I am just now noticing something about the new site that is bothering me. I didn't notice it at first, because I was overwhelmed by all the new colors and features. But now that I have started to adjust and learn how things work around here, I couldn't help but notice a new feeling that the forum was giving me. I'm not saying that I didn't notice threads are now in reversed order. But I feel like this changed the way people respond.
In the old Bungie.net, a thread was viewed in chronological order, starting with the OP and first several posts, and progressing towards the newest ones. This required readers to read through most of the posts in order if they wanted to join the conversation at it's current point. This might have been annoying for long threads, sure. But it provided a sense that a conversation was not just taking place, but progressing. It wasn't just a string of responses to the same statement over and over again, but new ideas would be brought into the thread and discussed. It also meant that everybody could be involved in the conversation, and discussion was multi-directional between several users.
However, in Bungie.next, a thread now contains the OP at the top, and the newest replies immediately underneath. With this new layout, there is no incentive for users to read through all of the previous posts. It makes it feel as though you are having a one-on-one conversation with the OP (from the OP's perspective, they are having a multitude of one-on-one conversations) instead of a progressing conversation. Each reply is in response to the same original post, instead of another users response which might contain new information and move the discussion along.
Yes, you can reply to somebody else's comment, and make progress that way. But only two people are likely to respond to a comment. The first is the OP, which results in that one-on-one conversation again, instead of involving everyone. And then there's those who can see your comment as they enter the thread, but your comment will soon be pushed down by newer posts. And with the newer posts up top, no body is going to take the time to read through older replies when they are already at the most recent point of discussion.
Personally, I prefer that progression of discussion that I feel was brought by the old format. I would hope to see in the future a way to organize threads in chronological order from oldest to newest, so that it would bring this feeling back.
Does anybody else feel the same way? Or perhaps you think the opposite, that the new layout progresses a conversation more? Either way, I'd like to see what the community's opinion on the matter is.
I agree, I don't want to keep scrolling for ages all the way to the bottom to see the oldest posts. Some of the larger threads (if we call these threads lol) are just so big it takes way to long to stat from the bottom and try reading upward. If feels uncomfortable to reading that way.