# "Original poster" designation



## wildan1

Hi Mike,

Another forum I belong to has just introduced this feature to help track the original poster:



> As part of the continued effort to improve FlyerTalk - including the fixing of reported "bugs" - one visible feature which you may have already seen is the designation of *Original Poster* under the name of a FlyerTalk member. This is to identify who originally launched the discussion which you are reading. It is especially useful in lengthy discussions - such as for trip reports, for example - where readers want to identify who launched the discussion without having to backtrack to the beginning of the discussion. You are welcome to post your thoughts pertaining to this new feature.


...is this an option for WRF? It could help especially with those long discussions and remind readers of the OP's focus.


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## mkellogg

Those threads on Flyer Talk can go on _forever_.

I see a way to implement this if you all think it is a good idea.


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## wildan1

Well, we do have some looooong threads in WRF, too!

I think it would be a great addition.


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## JamesM

I like the idea (and FlyerTalk).


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## Paulfromitaly

mkellogg said:


> I see a way to implement this if you all think it is a good idea.


If it's easy for you to do it, why not! 
I can see a possible problem, though: if someone tags their question on a previous thread, it's likely that most people won't realize there is a new question if the designated OP is still the person who started the thread.


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## Loob

Paul's point is important, I think.  People often seem to ignore newly-added questions, instead adding reponses which go over old ground. I'd definitely see benefit in highlighting a new question, if a way could be found to do it.

I'm finding it difficult, however, to see how giving an explicit "OP" designation to the poster of the first post in a thread would be helpful. Wildan, could you explain?


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## Myridon

Loob said:


> Paul's point is important, I think.  People often seem to ignore newly-added questions, instead adding reponses which go over old ground. I'd definitely see benefit in highlighting a new question, if a way could be found to do it.


Or perhaps making all the posts older than, perhaps, three months obviously different.  I also love the people who join the forum to reply directly to someone who hasn't logged in for 5 years.


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## Paulfromitaly

Myridon said:


> I also love the people who join the forum to reply directly to someone who hasn't logged in for 5 years


Well, since threads are forever I don't see a problem with that, especially if the reply adds further information or amends a previous inaccurate response


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## Myridon

Paulfromitaly said:


> Well, since threads are forever I don't see a problem with that, especially if the reply adds further information or amends a previous inaccurate response


I refer to someone making a direct, personal comment to the poster of an old post.  "Dear Eve, I'm glad you asked this question."  "Dear Adam, I like your answer."
My suggestion still applies to the situation when someone adds a new question to the thread.  Invariably, people start posting comments related to the old part of the thread then other posters reply to those posts instead of to the new question.


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