2009/5/30 Anthony <wikim...@inbox.org>: > A: "What's your favorite color?" > B: "I like red" > C: "I like green" > D: "Red and green? Are you nuts? Blue is the best color of all?" > A: I agree with B, red is definitely the nicest color. > C: But isn't the wavelength of green so much more asthetically pleasing? > > How do you form a tree out of that?
The 2nd and 3rd lines are each replies to the 1st. The 4th is a reply to both the 2nd and 3rd, so breaks the tree somewhat (no system is perfect) - you have to choose between simplicity and completeness, you could implement it as a full graph, rather than just a tree, but at the expensive of an intuitive and elegant UI. The 5th line is a reply to the 2nd, and the 6th is difficult to work out without knowing the non-verbal communication that was going along at the same time, it could be a question aimed at a specific person, or it could be a question to the floor (which doesn't fit into the tree structure) - the lack of non-verbal cues is why things need to be made explicit online. Conversations that take place in real time (particularly face-to-face, to a lesser extent on things like IRC) don't tend to follow a tree structure as closely as conversations with a wait before responses. In a face-to-face conversation, you can't have two people saying something at the same time, or someone saying something before they are up-to-date with the whole conversation. Those things happen all the time with email conversations, or conversations on web forums, which is why seeing the conversation as a tree, rather than a linear progression (which it simply isn't), is helpful. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
