Open Hub
Open Hub

Forums : Technical Issue Help

Dear Open Hub Users,

We’re excited to announce that we will be moving the Open Hub Forum to https://community.blackduck.com/s/black-duck-open-hub. Beginning immediately, users can head over, register, get technical help and discuss issue pertinent to the Open Hub. Registered users can also subscribe to Open Hub announcements here.


On May 1, 2020, we will be freezing https://www.openhub.net/forums and users will not be able to create new discussions. If you have any questions and concerns, please email us at [email protected]

Sorting of Forum Posts

What is the sorting of forum posts? Is there any sorting at all? I consider this a bit of a bug, or at least a technical issue of sorts, given that

  • there is no indication of a sorting
  • I cannot recognize a sorting based on the data
  • I cannot influence the sorting

At least one of these should be fulfilled to make the forums usable.

Case in point: Currently, on the Open Hub Forum: Technical Issues Help page, I can see a table of forum posts of which I am going to present an excerpt of five consecutive threads:

(Topic / Replies / Views / Last Post)

So, what is this sorted by?

  • Title? That's M - a - D - d - A ... not a sorting that I'd recognize. Neither alphabetically, nor by ASCII (upper and lower case are mixed).
  • Author name? That's K - M - J - P - S ... no.
  • Author last name? That's K - W - R - B ... and the last one doesn't even have a recognizeable last name ... nah.
  • Replies? 0 - 5 - 1 - 1 - 1 ... no, not replies.
  • Views? 1 - 28 - 25 - 114 - 13 ... no, doesn't look like it's sorted by views, either.
  • Last update? 1 day - 5 days - 10 days - 26 days - 22 hours ... it started in such a promising way, but no.
  • Last poster? K - M - d - D - S ... can't be.
  • Last name of last poster? K - W - ... well, same problem as above.
  • Maybe ... post ID? 9853 - 9833 - 9829 - 9795 - 9849 ... so, no.
  • State? Well, these 5 aren't closed, but other threads above and below are closed. Hence, it's not related to state, either.

Fun facts

  • When I start a new thread here, it doesn't appear on the first page, nor on the last page, but somewhere in the middle of page two.
  • In the paginated Technical Issue Help topic list, this thread currently appears in line 7 of page 1, and in line 2 of page 2. When I checked a few hours ago, it appeared on page 2, and on page 3, and on page 4.
  • In the main forums page, when I click Recent Posts, the list I get shows posts from over 3 years ago on page 1. The last page on that list (currently page 2491) shows posts from 5 months ago. Page 3 shows, among others, posts from about 3 years ago, over 2 years ago, over 1 year ago, about 2 years ago, and over 3 years ago. In this order.
  • There's a sticky topic, Project Update Status. (Although its last post is from 7 years ago, it is a somewhat timeless topic.) On most (if not all) other forums I know, sticky topics stick to the top of the list. Not so here! The sticky topic is always somewhere in the middle of the first page. I suppose, on Open Hub, sticky means that it sticks wherever it falls.

What is the sorting order? I feel this is like one of these IQ tests where you have to recognize and continue a series, but I usually do not fail those. This Open Hub one is beyond me, however.

Florian Haag about 9 years ago
 

I have the same issue with forum sorting and would like to know, if and how it will be solved.

Thanks.

Yegor Yefremov about 8 years ago