Yuku free message boards

What I want is how it was at ezBoard - there each user him-/herself could choose whether to view the board threaded or in page view. With the set-up of threaded view at ezBoard, there were advantages to me for the way I read the forum - for one thing, I could see by the colour of the links whether I'd read a specific reply or not, and for another, as there were "New Post" icons next to each new reply when using the thread view, I could see both where to go to read the new stuff, and take note of which threads I'd once read but had abandoned. Another advantage to threaded view was that when a shouting match between two individuals erupts, it becomes its own little subthread, and people who want to ignore it can just skip clicking those links. With a page view, I feel compelled to open the page to see if someone else than the people in the shouting match perhaps added something worth my time, and then I can't get out of getting somewhat in touch with the shouting match. Finally, the thread view allows me to more easily see who is replying to who. And if I for some reason wanted to view the threads in page view instead, all I had to do was to click a link.

The threaded view used by Yuku is implemented in a strange fashion, though, which fails to convey these advantages, while it does convey some of the disadvantages of threaded view (including the effect on screen real estate). The by far most annoying part of it, is that it seems individual users can not choose for themselves what format to use - the board owner and moderators has to make the choice for everyone. Another thing is how messages are viewed in threaded Yuku - when clicking on the first message in a thread, one first sees a page with all the messages of the thread shown chronologically, rather than in the thread-context, then a box for writing a quick reply, and then the thread tree. This means that threaded Yuku does not show as clearly who's replying to who, since the display of the messages and the display of the thread tree are out of sync. Last I checked, there were no New Post icons next to new replies, only next to the original post of each thread, so I still have to guess where the new reply is, particularly if I, after reading the thread, have forgotten to go clicking all the links on the thread tree (which can happen, since all the posts are shown at the top when I open the thread).

I am one of those who want threaded view as it was on ezBoard - but threaded Yuku to me offers few or none of the advantages I want from threaded view, and keeps all of the disadvantages. In my view, threaded Yuku as it stands now is not worth the switch, particularly not when it is a choice inflicted on all users by the owner/moderators, rather than an individual preference setting in the user's Accounts Preferences.