We are probably going to 'un-sticky' a lot of threads - YOUR OPINION?

[brenden]

Hey all!

So, when you click "show unread topics" or "show unread VCE topics" etc - the page you see is dominated by orange, dominated by stickies.

For the most part, those stickies are question threads.

Now... the point of a sticky is to keep it at the topic of a child board. I.e., SCIENCE -> CHEMISTRY -> (sticky post) CHEMISTRY RESOURCES.

A Chemistry resource thread never gets posted in so, without a sticky, it would disappear. So we sticky it, so it stays up the top when you go into that board.

Now, Question threads don't have this problem... They are going to stay at the top of a board regardless, because they are so active! And when we sticky so many, we have this weird, ugly blocks of white and orange in the Unread posts page. IMO, most of those threads should be white, with a few key threads having the orange highlighting - otherwise it just defeats the whole purpose.

What do you think?

[Aaron]

Is there a way to remove the stickied threads from the unread list? Or to make them appear as though they aren't stickied in the unread list?

I dunno.... I feel like the 'stickied' threads are important and valued, they have a special place at the top of each board for a reason.

I mean.. it could be argued that the forum games and general chat and all those academically irrelevant threads clog up the unread list too.

That's just my view on it anyway.

[brenden]

Is there a way to remove the stickied threads from the unread list? Or to make them appear as though they aren't stickied in the unread list?

I dunno.... I feel like the 'stickied' threads are important and valued, they have a special place at the top of each board for a reason.

I mean.. it could be argued that the forum games and general chat and all those academically irrelevant threads clog up the unread list too.

That's just my view on it anyway.

Joey is extremely hesitant to write custom code for the SMF side of the forum - he said a better solution would be to migrate away from SMF entirely (hasn't been updated in a few years, will become untenable with WordPress eventually, so on so forth).

I'm not against sticky threads. I WANT them at the top of the board. But for things like question threads, they WILL BE at the top of the boards anyway!

Forum Games and general chat definitely clog, but they aren't visually dominant. You can still look at other threads. IMO, so many stickies is so visually dominant, it's pretty hard to see other non-stickied threads - people asking questions and stuff like that.

[Wales]

It would be nice if you could remove stickied threads from the unread list. Maybe exclude certain posts or something? Stickied threads are amazing though, I like how it's always in that one place and is really useful.

I like the way it is atm I rarely use the last unread function anyway ( honestly I just realised it exists ): ) but I assume others do.

[brenden]

It would be nice if you could remove stickied threads from the unread list. Maybe exclude certain posts or something? Stickied threads are amazing though, I like how it's always in that one place and is really useful.

I like the way it is atm I rarely use the last unread function anyway ( honestly I just realised it exists ): ) but I assume others do.

so how do you even read posts?!

[Aaron]

Joey is extremely hesitant to write custom code for the SMF side of the forum - he said a better solution would be to migrate away from SMF entirely

This would be amazing. Definitely consider it.

(soz for offtopic)

[Wales]

Joey is extremely hesitant to write custom code for the SMF side of the forum - he said a better solution would be to migrate away from SMF entirely (hasn't been updated in a few years, will become untenable with WordPress eventually, so on so forth).

I'm not against sticky threads. I WANT them at the top of the board. But for things like question threads, they WILL BE at the top of the boards anyway!

Forum Games and general chat definitely clog, but they aren't visually dominant. You can still look at other threads. IMO, so many stickies is so visually dominant, it's pretty hard to see other non-stickied threads - people asking questions and stuff like that.

I know they'll be at the top but something about the orange makes it special

Is there any way of rolling this out to specific users? ( Pilot conversion for ya IPT fellas ) I would be more then glad to participate.

[Aaron]

I rarely use the last unread function anyway

Now that I think about it.. I rarely use it either. I just go browsing and use the 'Recent Posts' section where it shows the last 10 and go from there.

[Wales]

so how do you even read posts?!

I just go onto Forums>HSC (leaderboard if I feel like feeling inferior to Jamon ) and browse from there. Idk though, I'm weird

[Wales]

Now that I think about it.. I rarely use it either. I just go browsing and use the 'Recent Posts' section where it shows the last 10 and go from there.

Recent post is really handy. I have a select few forums I usually post at and that's where I go first.

I found this post in the sidebar lol

[miguel_1]

An idea I have is that you put the current Question threads in archive until the study design changes, where people can still access them and read them, but not post on them. Then create an official Question thread created by ATAR Notes which can be replied to in two ways, question and answer. A question reply cannot be upvoted since they are asking a question, the questioner can then mark his question as answered when they get a clear answer, making it have a green tick mark and answer replies must use the question as a quote and can be upvoted for helping the community. On the side can be a bar showing unanswered questions. These questions will expire within 2 weeks if not answered, and the questioner will be notified that they have to repost their question for visibility. Questions that are answered but the questioner is not satisfied with the response can ask for clarification by replying to the answer. Then the person who answered gets notified and can clarify it for the questioner until the questioner marks their question as resolved. When it gets resolved, the clarification requests get added to the main question and the clarifications get added to the answer with quotes of the clarification requests so it isn't messy and hard to follow. Questioners who keep downvoting legitimate answers will be warned and their question will either be deleted or marked as resolved depending on the answer.

Then remove the question threads from showing up in the unread posts since last visit but add an option in the settings to keep them in the unread topics because some people will find that easier.

Example

Questioner:
Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for?

                                                                                             ------------------------

Answerer:

Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for

The H₂ stands for 2 hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom.

                                                                                             ------------------------
When the questioner is happy and understands, s/he then marks her question as resolved giving it a green tick, if s/he isn't they can ask for a clarification.
                                                                                             ------------------------

Questioner:
How is H₂O bonded?

                                                                                             ------------------------

Answerer:

How is H₂O bonded?

The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons

                                                                                             ------------------------
          When the questioner marks it as resolved, the main question gets edited to add the main question 
                                                                                             ------------------------                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 Questioner:                           ✓
Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for?

How is H₂O bonded?

                                                                                             ------------------------
                                                                                The answer gets edited as well
                                                                                             ------------------------
Answerer:

Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for

The H₂ stands for 2 hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom. The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons

How is H₂O bonded?

The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons

                                                                                             ------------------------

PROS
- Question threads remain 'important and valued' and stickied in a way
- People are more likely to ask their questions on the thread rather than create a new thread, thus reducing the clutter.
- Easier for new people
- More organised

CONS
- People currently on ATAR Notes can get confused by the creation of a new thread

Just an idea 

[Joseph41]

^Love your input and thoughts, miguel!

[Wales]

An idea I have is that you put the current Question threads in archive until the study design changes, where people can still access them and read them, but not post on them. Then create an official Question thread created by ATAR Notes which can be replied to in two ways, question and answer. A question reply cannot be upvoted since they are asking a question, the questioner can then mark his question as answered when they get a clear answer, making it have a green tick mark and answer replies must use the question as a quote and can be upvoted for helping the community. On the side can be a bar showing unanswered questions. These questions will expire within 2 weeks if not answered, and the questioner will be notified that they have to repost their question for visibility. Questions that are answered but the questioner is not satisfied with the response can ask for clarification by replying to the answer. Then the person who answered gets notified and can clarify it for the questioner until the questioner marks their question as resolved. When it gets resolved, the clarification requests get added to the main question and the clarifications get added to the answer with quotes of the clarification requests so it isn't messy and hard to follow. Questioners who keep downvoting legitimate answers will be warned and their question will either be deleted or marked as resolved depending on the answer.

Then remove the question threads from showing up in the unread posts since last visit but add an option in the settings to keep them in the unread topics because some people will find that easier.

Example

Questioner:
Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for?

                                                                                             ------------------------

Answerer:The H₂ stands for 2 hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom.

                                                                                             ------------------------
When the questioner is happy and understands, s/he then marks her question as resolved giving it a green tick, if s/he isn't they can ask for a clarification.
                                                                                             ------------------------

Questioner:
How is H₂O bonded?

                                                                                             ------------------------

Answerer:The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons

                                                                                             ------------------------
          When the questioner marks it as resolved, the main question gets edited to add the main question 
                                                                                             ------------------------                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 Questioner:                           ✓
Can someone tell me what H₂O stands for?

How is H₂O bonded?

                                                                                             ------------------------
                                                                                The answer gets edited as well
                                                                                             ------------------------
Answerer:The H₂ stands for 2 hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom. The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons
The atoms are joined by covalent bonding, meaning that they share electrons

                                                                                             ------------------------

PROS
- Question threads remain 'important and valued' and stickied in a way
- People are more likely to ask their questions on the thread rather than create a new thread, thus reducing the clutter.
- Easier for new people
- More organised

CONS
- People currently on ATAR Notes can get confused by the creation of a new thread

Just an idea 

Very interesting for sure.

I do think that it will cut off a lot of discussions though, some questions lead to discussions about that and other questions and if I understood this correctly it would be restricted to a Q and A style thread. Feels a bit restrictive but I can't be sure.

Any chance we can get this run on a smaller scale or specific forum to trial? It would be a lot of effort though :\

[miguel_1]

Very interesting for sure.

I do think that it will cut off a lot of discussions though, some questions lead to discussions about that and other questions and if I understood this correctly it would be restricted to a Q and A style thread. Feels a bit restrictive but I can't be sure.

Any chance we can get this run on a smaller scale or specific forum to trial? It would be a lot of effort though :\

Yeah, was about to delete the entire thing halfway through because I thought it was something thats easy to plan yet hard to implement.
I tried computer programming before, and even something like this would be hard to execute, given the time it would take to fix the bugs to get it to work properly.

Yeah the Q and A style would really be restricting but a few tweaks would fix that. + it would only apply to Question threads, I just find them hard to follow when two or more questions are getting answered at a time.

[Wales]

Yeah, was about to delete the entire thing halfway through because I thought it was something thats easy to plan yet hard to implement.
I tried computer programming before, and even something like this would be hard to execute, given the time it would take to fix the bugs to get it to work properly.

Yeah the Q and A style would really be restricting but a few tweaks would fix that. + it would only apply to Question threads, I just find them hard to follow when two or more questions are getting answered at a time.

Yeah though I wonder if a small scale experiment would be worth conducting with a simple interface etc. Might be good to experiment as AN is looking to possibly change it anyway. I understand to some degree how complicated it will be though.