I've already raised the alarm about this at the new site. Here's the problem, as I laid it out over there:
Predictably, Gwen has already jumped in to say just how wonderful she thinks this situation is....Here's a big problem I see with this "hundreds of posts on one page" thing....
When you do a search in order to quote what someone has said, the search feature does not take you directly to the quoted post, only to the thread. This means that you then have to scroll through the entire thread to find the quote.
The combination of these two problems; (all the posts in a thread appearing on a single page and the search feature not linking directly to the post you want to quote) means that as threads grow longer, quoting what a poster has previously said will become a practical impossibility, as one will have to scroll through hundreds of posts to find the quote. (This is already becoming a problem with some of the longer threads)
Personally, I view this as a very serious functional problem. If it becomes impossible to quote what posters have said previously verbatim, (and allow others to follow back to the original quote to make sure the remarks were not taken out of context) it not only seriously hinders honest debate, it plays straight into the hands of the most dishonest players at the expense of the ones with integrity.
The having to scroll through hundreds of posts problem would only be annoyance if the search feature would bring up links to the specific post. Conversely, the search function not going to the specific post would only be an annoyance if there were only 15-20 posts to scroll through to find the one with the quote.
The two problems combined create a situation that is a lot more than an annoyance.
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The combination of all the posts on one page, and the fact that the search feature doesn't link directly to the post being quoted, will have the effect of creating a "Liars Loophole" that will give the most dishonest players here the opportunity to avoid being held accountable for what they say, at the expense of everyone else.
Honest players don't worry about verbatim quotes with links back to the original statement that enable folks to verify the context.
Honest players welcome that.
I'm sure we can expect Steve and editec to chime in with their approval in short order....
I realize the new CSB is still in Beta test (or "shakedown cruise" mode, to use Gar's term) and to be fair to Gar, he hasn't been around the past few days responding to anything, and I just noticed this glitch and posted about it this morning.
But I have to say that if at the end of the day something isn't done about closing The Liars Loophole, it will be a deal breaker for me personally in terms of participating on the new board....
It's frustrating enough to try and have discussions with people who shamelessly lie about what they have said....
It will be impossible if the one mechanism available for holding them accountable has been removed.
