least the same amount of information preservation as for the flat view. I'd like to emphasize this point, because it's really important in formulating actually smart objections to threaded views.

I'm not sure why you chose the particular example of merging threads, because it shows a weakness of the flat view: after merging two threads, their posts are interspersed and sorted purely by timestamp. Any "reply to" relationship is will only be visible in the quotes (if any). With a threaded view, you get two trees in the list, and it's very clear which reply is to what.

Before:

Thread 1, Post 1 - 8am
Thread 1, Post 2 - 10am
--
Thread 2, Post 1 - 9am
Thread 2, Post 2 - 11am

Flat view merge:

Thread 1, Post 1 - 8am
Thread 2, Post 1 - 9am
Thread 1, Post 2 - 10am
Thread 2, Post 2 - 11am

(i.e. jumble. Try imagining it for large threads).

Threaded view merge:

Thread 1, Post 1 - 8am
|- Thread 1, Post 2 - 10am
Thread 2, Post 1 - 9am
|- Thread 2, Post 2 - 11am

(structure preserved)

Just found a "revolutionary" conversation management system: "Streams and bubbles". I guess Matt will be horrified by this

D: