Forums - would "sticky posts/threads" be possible

Meaning a post/thread that always stay on top.

Reason for this request is that many forums have alot of useful threads which answer frequently asked questions within that specific forum but may not be found easily with the search function as they might be buried under many hits of the search term.

Proposal 1: Have the ability to make these useful threads sticky to the top on request to DG (but this may clutter up the top if there are many useful ones :)

Proposal 2: Volunteer(s) within a forum can create/maintain an index page which stays on top and contains explained quick hyper links to these threads (FAQ index)

A little kicker: sometimes threads are very long and the useful information is not on top. Can a link be made in such a way that it jumps right away to the useful posts within the thread???

Just another challenge :)

Milan

Dave, that's what I had in mind for the Events Forum... the ability to stick on top of either Watched Threads, or on top in General Forums list.

My book forum does that, with a thread of useful links.

Along a similar vein....at one time, we tried thread-rating (where you could rate a thread's usefulness.) That didn't last long, for a variety of reasons. But I wonder if it might be good to take another stab at it - allow people to give their most favorite threads a "gold star" so to speak. Those threads that "win" the popular vote could be somehow accessed as "voted most favorite" threads. This might be a good way to keep the Classic Threads forum fresh and updated. (On the flip side, I can't see where allowing people to "pan" a bad thread would be a good thing, so it probably only needs to be a positive rating/no rating choice.)

In addition to the technical feasibility issues, I can see where threads probably need to have earned some staying power to be rated "user faves" so maybe a thread isn't rate-able unless/until it has been around a while. And we should probably somehow preclude someone from voting for their own threads, although a vote of one doesn't carry a WHOLE lot of weight relative to the the voting bloc of the entire subscriber base.

Maybe this, a Button/hyperlink at the top of each forum that takes you to the sticky threads only of that forum onto a new page. kindof like a subdirectory.

Well, sticky threads has been on the wishlist for a long time now, like, around 4 years. I'll see about expediting that.

dave

Or like you have it in the Identification forum.
a button that says "show sticky threads only"

I have completed the "sticky threads" feature, although it is only available to admins to cause threads to be sticky.

If you ever want a thread to be made sticky, please click on "Contact Us" in the footer here and let us know (please include the URL to the thread)

dave

You're the king :)
(though you waited 4 years to do it LOL)

Yes, and the funny thing is the feature only took 15 minutes to make!!!!

Well a little encouragement form others goes a long way sometimes.

Now how about the other item of being able to create a link to a thread which jumps automatically to a specific post within that thread?
I do not see any way of doing that right now but maybe you have again an ace up your sleeve.

When you want info online, you write in a key word, etc., couldnt that work on DG? EX: how to grow and daylilies, IRS, wine spots and cleaning, anything you can imagine actually, right? On another site that I'm on, I'm able to do Keywords so it will take me where my interest is.

Jumping to the middle of a thread is easy (like the Skip to New feature) but the big question is: what makes an interesting stop point in the middle of a thread?

I've just sent a Contact Us email regarding the Garden Angel Quilt Raffle... might be a nice first candidate for the new sticky topic feature. :)

Regards,
Donna

Example

A member has a specific question and I know that it already had been answered in another thread so I would post the link to that thread. Problem is that the thread is like 200 posts long and the answer to that members question is only to be found in/after the 105th post so it would be nice if I can make the link so that it jumps right away down to that post. An (simpler) alternative would be number of post labels on each post within a threadd so that I could quickly see which post it is without counting and then can advise to which post to scroll down to. I can do that right now but have to manually count the posts which is not very efficient.

Just a thought. Something like this has been used at other forums (not gardening related ones) where I have been a moderator. Each forum could have a volunteer moderator (like forum UBERS or something). What that person would volunteer to do is keep up with the threads in that forum and cut/paste and edit those posts that are sticky/FAQ qualifying to a single sticky FAQ thread at the top of that forum. They could also insert notes to see XYZ for additional or related info either in that or in another forum. That eliminates the multiple sticky threads clogging the top as well as the reading 100 intervening posts that might be tween the Q and the A.

Wow, Dave, that was fast! Might be nice to have something indicate that the thread is a sticky topic, perhaps make the New Posts indicator a different color? Just an idea. :)

PanamonCreel,
kinda like a Reply index number?

PvillePlanter, you've read my mind, that is what I had planned in the small devious brain of mine :)
My second request of "skip to links" would allow to not have to copy/paste posts into the sticky thread but instead the sticky thread can then be a FAQ index with link pointing to the answers.
Cooking a big pot of stew here, hope it will not blow into my face LOL

BTW please give a big round of applause to Dave for implementing the "Sticky" feature so quickly and see the example within this forum already


Clap, Clap, Clap to the Dave Meister :)

Dave *IS* amazing... this thread only started up four hours ago! Thanks for listening to us all. :)

I agree the linking would be easier from an automation standpoint. The possible disadvantage to that over cut and paste that I see is that you (well maybe just me) tend to get lost when you are link hoping. I sometimes go so far astray going from one link which leads to another which leads to another and so on an so on, and then if I think...wait...was was that I read 2 minutes ago?, I have to keep backing up a link at a time to get back to it. With the cut/paste edit it would all be together in a logical sequence and you can see or print it all as one continuous stream. It would still have some links for suplimental info or info from a different forum but the reader could still basically straight line from top to bottom without having to (pardon the pun) go round his fist to get to his green thumb. I think it needs some kicking around and thinking through so it doesn't end up being more of a problem than a solution but I like the general concept a lot. My concern is that if the FAQ/Sticky thread for a particular forum is comprised of thing but a list of links, that really just becomes redundant to doing a search. You still have to click around here and there to get to what you may be looking for.

