Posted by Gremlin [12.255.181.7 - 12-255-181-7.client.attbi.com] on 12 July 2002 at 03.34.14 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: extensive thread posted by Andy on 12 July 2002 at 03.15.06 ZuluTime:

There's a logic to this format. For one thing, it contains all the posts after the fact. Chatrooms tend to evaporate before much gets worked out.
     The problem with the board isn't actually the board, but the user. In a perfect world, everyone would read a post and reply to that post. Of course, with more than two people, you still get branches; but that's easy enough to follow.
     The problems start when, instead of replying to a given post, a user goes back and replies to an older post. And that happens a lot. And from a programming perspective, there's really no way to prevent it.
     On which note: these don't display alphabetically. Each new post appears directly under the post you reply to, regardless the title. If someone later replies to the same post, the new post is above the older one:

• 1
  • 3
  • 2

Trying to talk to more than one other person in a chatroom, ICQ, or anything but this format simply fails in the end. It's far easier to keep track of everything here.
     Something else you may have noticed by now: each new post is technically a new webpage; you can HREF to them by number [123.html] if it helps.