Some years back I petitioned the board to increase the default number of threads in GQ from 50 to 150. I think it worked out well, though some users of mobile devices preferred the older defaults.
Today, 37 threads are visible in General Questions (GQ) with the default 2 day window. If the default is extended one notch to a one week period, 99 threads are shown. This gives our (smaller) membership more time to review these questions.
Comments on Cecil’s columns and GQ constitute the core of this message board. The default settings should reflect that.
Counterarguments: I’m guessing most people view this website on mobile devices, as opposed to desktops or laptops. So their feedback is welcome. As noted some years back, I strongly believe that all threads posted to GQ should be up for at least 24 hours. On this matter, my views are softer.
You know you can change the defaults in the User Control Panel, right? If you want to see more or fewer posts per page, or show threads from more than two days ago, have at it. However I don’t think you can make changes for a specific forum like GQ – they are all going to use the same settings.
User CP -> Edit Options -> Thread Display Options -> Default Thread Age Cut Off
The default is “Use Forum Default”. After that it’s a universal setting across all forums. I could set it to one week. And of course, readers can scroll to the bottom of any forum page and reset the thread age cut off on the fly.
My concern though is building the best GQ environment for discussion. Since most people don’t adjust their defaults (with good reason: it makes sense to see what most other people see), we leave it to the mods to specify the settings. I maintain that the best settings vary with amount of activity on the board. GQ discussion would benefit from having threads displayed for longer. Pit and ATMB discussion would not. FWIW, some years ago I demonstrated that user interface does indeed affect board discussion in measurable ways. See link in OP.
So to summarize, it’s not about what I see. It’s about what the board readership sees. It’s about what default specifications best facilitate constructive discussion.
Personally, I have no objection to trying it just to see if the change in views will actually have any effect on the activity in GQ or not. However, this is not something that we have control over at the moderation level.
I sent a message to our admins to see what they think.
I don’t know if the defaults can be specified differently on the mobile skin or not.
Ok, with that in mind, I’ve started a spreadsheet. It has 2 rows corresponding to yesterday and tomorrow.
If the TPTB are willing, maybe we should wait a week before the change, so we can use a decent baseline.
Qualitatively and anecdotally, there was an issue in 2009 as certain threads fell off the GQ page before receiving adequate attention from the readership. I’m not as convinced that there’s an analogous issue today. I will say that I occasionally clicked on to page 2 back in 2008. Going into the menu and choosing “Past week” somehow takes more effort, so I haven’t found myself doing that FWIW.
In GD, the default “Past 10 days” setting seems to work out, but that’s a different forum.