There are already sorting options for viewing a thread with posts with X amount of points etc, however I feel it is missing the most important one, sort posts by number of points - so the most recommended posts are shown after the first post in descending order. This way someone can quickly find the 'best answer' to whatever was asked in the first post.

I have already suggested this feature here:



:thumbsup:

I kind of like the idea. I don't think it would be useful in all situations though, so the best way I could see it working is to have resorting options within the thread when viewing it.

Sort by highest reputation
Sort by most recent
etc.

However, that's going to have limited functionality in most cases I think. How many sites do you go to where you want to sort a thread to find the "best answer first"? For Yahoo Answers, or Oreilly's new site, it would work. But for the average forum, would it really have a use?

For any forum where questions are asked then yes, I would say people will very likely want a quick way to find the 'best' (best rated) answer quickly and easily without having to trawl through hundreds of posts.

I would say the same is true for discussions where sometimes, posts can run into thousands.

For some it may be curiosity, but for most I would think they want the best answer fast.

However, that's going to have limited functionality in most cases I think. How many sites do you go to where you want to sort a thread to find the "best answer first"? For Yahoo Answers, or Oreilly's new site, it would work. But for the average forum, would it really have a use?

For me, this falls into the 'really nice to have, but not if it is super hard to do or slows/degrades the forum down' category. Especially if the first post remained on top for reference.

Personally, when using a custom sort option I'd think we should lock the topic into hybrid mode (where the first post is always shown at the top of the page).

I agree, in this instance first post should always remain as the first post.