Message Index Display Configuration

List Styles: A Simple List will display all messages chronologically; that is, in the order in which they were posted. An Alphabetical List will, naturally, arrange messages in alphabetical order by their subject lines. A Threaded List will arrange the index by theads, with responses indented below their parent messages. A Compressed List contains links to each thread, rather than to each individual message, producing a shorter index listing.

Display Styles: The Single Message display style will show the text of only a single message at a time, though each message page will contain links from which responses (or other messages in the thread) may then be accessed. The Guestbook style, if combined with the Alphabetical or Simple List styles, will display the full text of all messages on the index page; otherwise, it will display the full text of all messages in a given thread on a single page.

Sort Orders: Sorting Oldest First will give you a list in which threads (or messages, depending upon your listing preference) are arranged with the oldest at the top of the page and the newest at the bottom. Sorting Newest First will, naturally, do the opposite. The other two options are relevant only to threaded and compressed listings. The Mixed Order arranges primary messages with the newest at the top, thus tending to keep newer threads toward the top of the page, but arranges responses with the newest at the bottom, thus preserving a more "intuitive" threading structure. Finally, the UBB Order will arrange threads by the dates of their last responses, rather than by the dates on which they were started; this guarantees that the threads with the newest messages will always be at the very top of the page, but also means that threads will be constantly "reordering" themselves on the index page.

If you're used to working with forums using Matt Wright's "WWWBoard" script, you'll probably be most comfortable choosing Threaded List, Single Message and Newest First. If you're used to working with forums using "UBB," "EZBoard" or another variation on that same theme, you'll find that choosing Compressed List, Guestbook and UBB Order will provide you with familiar behavior on this forum. And if you're a long-time user of forums utilizing older versions of "WebBBS" with its default settings, you'll probably want to select Threaded List, Single Message and Mixed Order.