Allow thread starter to append opening post

[rushabh]

Hello,

I'm not sure if its covered already, yet am of the thought that this will be an incredibly useful feature to have on Vbulletin. Plus, it could increase traffic too when you consider most readers don't want to screen through 10 pages of a thread to find the posts that matter.

I will use an automotive forum as an example

Current Situation: Review of a car

- 1st post has the car review
- 50 replies (spanning over multiple pages)
- Thread starter comes back with a 10,000 km update on the 4th page
- 50 replies (spanning over multiple pages)
- Thread starter comes back with a 25,000 km update on the 7th page
- 50 replies (spanning over multiple pages)

See what I mean? Basically, the updates to his cars review are lost in a 10 page thread. And unless a guest reader has 1 hour to go through the entire thread, he really won't put in the trouble of screening each page for the updates. High bounce rates.

Suggested Improvement:

The thread starter is given the ability to append / add links to the opening post itself. Thus, the same car review would display as

- Opening post has the car review.
- - - At the bottom of the opening post is a neatly organised link box to his 10000 km & 25000 km updates. Alternatively, the entire posts (containing his updates) may show up below the opening post.

The display will be either

- Opening post has the car review
- - - Links to posts with updates
- Replies
- Replies

OR

- Opening post has the car review
- - - 10000 km update
- - - - 25000 km update
- Replies
- Replies

This way, the important updates are added to the start of the thread itself. Bet that thread view rates + traffic will shoot up as the first page is now providing all the crucial information. Pretty much all that needs to be known about the car. Of course, this may extend to forums on gadgets, computers etc. etc. It will also prove useful in troubleshooting threads, where the solution (otherwise lost in 10 pages) is linked to / added to the opening post itself.

Whadda think?

[Lynne]

If the user is allowed to edit his post, then he can update it with the new news instead of just adding another post about it.

[rushabh]

Dear Lynne,

Thanks for the reply. We prefer not to give users the ability to edit their posts on the forum, some troublemakers can use this in a negative way.