Feedback on Buried Posts

I'm interested in hearing anyone's opinion the matter and receiving input and feedback from ATS management.

I have noticed, and been the victim of, "Last Post Syndrome" - this is the affliction of composing a very well-thought out post and having it be the last post on a page of a fast moving thread. This most often results in that post not being read by anyone following the thread. I propose that all "Last posts" on a page be placed as the first post on the subsequent page as to assure that it is reviewed in the course of discussion.

What are thoughts of our members, moderators and management? Thank you all for weighing in!

I don't know. It's not a bad idea for continuity. However, in fast moving threads, it's a challenge to get read period. It's not only the last post on the page that tends to get missed but also the next to the last one and the one before that, and in some cases entire pages. People who are diligent about reading an entire thread will see all the posts no matter where it is. Those who aren't, well it's their loss.

We already have a way to see all posts in a thread by a particular poster, and someone the other day suggested some additional sorting filters for large threads...like number of stars on a post or number of replies to a post.

Maybe there could be a way to leave a tickie mark on the last post in a thread that you personally have read so that when you go into the thread again you start off where you left off. This might help a lot.

(A bit off topic, but the same theory applies to the Recent Posts page in a way. If a thread scrolls off page 1, chances are it dies a quick death. This is happening more and more often now with volume picking up. It's becoming more of a challenge to both keep up with and find threads you've seen in passing and new ones too. You see two threads you want to read and go into flag or subscribe to one, and by the time you get back the other is gone.

While things like firehose and hot and recent topics help to a degree, things are scrolling off of those faster now too. Maybe if there was more sorting capability by forum or if ATS brought back the ability to "hide" (exclude) certain forums (maybe this is still around and I just haven't found it in the redesign...Favorite Forums in My ATS comes closest but then you miss stuff not in your top forums), it would help. It would be mega cool to be able to click on the icons on the left of recent posts and go directly to that forum instead of having to navigate using the top nav bar (which takes you to this kluge page of forums to further navigate through) to get to a list of all threads in a forum. Make the icon navigate!)

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Thanks for weighing in Lucidity! I really like some of your ideas. I know that when I'm following a thread and have to fall off to take of something, I often lose my place and find myself having to sift through the pages to find out where I left off.

Another suggestion, to built on your thoughts, would be to have the "My ATS" links go directly to your last post to pick up where you left off as opposed to going directly to the first page. Chances are that if it is in "My ATS" it is because you have already participated to a certain point. Returning to that point would be a HUGE benefit and increase the user experience - at least in my own opinion.

reply to post by kozmo

Yes...My ATS does come closest to the place to put it.

But as for the in-thread issue, I'm really warming to the "tickie mark" idea in the thread itself....manually setting your own personal bookmark as to which specific post you were last on in the thread. Automating this could probably be easily done at at least the page level (many other forums have this feature). To the post level would require your involvement.

reply to post by kozmo



I too, have fallen victim to this. It used to bother me a little bit but not so much anymore.

I don't know how many users adhere to the tl;dr thing, but it seems like it's been a problem for a while now, and it's quite annoying. I hate the whole " I didn't read the rest of the thread but I have a question" thing. Really grinds my gears. For example, last night I read a 38 page thread that was started in 2007 and was recently brought back, with sporadic commentary throughout the last four years. The first three or four pages, were pretty much the "meat and potatoes" of the thread, with the other 34 pages consisting of about 90% rehashed questions.

But my answer relative your question is: Don't worry about it. I think a lot of people do actually read whole threads, and if you have a gem in there, it'll be seen.

reply to post by kozmo


Personaly speaking, if I found a post to be out of chronological order, it would throw me entirely. I have learned over the time of my membership to find the last page in a thread, and read backward to the posts I recall from my first actions on a thread, and to use the replies feature in the messege centre to reply to any question or point posed directly in response to my own posts. For those of us who are following the rules, and at least scanning , if not studying closely, EVERY post in a thread, an alteration at this time would be extremely peturbatory to say the least.

reply to post by kozmo


The luck of the draw...luck though is when determination meets opportunity.

Timing of taking advantage of opportunity with determination often being the all important factor.

Concerned this might be a factor in your posts being read.

After typing out and previewing your post in one window, check on where it will be placed on the page by opening a second and seeing the likelihood of how far down it will appear on the bottom.

If it's too close to the bottom wait a moment, grab a snickers bar, make a cup of coffee and hit refresh every couple of moments and when you suddenly spring to the next page, then spring to add your post too it.

Ask not what ATS can do for you, ask what you can do for ATS!

This is weird because I feel like my posts get read more being either the first or the last on a page and mostly ignored if buried in the middle...

Either way sometimes the original OP isn't even read all they way through! There are a ton of people on here who are obviously not reading or following threads and just answering the buzzwords they picked out.

Maybe there should be a way to Anti-Star a post which will allow you to ignore it.

Thanks for the feedback gang! Lot's of thoughtful things to consider...