While trying to figure out if a post was replying to me or another poster, I clicked the "Thread Options" button and then selected "Sort Messages By Threading". I was expecting to see an easy-to-decipher list/tree view, with each post having its own separate clickable link and where it's visibly-obvious who's replying to who.
I was hoping to see something similar to the following picture, made-up as an example:
But unfortunately that's not what I got. Instead, I got the same display as usual except the messages were rearranged but NOT in such a way that it's possible for mere mortals to tell with any certainty who's replying to who.
Is there some way to get just a normal old-fashioned list-view of all posts in a particular thread, like in the picture above? In long threads with many posters, it would help us to be able to follow the thread better.
Obviously one would not want that to be the forum default and that's not what I'm requesting, because it would be irritating (and slow) to have to always open a separate page to see each individual message. But for occasions when it would be helpful to know who a particular poster is replying to, like in my case when I wasn't sure if they were talking to me or someone else, it would be nice to have the option of temporarily switching to a list view.
(Note: I might be using the wrong term - "list view" might not be the correct term for it, but anyway the picture shows what I mean)
Go up one level, to the board listenings and use the 'Board options' menu You can switch between linear view and threaded view.
You can also make this selection your default choice by clicking "My Profile" in the top left section of the page (two lines above the search box) and then selecting the 'preferences' tab.
Caveat: Since 'Linear view' is the global default on this forum, the threading of messages in threaded view is often confusing, as many users don't realize there is a difference in how the reply buttons work when the thread is displayed in linear view.
Perfect! That's exactly the thread-view I was looking for. Thanks Allen_K!
While trying to figure out if a post was replying to me or another poster, I clicked the "Thread Options" button and then selected "Sort Messages By Threading". I was expecting to see an easy-to-decipher list/tree view, with each post having its own separate clickable link and where it's visibly-obvious who's replying to who.
I was hoping to see something similar to the following picture, made-up as an example:
But unfortunately that's not what I got. Instead, I got the same display as usual except the messages were rearranged but NOT in such a way that it's possible for mere mortals to tell with any certainty who's replying to who.
Is there some way to get just a normal old-fashioned list-view of all posts in a particular thread, like in the picture above? In long threads with many posters, it would help us to be able to follow the thread better.
Obviously one would not want that to be the forum default and that's not what I'm requesting, because it would be irritating (and slow) to have to always open a separate page to see each individual message. But for occasions when it would be helpful to know who a particular poster is replying to, like in my case when I wasn't sure if they were talking to me or someone else, it would be nice to have the option of temporarily switching to a list view.
(Note: I might be using the wrong term - "list view" might not be the correct term for it, but anyway the picture shows what I mean)
Instead, I got the same display as usual except the messages were rearranged but NOT in such a way that it's possible for mere mortals 
to tell with any certainty who's replying to who.
You can switch between linear view and threaded view.
That's exactly the thread-view I was looking for. Thanks Allen_K!