Why are forums organized in 'folders' (I'm thinking traditional windows sense here) vs. a database style? What I mean is this: A thread can only be in a single folder. But in a database an item can be in multiple folders if it is applicable to all of them.
This is purely out of curiosity. It always bothers me when I'm searching for at thread I recall, but I don't know which subforum its in - especially as it is relevant to more than one.
Your database analogy isn't very accurate from a technical standpoint. I think what you mean to ask is why can't a thread be associated with multiple "tags" for it's topics and then the forums are organnized loosely by topic so that a thread would apear in each topic for which it's tagged.
There is no single reason why not, and indeed some forum like web pages do just that. In most cases, the specific reason why not is actually that the database the forum runs on was not built to support that.
(not) WilD (Matt) said:Your database analogy isn't very accurate from a technical standpoint. I think what you mean to ask is why can't a thread be associated with multiple "tags" for it's topics and then the forums are organnized loosely by topic so that a thread would apear in each topic for which it's tagged.
There is no single reason why not, and indeed some forum like web pages do just that. In most cases, the specific reason why not is actually that the database the forum runs on was not built to support that.
I'm not sure why my analogy isn't accurate.
In Windows Folders actually contain items and they can only exist on one place.
In a database I use at work, a "Folder" is no more than a collection of links to certain files. Many "Folders" can point to those same files, but there can be no more than one.
But yes, "tags" would be the same way. There were zero subforums but there were "tags" for 20xx challene, General , etc. they could completely replace the functionality of a subforum, only the threads could show everywhere they are relevant.
It's all databases, the difference is in how you define the relationships. As I alluded to, the form web forums take are generally defined by the database that backs them. A database model could be defined in such away that a given thread could belong to multiple forums. No real reason why it can't other than there could be performance and maintenance implications. The devil is in the details, but I think the main reason they aren't set up that way is because most humans who use them don't want them to be.
Edit: Going back to your main point about search functionality, that is a nother design choice by programmers that I have seen handled several different ways. Most forums include built in search functionality to let you chose specifc search parameters that usually include the option to search specific forums, or all of them for key words.
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