Good job, Dave.

I agree link hopping is not good. What I mean is to have the index with the links and a highlite is given for each link. Nevertheless sometimes a clean-up of a thread will be required via a new & lean thread to make it more viewable/attractive/easier to read.

So, once a post is made sticky, it is that way for everyone? Or can you just make posts sticky for yourself?

No, it's that way for everyone.

dave

ah..gotcha Panamon....we are pretty much saying the same thing then, just differently...which is actually what you said in the first place...lol....duh me!

The pollen must be really clouding my brain today. At the risk of sounding obtuse again, let me ask another clarification if I could. I understood that the proposed benefit of a sticky thread at the top of a forum would be to serve as a summary FAQ for that forum. Did I miss the boat right from the dock on that or did I manage to fall overboard sometime later? After the lightbulb went on for what Panamon Creel was proposing, I looked at the sticky thread for this forum and then then came back and reread most of this thread. Now I'm back to not understanding the purpose and function of a sticky and how that sticky thread is any different than any other thread (in terms of content I mean),

Dave, now if you'd just make a whole forum "sticky"... like Garden Events!

darius...we can do that already....just put it on your favorites list.

Nah, doesn't work quite that way, Pville. The threads are limited to postings by the admins and we edit them often, taking out old events and adding new ones. (You might notice that all the threads there have 3 or fewer posts. All events are supposed to be in the 2-3 posts so members don't have to scroll a lot.)

Edited posts (regardless of Forum) do NOT show up as "New" so that Forum, even with new events added, never shows up as "New".

ok...guess I have missed the boat again. If I put a forum on my favorites list, I thought it would always be listed whenever I went to the home page, whether it had a new post or not. And, conversely if I don't put it on my favorites list, it doesn't show up even if it does have new posts or is a sticky.....no?

Yes, the Forum will show on your Home Page if you have selected it as a Favorite, so you didn't really miss the boat!

However, our particular Forum for Events won't show "New" even if there IS something new (because "new" is only an "edit", not a new post.). Usually it's down near the bottom of forums you are watching, even if we added new events 10 minutes ago. Kind of a glitch in the system that "Edits" don't show as "New".

That's why I'd like Dave to make that entire Forum a "sticky" so it's always at the top so maybe folks will look at it once in a while. It's VERY hard to get DG'ers to understand that this particular forum doesn't follow the rules, and our committee is putting in a lot of time to research and list events.

As things evolve, there may be another alternative to having an events calendar for folks to peruse, but this is what we have now.

this may be a stupid question, but, when you say in your favorite, are you saying our own 'favorite' or DG favorite, and if so, where is it? Duh, guess I'm in outer space.

Hanna1, I was referring to those forums you have selected to watch... the ones that show up on your home page.

I don't think there are any generic DG favorites so you are NOT in outer space!

oh ok then, I'm watching quite a few threads, i love the way they pop up to let me know something is new on it!!!!

Hanna, just do not expect Events to show up as "New" even if there IS something new!

what I meant was add a forum (not just a thread) as a favorite from your preferences from your My Info page. You can check as many forums as you like and they will always show up on your view of the home page whether they have any activity of not. And they are ordered by time stamp of most recent post, not by "New" So if a post was added to one of my favorite forums it would go to the top of my list until a post was added more recently to another forum on my list. The New is based on whether I have viewed that forum since a post was added, not whether it is the most recent posting or not. So for example, Forum A may have a post from 5 minutes ago that I have viewed so the NEW column says NO. But Forum B may have a post from 5 days ago that I haven't viewed, so the NEW column says YES but it is still lower down the list than Forum A.

darius.....I see your concern. There should be a way to flag that an update is available even if it is just an edit. Maybe you could make 1 thread in that forum for just stating the event ABC has been updated and make each of those a separate post in that 1 thread. That would not only bump the forum up based on that post but would keep that particular thread at the top of that forum. Then members could use the skip to new feature in that thread and jump to the post telling them which events have been updated. Seems that would make this forum more like all the others and therefore perhaps easier for people to keep up with the updates since it would then operate just like any of the other forums. Even if it were set up as a sticky forum, people would still have to look through the entire forum to see if anything has been updated if the edits don't show up as "new" or update the time stamp of that post.

Pville, one of the threads' keeper does add a new post that says see update for "xyz" above when she adds events. (US Northern Midwest Events) Eventually that will make for very long threads but it works for now.

Fortunately, there are only a dozen threads in that forum, one each for several regions/international/canadian so all the different areas are easy to see without scrolling.

Dave....back to the sticky as an FAQ for the forum (Panamon's Proposal 2). If you want to try that as a propotype I will volunteer to do it for the Texas Forum. Since that one is new and a prototype forum anyway, it might be a good choice to see if having a sticky summary/FAQ would work and if the benefit outweighs (or at least equals) the effort to keep it up). It would need to be a read only thread (except for the originator/editor) so that it stays an organaized summary and not just another ongoing thread.

Sticky threads - great idea. Thanks, Milan and Dave!