Software for representation / analysis of internet discussion forums

[Celso Alvarez Cáccamo]

Martin, thanks for the hint.

OK, in most internet forum discussions (not all, I believe) one can reply to a given message within a "thread" (e.g. a debate about a piece of news in a journal). Sometimes this textual (or dialogue structure) link is represented with a right indentation, to distinguish between first-part comments and replies. Other comments are self-selected first-part turns, which may also be replied to, and so on. I'd like to get a graphical representation of these textual and dialogue-structure relationships, by showing the comments (or their numbers) surrounded by geometrical shapes (an oval, a circle) and linking them with lines, preferably horizontally, preferably along a horizontal timeline axis indicating when the comment was made. I guess no software exists that can just capture an entire thread and generate this graphic representation automatically, so I'd like to reproduce the thread structure like this, also representing other intertextual relationships with additional lines (sometimes a comment replies or alludes to two previous ones, or to more), something the page layout in forums doesn't capture. In short, something like a map or flow chart.

Perhaps there's some component or utility in standar database programs that can output such a graphic layout from data such as:

COMMENT # -  TEXT OF COMMENT - AUTHOR  -  TIME OF POSTING - IT REPLIES TO COMMENT(S) #

-celso

Celso Alvarez Cáccamo
lxalvarz at udc.es
=============


A 2013/01/27, às 22:35, Martin Kopf escreveu:

> Dear Celso,
> 
> In not entirely sure I understood what you're looking for.
> But check out Prezi.
> 
> With some creativity you can do lots of interesting stuff
> that might not have to do with presentations at all.
> 
> http://prezi.com/
> 
> Have fun and good luck,
> 
> Martin Kopf
> 
> 
> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>> Datum: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:56:24 +0100
>> Von: "Celso Alvarez Cáccamo" <lxalvarz at UDC.ES>
>> An: DISCOURS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>> Betreff: Software for representation / analysis of internet discussion forums
> 
>> (Apologies for cross-posting)
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I wonder if anyone could recommend an easy to use (preferably free ;-) ;
>> preferably for Mac OS X) software or utility to do graphic representations
>> of comments and mini-dialogues in debates in internet forums, for example in
>> bubble forms and/or flow charts, such as:
>> 
>> COMMENT 1 ------> COMMENT 3
>>            |
>> 	    --------------> COMMENT 7 -------> COMMENT 8
>> 
>> COMMENT 2 ------> COMMENT 5
>> 
>> etc.
>> 
>> The possibility to place comments and themes precisely in a timeline would
>> be good, too. All this can be done manually, of course (with flow-chart or
>> "mental map" utilities), but the idea is to enter the entire comment,
>> enter backward and forward links (and cross-links) and be able to obtain
>> various representations.
>> 
>> My experience with this type of software is NULL, whether for internet
>> debates or for oral dialogue analysis.
>> 
>> Thank you very much,
>> -celso
>> 
>> Celso Alvarez Cáccamo
>> lxalvarz at udc.es
>> =============