Loomio

Forking topics

DS Danyl Strype Public Seen by 160

Could a discussion which starts to go off on a useful tangent, or cover too wide a topic area, be forked into multiple discussions?

DS

Danyl Strype Sat 8 Dec 2012 12:07AM

In one of my groups there is a person who doesn't really understand the tool yet, and will post lengthy off-topic rants on whichever discussion thread is most active. These rants are often good discussion starter, they're just out of place.

* I'd love to be able to select a comment, and click a button which removes that comment from the discussion, and starts a new discussion, with that comment as the first post (and leaves a note and link to that effect).
* I'd love to have the option of doing this with a selected part of a comment (eg part of the comment is on-topic, and another part is good starter for another discussion)
* I'd love to be able to choose whether the comment (or fragment) is removed from the original discussion, or left there and cloned into the new discussion (in case it's relevant to both). This one is less important though.

JL

Jon Lemmon Sat 8 Dec 2012 1:10AM

Yeah, people have been talking about this for a while now. It definitely seems like some of the discussions are getting a bit unwieldy and could benefit from something like this. The main issue I see with forking/branching discussions is that if it's used improperly it could potentially cause more harm than good (a whole bunch of scattered conversations everywhere without necessary group focus).

Anyway, @strypey are you keen try making some mock-ups for what you imagine this feature might look like? I've just added you to our balsamiq account. Balsamiq is what we use for quickly mocking up feature ideas. It's super fast/simple and is really useful for getting the group to engage with ideas for upcoming features.

DS

Danyl Strype Sat 8 Dec 2012 1:33AM

Maybe one way to avoid the fragmentation in large groups would be to limit the forking power to admins (and maybe in larger groups, topic-minders empowered by the admins?)

Thanks for the invite, I will check out Balsamiq. However, I don't think this would be visually complicated. I envision a button with fork logo on it, visible only to admins (and topic-minders), which appears next to every comment. The process would be:
1) Admin clicks the Fork button, which open a new discussion page, with the forked comment in the context field.
2) The admin adds a title.
3) The admin clicks a tick box if they want to remove the comment from the original discussion (and the 'email group members' tick box if appropriate)
4) Admin clicks 'Start discussion'
5) The new discussion is created
6) A note like "this comment has been forked into a new discussion called 'Foo'" is inserted into the original discussion where the forked comment was (or still is), and linked to the new discussion

DS

Danyl Strype Sat 8 Dec 2012 1:40AM

@jonlemmon
I'd also like to have another button - again maybe on visible to admins - which allows a comment to be linked to an existing discussion which is relevant to it. Maybe with a knot logo on it? The process would be:
1) Admin clicks the Link button
2) A data field opens up for the admin to paste the link or title of the relevant discussion into
3) Admin clicks a 'Link Comment' button under that data field
4) A linked note is added, similar to the fork note, "The Foo discussion contains information relevant to this comment"

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Sat 8 Dec 2012 6:08AM

Sounds good. Just wanted to +1 the idea of doing a mockup. In my experience the act of drawing the feature always changes the design of the feature, regardless of how small it is.

JL

Jon Lemmon Sat 8 Dec 2012 11:56PM

@strypey regarding mock-ups... it's not about the visual complication of the feature, it's the fact that mock-ups are inherently a way better language to use to discuss features than text alone. With balsamiq, anyone can easily propose alternate versions, move things around, rename stuff... and just get a general overall feel for the feature and the various possibilities.

It's also a way of progressing the feature forward into the next stage of development (design). Anyway, point being, if you post a mock-up you'll get better engagement from the group around the idea, and it will be easier for the feature to progress into the next stages of development.

DS

Danyl Strype Sun 9 Dec 2012 11:03AM

@jonlemmon
Fair 'nuff. Done and done.

JL

Jon Lemmon Sun 9 Dec 2012 9:44PM

Sweet. Cheers for that.

@strypey's mockup is here:
https://loomio.mybalsamiq.com/projects/forks/grid

JM

James McCann Mon 10 Dec 2012 6:34AM

These look really good.

Just adding a few comments - I like the idea of linking the discussions as Strypey proposed. Does the comment become duplicated into each discussion? E.g. a new comment is added to the 'link discussion' saying "Comment linked from XXX...' etc?

N

naught101 Wed 11 Mar 2015 1:58AM

Is there any way to view those balsamiq mockups without having to log in?

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