How can a post be moved within the same thread/topic?

For example, I have a post number 4 in a thread that I really need to be post 1...
Is that possible?

Steve

Sorry. It's not possible using internal miniBB tools. Also, even manually it could not be impossible to achieve.

All messages in miniBB have unique numerical auto-incremental IDs assigned to them, and in the thread, they are sorted by these IDs in ascending order. Thus messages in the thread do not have +1 increasing IDs. For example, if you look at this thread, your message ID is 37842, mine is 37844 (this is visible if you mouse over the # link). It is because I replied in the other topic, and there my message's ID was 37843.

So if we would like to move the message up or down within the topic itself, that would mean, we would need to change its ID, so it fits the IDs above or below properly. In most cases, it's not possible, because IDs will be reserved by messages in the other topics. Also, changing the unique / auto-incremental ID manually means truly bad approach, it breaks the core rule of DB's architecture.

Mmm that's sad I wanted to do it too

I'm not sure why it would be needed, but if you could explain it on fingers, I mean some practical case, not theoretical when and why it could be needed, may be there could be just another solution. In my 10+ years practice I didn't met a case when the message from the middle of the topic needs to become first. It's not about the structure/approach of regular forums at all, it's something from the software of another kind, and it needs to be handled differently.

I have thought a bit about this, and have the following solution: instead of moving messages up and down and changing their IDs, there could be much simpler way to swap messages. I.e., let's say, the content of the message #1 will become the content of the message #4 below the page, and the content of the message #4 will become the content of the message #1. So we will actually not change messages order or IDs, but will only swap their content. This is possible.

Oh - Ok.

Would that swap user name and signature details as well?

The reason for the need is that we have a list of people attending an event, but the info about the event is below the list in a later post, when it really needs to be the first post.

See: http://www.7-dna.com/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=6&topic=184

Post #4 should be at the top.

Steve

Yes, but the only question is then - if we talk about the first message, which is the topic's body actually - what member should we consider as the author of the topic?

Hmm, I've checked your case... why not to delete or move the first messages? It seems they are just expired, that's why something from the middle needs to become fresh...

vbulletin, phpbb etc. have one-time options like that; miniBB doesn't need to follow their path ;) Deleting/moving/merging the message is enough I think.. What if first message has file attached or premoderation - other scripts would have to be updated just for that.

I tend to believe it's not for Pre-moderated messages, definitely :) But you're right about the file attachments thing. It also needs extension for this.

So this is not a simple add-on at all, anyway.

Does anyone know if this is possible now. Or how to reverse the order of posts so thatthe first becomes the last?

AlvaroPer
It's not possible now and I doubt it would be possible ever, 'cause it destroys the nature of the forum. But you could set up some topics sorted in descending order, look in the Manual for how to.