#1

When I’m doing a deep dive on a topic, I like to post interesting studies which others might also appreciate. Sometimes that results in my posting consecutively multiple times in a thread. However, the forum software stops me from posting more than like three posts in a row or so, and announces that I must wait for a response from someone before I can post again in a thread. But while people might favorite a post they don’t necessarily respond with a post in turn, and then the whole thread gets stuck.

I suppose that this is likely to prevent spamming or perhaps for some other reasons. Spamming is bad, but I would hope that posting legitimate studies is not regarded as spamming!

I have run into this problem most recently in the Pioglitazone thread. I’m doing a deep dive on this drug and have many interesting studies I think would be of use to others. However I am prevented from doing so. I don’t want to start new threads just to post about this drug, I think it’s better to keep them all in one place. I certainly am not interested in spamming!

Perhaps I’m not using the posting function correctly, or there is some other way of accomplishing the same goal.

Of course if that’s just the way it is, and this is working as desired, I am happy to accept this limitation, no problem. But in case there’s a solution I’m unaware of, I figured I’d ask here.:person_shrugging:

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#2

It’s probably designed in a way to encourage to edit previous post and add the new information there, to not repeat redundant information of who the poster was.

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#3

I at times encounter a similar issue for similar reasons. Sometimes the best approach is to add new information by editing your last post, however.

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#4

But won’t that result in an unwieldy long post if, say, you end up having to post 20 studies over weeks? I know that if a post is too long it can be problematic on mobile devices like a phone, it won’t load/open or scroll smoothly. I thought it would be more convenient for readers to be able to access individual posts with just 2-3 studies in it at most. Plus, I find studies over time. That means going in, over weeks, editing the same post, repeatedly, that a reader assumes they’ve already read.

Of course if that’s the workaround, fine. I was just looking for what’s optimal for the readers too.

#5

If it’s the latest post that’s being edited then it will bump the thread, so people can notice new activity.

With regards to your other questions, I don’t know.

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#6

FWIW, threads with a lot of responses can be hard to read because it takes so long to scroll down to the latest posts. As a reader, I would prefer fewer & longer posts to more & shorter ones.

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#7

Create an other id and use that to post the extra.

#8

Creating another ID sounds somehow dishonest, lol😇

@Elizabeth_Kirby - the way it works for me, is that the software accounts for the posts that I’ve already read, so when I open a thread, it opens on the first unread post in that thread, so there never is a problem of having to scroll down to the post I have not read yet.

So I never considered this issue - otherwise how would anyone ever read new posts on one of those threads that have hundreds or thousands of posts - it’s not like it always opens on the first post of a thread and you have to scroll down past all the posts you’ve read previously to locate the first unread post, unless it’s a thread you’ve never opened before. And if I’m reviewing an old thread I’ve read before, I use the side scroll bar to navigate rapidly one of those very long threads (like the cardiovascular health one).

If the software doesn’t automatically take you to the first unread new post, you might have to change your settings or cookie policy.

Anyhow, it sounds like the consensus is to just keep editing the last post and adding material, regardless of the length of the resulting post, although it seems it would make it harder for someone to respond to one particular study, because you can’t just hit the “reply” button for that post, as that responds to the whole post which now has 20+ studies - you now have to make a separate indication as to which particular study you are responding to, by for example select quoting that segment instead of just hitting “reply” to that post.

This feature of the forum software seems suboptimal to me, but hey, I’ll roll with the punches, no biggie.

#9

Just sharing if someone highlights the one study they are responding to in your post of 20 studies, it will include it in their response, just like I did here. I don’t know if there is a better way to do it?

I have wondered if you edit your post, if when I see there is new activity in that thread, does it take me to that edited post again, or just to the latest post that was completely unread ?

#10

As indicated by AnUser, any post that’s edited will automatically bump it up for you to read.

And yes, you can highlight a passage in your response, but my point is that that’s an extra step, additional burden, having to select a passage, instead of just hitting “reply” to a particular post that just contains only the study you are responding to, so it’s already clear what you are addressing without you having to select and qoute it.

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#11

A tangential question (perhaps for @RapAdmin): Is there a description somewhere of how to navigate this software, where what is possible, what is not is stated explicitly?

#12

Yes - that is a modifiable setting in the software. Its there to protect us from spammers; but we don’t seem to have that as a major problem here (people are helpful and flag things when they are spam and I delete them quickly) - so I’ve bumped up the limit to 6 consecutive posts. Let me know how that goes.

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#13

Here is some documentation on the software:

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#14

I used to encounter similar issue of scrolling.down a rather long thread but then I realized that at the bottom there is a smaller box for superfast scrolling which alleviated that issue

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#15

I would prefer shorter posts and to the point. Editing your previous post with new info is a great idea. Some really post too lengthy and too often just to vent.

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#16

“so I’ve bumped up the limit to 6 consecutive posts”

Limiting it to 3 is already generous.

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#17

The forum favors the terse over the loquacious.

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#18

Sure, but that can be far from the end. :grinning:

Someone pointed out that the bar at the right is active, so I can just jump to the end by clicking the end of it. Thanks for saying that, I hadn’t noticed it.

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