Dumb ? 4 a vet

What does "Reading a post in flat mode" mean on the Who's Online board?

Is flat mode alike having flat affect?

well.. I'm not being technical tonight... but there's 2 options here on how you view the threads and posts (see your preferences) one is threaded and one is flat... you can check out the difference by clicking on the opposite option which is TABBED on the upper right of your thread line (previous, index, next ------) flat is where each post is shown in full text...

does this help?

Thanks Sky. Why would someone want to know such a thing?

threaded mode for Dumb ? 4 a vet post

try it! can't explain but can link

advantages to threaded mode? not having to see all posts opened therefore if there are posts that you do not wish to read you can avoid them by not clicking on their links. pick and choose if you will.

advantages to flat mode? being able to see all posts (except if one has someone on ignore....then the body of those posts are not visible) in a thread one after the other on a page..........more linear for some.

p.s. NOT a dumb ? at all. the only dumb questions are the ones that never get asked because of fear.

It is a useful option _z. I still don't know why the mode I am using would be of any interest to someone else, not that I'm paranoid (much), just curious. Maybe since it is something that can be revealed it is just because it can be.

It is wonderful to hear your voice, I was beginning to think you hated my cologne.

the viewing window was just changed for the better even , as you used to be able to see WHICH post someone was reading and some ppl would follow others around and post right after them... so we had to have something left to view when we check to see who's online (don't ask me why) Do you think zh might not like your cologne? (oops wrong thread. hehehe)

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Topher said:
What does "Reading a post in flat mode" mean on the Who's Online board?

It is a useful option _z. I still don't know why the mode I am using would be of any interest to someone else, not that I'm paranoid (much), just curious. Maybe since it is something that can be revealed it is just because it can be.

It is wonderful to hear your voice, I was beginning to think you hated my cologne.

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The whole Who's Online feature changed back in October ( Who's Online Has Changed ) so perhaps before the change there was more significance to being able to see where a member was and what they were doing (if they chose those options in their profile). dunno.

didn't really read your question well the first time. then again reading comprehension isn't at an all time high so........meh.

as for your cologne? l'eau du chien humide works well for us it is very similar to the perfume we wear la puanteur de chien. LOL

a happy dog makes for a happier owner. we try so hard to be the person our dog thinks we are. we love her stinkiness and all!

fondly and almost eight weeks of med trials later,
__zh

Safety is always a good thing. The Zenerator, I believe, explained above why she has been laying low for a while.

I appreciate you explaining things Sky.

I'm relieved that you have not found Essence of Water Dog offensive or my lame analogies either. That place, otoh, has a bothersome puanteur all too often. Alas, I am homeless.

I hope that this resurfacing is an indication of beneficial chemistry.

Another advantage to "threaded" mode is that it shows you the messages ordered arranged by reply rather than just by "last posted"... IOW it shows you each message in the "thread" linked to the post that it is replying to. This makes it easier to follow all of the "branches" of the conversation in a long thread. "Flat" just shows them all laid out in one string, in the order (by date and time) posted, without regard to which message was a reply to which particular other message.

Of course this only works properly if people use the proper "reply" button when they post a message. I try always to use the "reply" button for the specific message I am responding to in order to keep the messages linked up properly.

So say for example someone starts a new topic with a question. Other people reply, but during the reply some other related questions come up. People continue answering the original question but others are answering the secondary questions. Reading in "flat" mode, you may read an answer but not know which question it is an answer to, which may render that answer meaningless. Switching to "threaded" mode you can see the answer and which message held the question that it answers.

As to the "Who's Online" page... I think the forum software might treat a page open in "threaded" mode as a different type of event as a page open in "flat" mode. Why it should report them differently may simply be what Topher said, "because it can be." It might be of some use to an administrator working on the software, wanting to know which posts in the database are open or something, but I can't even really think of a specific reason why that would be necessary either (unless you just wanted to see how many people use flat mode vs. threaded) so we're back to "because it can"

I've thought about this question too and didn't ask. Should have its pretty cool in one mode you see all the words to each post and in the opther mode you only see a short list of of posts in that thread. Cool tool for those that can get triggered by certain things.. now they can pick and choose what posts to read without having to see all the others in that same thread. Thanks for asking and thanks to those that took the time to explain how to work this tool.