Usability issue. As discussed in the linked thread "this forum has no hierarchic links line", the structure is only linked at the bottom of the page where it tends not to be noticed or found. My post at http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=107751#p254905 points to several other complaints about this. I sort of understand the reasoning here as the designers are thinking that people want to go back only when they've finished reading a thread. However, this is highly unusual and it makes it easy to feel disoriented. The more standard way is shown at, for example, this thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2090883 - where the location in the directory structure is displayed at the top. Reproducible: Always
A screenshot in 1024x768 mode: http://wstaw.org/m/2012/12/04/plasma-desktopI12209.png The only thing you can see from that topic is just the topic title... and i don't see any space where we could add another breadcrumbs bar. "Usability issue" is questionable here for me, as it is about changing the habit of looking at the bottom instead of the top, not forgetting it won't stay at the top, but scroll with the content. The footerbar is always visible. As for the referenced post in the forum, no, noone expects the visitor to finish reading a topic before going back, and i wonder how that could be related. you can always go back, even without scrolling, no matter where in the topic you are.
Hmm, maybe you're right. For some reason I didn't think the breadcrumb hung there at the bottom of the page with the current forum shown in it - I thought it just had the Board Index and New Post or something. I guess I missed it. I'll see how it works for me.
Closing then. Please reopen if the "new way" simply doesn't work.