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Too many sticky threads?

I think this morning I had about 2 iPhone 6 worth of sticky threads. My thumb is a bit lazy in the morning. I only use active threads and I think only ever went to sub forums when needed to post a new thread.

I do find useful seeing old threads come up, but generally not more than once. So would there be a way to mute them until someone replies or they are bumped up?

I agree and was going to write the same thing. For those who use Active threads it is becoming a bit silly.

Last Edited by JasonC at 25 Jan 08:25
EGTK Oxford

I agree. I use the Recently Active Threads page to see new posts and there are currently 10 sticky threads marked bold and red while the threads I’m interested in only get visible after scrolling down.

I am always listening to suggestions

The “problem” we have is that EuroGA has been a big success and has become quite a fast moving forum, with 130k+ posts in 4+ years.

Unlike with most aviation forums, most of these posts are not rubbish.

Threads usually start with a serious and relevant question, which deserves an answer. But many people don’t check the forum daily. Many drop in say every few days. These contributors then miss a lot of postings to which they would otherwise respond.

The issue is made more tricky by some people logging out immediately after they post. This doesn’t serve any purpose whatsoever (it doesn’t deliver any additional “privacy” especially as EuroGA doesn’t publicly reveal who is “online” like so many websites do) but I guess people do it as a habit on the internet. But it means users lose the option to see their unread posts list. As a consequence non-logged-in users miss the majority of posts which they would otherwise be interested in, and this happens even if they check the forum several times a day.

So… currently I have two ways to make stuff “stick around”:

  • promote a thread to one of the banners – example (this is not possible if the 1st post in the thread contains a large graphic)
  • make the thread sticky

and both of these really do work! We are getting far fewer missed questions and we get more participants in discussions.

I try to not have more than 4 threads promoted, because those blocks take up space. I didn’t think the sticky threads were a problem though.

I have now reduced the stickies to just 5 and will try to keep it down to that.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

For what it’s worth, I don’t even visit the main page. I come to the forum via the active threads link. Given the active threads people are probably correlated with more (too! :) ) frequent readers, I could imagine “sticky” threads not behaving like sticky in that section of the forum. You could always bump them once by writing a “bump” at the end of the tread, and then if no one really replies, it would just vanish at the bottom of our screens.

Yes, I could “bump” threads but that assumes I read everything all the time, and set up a “system” keeping track of posts which deserve a reply Also I might have to bump a thread 10 times, which then clutters it.

I will try to keep the stickies to a minimum.

I don’t have an Iphone handy but have just tried Chrome on my Samsung S7 phone, and it takes only a second to scroll through the sticky threads. After that, how much you see of the active threads depends on whether you are logged in or not. If you are not logged in, you get only a fixed number and will miss probably most posts. If you are logged in, then you get a number which is according to the config in your profile.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I don’t have an Iphone handy

BTW, you can use device mode in Chrome’s Developer Tools (included in every installation) on your desktop to test what your site would look and behave like on different devices and screen sizes.

Thanks for bringing down:
I think for logged in people looking at active threads (is it even possible without being logged in), there probably isn’t much value in having a thread go sticky. Or perhaps there could be a little config info.
By using active threads, I pretty much guarantee that I see everything anyway. So if you “bumped” when you put back the thread on sticky (after it being confined to a couple of months of being in backpages), then that would be enough for me to see. (but I problably read much more than 9#% of the users so might have a biased view)

I must actually admit that I never look at the stickies. I use the “Active Threads” as well, but I always scroll right to the first non-sticky thread.

And since we’re nitpicking, the “New” (when there is a new post in a sticky) seems to be in the exact same font as the title of the thread, so it’s harder to spot (I find it requires visual effort instead of the eyes immediately noticing)

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