Thread drift
As a thread drift refers to a phenomenon that is particularly common in online forums or - boards appears.
Discussions usually run in a forum about a specific topic that is stored in the title of the thread . Normally the discussions only deal with this topic, but thread drift can occur under certain circumstances.
definition
A thread drift is a deviation from the main topic of discussion on a discussion platform, for example on the World Wide Web , on mailing lists or on Usenet .
Thread drift and the users
In some forums or boards, these thread drifts have different reputations. Some see this type of deviation as spam , while others find it quite amusing and happy that the interpersonal comes into its own.
Moderators are often used to prevent or reverse thread drift if this phenomenon is undesirable on the corresponding area of the online discussion platform.
On some online discussion platforms there are also extra areas that are marked as off-topic or spam forum, where thread drift is not prohibited.
Forums and boards
Forums and boards are the most popular online discussion platforms on the World Wide Web . They both have a different structure and are therefore affected differently by thread drift.
Boards are constructed linearly , i. H. There can only be one subsequent reply to a post . That's why you often use quotes to clarify the relationship between individual posts. The posts are literally “hung” on a thread, and there is a fixed order.
If there is now a thread drift, the entire discussion is redirected in the direction of the topic deviation and the original discussion topic is lost.
In contrast to boards, forums are multi-dimensional and a post can have several direct follow-up posts. So this is not a thread, but a kind of tree that can branch out in different ways.
This enables separation from the main topic by simply creating a new "branch" with a secondary topic as a connection to a post on the main topic. The discussion can then pursue both the main topic and the secondary topic (i.e. the thread drift) separately and at the same time. The contextual references are clarified by the hierarchical tree structure .