Topic thread
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A topic thread (or simply "thread" when used in context) is means of grouping messages or postings to a bulletin board, newsgroup, mailing list, hypermail, blog or Internet forum, all relating to a single topic. Generally this is achieved by treating every message other than than the root message in a topic as a reply to a previous message, and indicating, either graphically or by indentation, that this is so. A thread therefore becomes a series of related conversations, with a heirarchical tree view showing how the messages are interconnected, much like a directory structure.
An e-mail client or news client is said to have "threaded topics" if it groups messages on the same topic together for easy reading in this manner.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Threading
Advantages
The advantage of threaded views is that they allow the reader to appreciate quickly the overall structure of a conversation: specifically who is replying to whom. As such it is most useful in situation with extended conversations or debates, such as newsgroups: indeed, for really complex debate, it quickly becomes impossible to follow the argument without some sort of threading system in place.
Another benefit is in the more subtle appreciation of community in threaded systems. As responses have to be made to specific posts, they are also made to specific individuals. Threaded conversations therefore tend to focus the writer on the specific views and personality of the individual being responded to. This occurs less in fora where the latest comment is just inserted into the general pool.
Disadvantages
A disadvantage is an increased level of complication, and threading therefore requires an increased level of comfort and and sophistication on the part of its users. It is therefore not surprising that its takeup has been heaviest in some of the oldest and/or most sophisticated of online users, such as Usenet, CIX or Slashdot. Web chat and comment systems are, by comparison, younger and open to a wider audience, and as such threading is only recently becoming commonplace in such arenas.
Imposing a tree heirarchy also tends to fragment discussion in thread fora: it no longer become possible to post a message responding to or summarising several different previous posts. Instead, every previous post must be responded to individually. It is arguable that this leads to a more confrontational debating style in fora that use threading.
Open thread
An open thread, which at one time was referred to as noodles, can refer to a blog post where readers may comment and discuss any topic that they choose.
Open threads are usually more useful on popular blogs with large amounts of traffic; they are often used when the author of the blog has no subject matter to post on or when there is a lull in posting.
Open threads are also used to break up the monotony of posts on the main pages of blogs. Comments may build up on content-oriented posts; therefore, authors use the open threads so page load times won't be slowed down.
See also
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