Excessive sticky threads

Emp_Fab

Currently there are seven announcement threads at the top of Off Topic, which seems a bit mad to me.  Could announcements perhaps be merged into one "announcements" thread ?  I haven't checked all the other sections but I would imagine a tidy-up is overdue.

Kittyfrisk

I say! Steady on now. Next you'll be wanting to get rid of the 'Guitar Show 2018' in the Playing section. 

Funkfingers

Emp_Fab said:

Could announcements perhaps be merged into one "announcements" thread?

The same way that members' simultaneous individual classified listings get arbitrarily either merged or deleted?

Kittyfrisk said:

you'll be wanting to get rid of the 'Guitar Show 2018' in the Playing section. 

… or the song selection Discussion for the 2021 Western Jam gathering in Events.

TTony

There are 9 in the M&M section, including a 2018 Challenge thread which is, arguably, past its best-before date.
@roland ?

The issue is that we all skip past the announcements because so many of them are out of date and have become irrelevant.  Then, when something that needs announcing gets announced, we (collectively) don’t bother to look.

Announcements:  new news that you should be aware of.  Default expiry of 2 weeks.  They then get moved to an index thread of past announcements when they become old news.

Index:  a thread of the useful / reference threads so we can find them easily, without them having to be stickied forever.

?

Roland

Funkfingers said:

The same way that members' simultaneous individual classified listings get arbitrarily either merged or deleted?.

There’s nothing arbitrary about it. This is the biggest moderation role on the forum: dealing with members (generally newcomers) who launch For Sale threads which don’t follow the Classified rules.

Emp_Fab said:

Currently there are seven announcement threads at the top of Off Topic, which seems a bit mad to me.  Could announcements perhaps be merged into one "announcements" thread ?  I haven't checked all the other sections but I would imagine a tidy-up is overdue.

Six of those threads are open for comment. Merging them would prevent readers from following the conversation, and would often lose any reference to which title the comment referred.

TTony said:

The issue is that we all skip past the announcements because so many of them are out of date and have become irrelevant.  Then, when something that needs announcing gets announced, we (collectively) don’t bother to look.

Announcements:  new news that you should be aware of.  Default expiry of 2 weeks.  They then get moved to an index thread of past announcements when they become old news.

That may be how it works for you Tony, and for other daily visitors. We have a large number of members who don’t visit as frequently. 

Emp_Fab

So that's a 'no' then is it ?

Funkfingers

TTony said:

The issue is that we all skip past the announcements because so many of them are out of date and have become irrelevant.  Then, when something that needs announcing gets announced, we (collectively) don’t bother to look.

If the people making the announcements can not be bothered to read them, it is unreasonable to expect anybody else to do so.

Emp_Fab said:

So, that's a 'no', then, is it?

You don't seriously expect anyone to read your comment, let alone reply to it, do you?

#stopthequotes

viz

You can click on the cog next to them and make them act like normal threads. 

digitalscream

@Emp_Fab - I only see four at the top of Off Topic, three of which are also at the top of Recent Discussions. Have you got screenshots?

I've pruned Making & Modding down to five, but the remaining ones are all reasonably relevant.

Not the worst idea to have somewhere for old announcements...could start a new category for that. I'll have a think.

Funkfingers said:

TTony said:

The issue is that we all skip past the announcements because so many of them are out of date and have become irrelevant.  Then, when something that needs announcing gets announced, we (collectively) don’t bother to look.

If the people making the announcements can not be bothered to read them, it is unreasonable to expect anybody else to do so.

You may have forgotten that Tony's retired from the admin team

Teyeplayer

Come on emp, you just want to dominate the top of the off topic threads so it looks like a weekly ‘emps top ten’.

1) What car should I buy?
2) Which car should I buy now?
3) Sunbathing naked after too many ciders.
4) Met a waitress went weak at the knees.
5) Scrotal sagging.
6) Wife needs a car, which one?
7) Buying cars whilst naked after hitting the cider hard.
etc, etc, etc

drofluf

This thread should be stickies for future reference. 

digitalscream

OK, I've figured out the problem - 'twas a bug with de-announcing threads. There's a weird condition in the code which - under some circumstances - would just dismiss it for the current user (even though it'd been edited rather than dismissed).

I've sorted that now, shouldn't happen again.

drofluf

viz said:

You can click on the cog next to them and make them act like normal threads. 

Thanks didn't know that was a feature. Have a wiz.

Jonathangus

viz said:

You can click on the cog next to them and make them act like normal threads. 

Woah.  I never knew that.

EDIT: looks like it works in Recent Discussions only.  But that's still good.

TTony

digitalscream said:

Not the worst idea to have somewhere for old announcements...could start a new category for that. I'll have a think.

Have a stickied (!) thread at the top of each section called "past announcements" (or similar).  That acts as an index to link to past announcements.  Every time you de-sticky something, add a link to that thread to the top of the index list. 

That way the old announcements stay within the relevant section (rather than being all lumped together).

Some announcements - such as the rules - stay stuck forever.  They'd also then become more noticeable.

digitalscream said:

You may have forgotten that Tony's retired from the admin team

That needed a stuck forever sticky

fastonebaz

digitalscream said:

OK, I've figured out the problem - 'twas a bug with de-announcing threads. There's a weird condition in the code which - under some circumstances - would just dismiss it for the current user (even though it'd been edited rather than dismissed).

I've sorted that now, shouldn't happen again.

Yes that's better,  it's gone down to just 3 announcements for me now in recent discussions, from 7 I think. 

Sporky

Naptha is good for removing excess stickiness. 

Emp_Fab

Teyeplayer said:

Come on emp, you just want to dominate the top of the off topic threads so it looks like a weekly ‘emps top ten’.

1) What car should I buy?
2) Which car should I buy now?
3) Sunbathing naked after too many ciders.
4) Met a waitress went weak at the knees.
5) Scrotal sagging.
6) Wife needs a car, which one?
7) Buying cars whilst naked after hitting the cider hard.
etc, etc, etc

Emp_Fab

I'm hurt.  If I'm not wanted, I'll stop posting.

Emp_Fab

Actually - do you know how many threads are mine on the current front page of Off Topic?

None.

Not a single one.

Bitch.

FarleyUK

Teyeplayer said:

Come on emp, you just want to dominate the top of the off topic threads so it looks like a weekly ‘emps top ten’.

1) What car should I buy?
2) Which car should I buy now?
3) Sunbathing naked after too many ciders.
4) Met a waitress went weak at the knees.
5) Scrotal sagging.
6) Wife needs a car, which one?
7) Buying cars whilst naked after hitting the cider hard.
etc, etc, etc

DON'T EVEN JOKE.