Extended Opening Post feature

I have seen many threads where authors have made long opening posts that extend beyond the per-page character limit. This means they end up with an opening post extending two or more pages. Quite a lot of the time, other members seem to reply before they are finished and the author suffers an interruption to their post. This is frustrating for members that are intrigued by this wealth of information and who want to read it all in sequence.

I suggest ATS implement an Extended Opening Post feature that gives the author the option to suspend replies until their OP is finished. This will also allow the author time to edit spelling/grammar errors and clarify anything they wish to edit. Overall, this will make browsing and reading through threads much easier and efficient.

(I realise there is a "preview" feature, but it does not always work properly when you decide to edit a previous preview.)

I am not suggesting people can make threads where replies are disallowed, rather that the author be given time to improve their opening posts so that it is not interrupted by other members. Opening posts are critical to the longevity and prosperity of most types of threads.

Some measures could include:
- clear indication that replies in the thread are temporarily suspended until OP is done
- time limit on how long author can disable replies (~4 hours from initial post)

Does anybody else feel this feature might be beneficial to the ATS forum?

[edit on 24/6/2010 by Dark Ghost]

Just use word to make up a thread. save it and transfer it into a post window and save it a again on a new page. The thread will be done and you can copy paste the next part into the window and reply almost instantly.


That is what I do.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


Yeah if its going to be long do it in word, theres nothing more frustrating than loosing the whole lot, if you wanna see that all your bb code is going to look right then copy and paste then just preview it in a random reply. Save the whole lot in word then when it comes time to post it up you'll be too quick for people to get in because there is enough of a delay before it pops up in the firehose.

[edit on 25-6-2010 by polarwarrior]

There's another approach I've seen people use.
After posting the first page, they then "reserve" a couple of pages with brief "holding" statements, and then have more time to edit those pages into full posts without the danger that other people will interrupt the sequence. It seems to work well for them.

Those are good suggestions guys, thanks.

To those of you that do not have Microsoft Office, I suggest you use Open Office (which is open source software). The word processor is decent and you can download additional language dictionaries at the website if you like.

For those that have not heard of it, here is the link:
Open Office

[edit on 25/6/2010 by Dark Ghost]

I've have used both of the above mentioned suggestions. Also many members are respectful when the OP simply states at the bottom of their first opening part something similar to....

End of part one

or

Continued on next page

etc