# Several sticky threads in Mac Pro's forum?



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Hey there, what would you guys think of me creating several "Sticky" threads in this forum based on certain topics. These threads would be more moderated to stay on topic and not contain any fluff, but real discussion of meat. Examples of some of the stick threads:

- Adobe CS Products
- Final Cut Pro
- Aperture Thread
- Mac OS X Server, networking
- Storage
- Printing
- MS Office, time management and billing apps
- Mac and iOS development

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Might be an easier way to keep information organized in here.


----------



## screature (May 14, 2007)

ehMax said:


> Hey there, what would you guys think of me creating several "Sticky" threads in this forum based on certain topics. These threads would be more moderated to stay on topic and not contain any fluff, but real discussion of meat. Examples of some of the stick threads:
> 
> - Adobe CS Products
> - Final Cut Pro
> ...


Sounds like a good suggestion to me, off of the top of my head Mr. Mayor.


----------



## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

What about expanding it so its a big more open. Like section for "Print/design" which could cover everything from Adobe CS to Quark, Corel *shudders*, and all things part of the print world/prepress world

Video - final cut, premier all that
Photo - aperture, lightroom
Networking 
Office
etc etc etc.

Seems like it might be more organized that way then trying to pinpoint threads on specific apps.


----------



## jlcinc (Dec 13, 2002)

I think it is a great idea but being a Final Cut user I would prefer separate headings for Final Cut and Adobe products. Not that I have anything against Adobe but I'm not really interested in other video edit software.

John


----------



## MannyP Design (Jun 8, 2000)

I'm not sure about stickies. I don't really have a preference, but I think I like the idea of stickies based on umbrella topics; ie: video, photo, web, print would be a little easier to manage than software specific ones. Maybe?

I don't know…


----------



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Hmm... I think I like the idea of broader topics covering several programs. At least initially, if it got to the point of needing a specific thread for FCP and Photoshop that would be awesome, and we'll do it, cause we can.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2010)

I'm not a fan of the huge run-on posts on a given topic, especially when you're looking for specific help or have specific questions about something ... hate having to dig through pages and pages to see if someone replied to you and getting notifications every time someone replies -- even if it's completely OT or another part of the "sub" discussion and not related to your questions or answers at all. Also way too easy for things to get lost in the shuffle when there are 4 different discussions happening within a single thread.

I don't think single forum threads are the way to tackle this personally ... but that's just my opinion. Sub-forums would be more appropriate ... but that may also not be beneficial ... not really a fan of having tons and tons of forums with a few posts in each. Makes it much harder to find the "new" stuff ... especially given the bug on the forums currently that don't mark things as read unless you navigate them in a very specific way :/ (I posted in the bugs sub-forum about this a while ago but don't think anyone replied)


----------



## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

I agree with mguertin - huge run-on topics can be a real headache when trying to find a solution to a specific issue, especially with Pro apps/systems. If they're to be for general discussion, then fine - but not for troubleshooting.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2010)

John Clay said:


> I agree with mguertin - huge run-on topics can be a real headache when trying to find a solution to a specific issue, especially with Pro apps/systems. If they're to be for general discussion, then fine - but not for troubleshooting.


Inevitably people post questions on specific issues in those types of threads, even if they are meant for general discussion. I find them annoying even for general discussion as well. No one stepping into things are going to wade through 30 pages of discussion on a certain app or group of apps to get "up to speed" before posting in the topic. At least with separate topics they can easily and quickly browse through the topic titles to see what's been discussed.

We only have 30 topics in this forum ... is this really a problem that needs to be dealt with already?


----------



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

Think it'd be neat to try the way another forum I visit does it, which is digitalhome.ca. 
They have stickies on certain topics. In those stickies, the top post by the moderator (Myself) will update that post with links to frequently asked topics and also with summaries of information. 

It's kind of like a Wiki, but not really in a Wiki format, which for some reason I never seem to enjoy. 

Doesn't mean we still can't have individual posts about specific topics. In fact, that might be good, and then use the sticky threads to link to those specific discussions. It just might save us from having certain topics rehashed and started over. 

Thoughts?


----------



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

mguertin said:


> Inevitably people post questions on specific issues in those types of threads, even if they are meant for general discussion. I find them annoying even for general discussion as well. No one stepping into things are going to wade through 30 pages of discussion on a certain app or group of apps to get "up to speed" before posting in the topic. At least with separate topics they can easily and quickly browse through the topic titles to see what's been discussed.
> 
> We only have 30 topics in this forum ... is this really a problem that needs to be dealt with already?


I just got a Cisco 8642 HD PVR from Rogers, and I found the entire sticky thread fascinating and read through the whole thread. 

With vBulletin, you can also do a search within a specific thread as well.


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2010)

What that forum does for me is make me scroll down 1200+ pixels to get to the actual new content. On the UI front people are sticky blind (due to the "read this before posting" types of stickies that once you see you don't look at again), in the same way they are header blind (due to ads being at the top of web pages). They ignore things like this because of years of conditioning. It's also really easy for those types of threads to contain tons of stale information -- i.e. photoshop CS5 will be pretty stale once CS10 is out. Keeping on top of that type of stuff is neither worth the effort nor does it work well with linear type discussions.

Stickies like that might be interesting to someone who wanders in looking for something specific like you did with the PVR, but ... now that you've read that sticky are you going to go back to it every time you visit the forum on the chance that a new post to it might be of interest to you?

It's your forum .. you can do with it what you want .. just sharing my opinions.

If you want to re-invent "foruming" we need a proper semantic network .. i.e. good tagging that actually works. A tag on a thread that says "photoshop" would mean a lot more to my user experience than a stickied thread at the top of a forum that's copied and pasted from other places. I know that it's easier said than done. In the words of MacNutt ... trust me on this one 

Lastly I understand that you can search within a thread with VB but again you end up with fragmented conversations/"threads" within that thread. Answers can be separated by pages with all kinds of other information in between. I personally think a more traditional type forum approach works best ... things that are no longer interesting to people (meaning they don't post to it) slowly filter down and things that are current stay at the top. This holds true even for opinion based or long standing discussions. See any topic here with more than 100 pages that is still on the first couple of pages of topics for verification of that beejacon


----------



## Guest (Nov 19, 2010)

Here's what I would consider an example of what a "regular" forum users sees when they visit the forum you posted the link to ... and by regular I mean someone who visits regularly and wants to follow things that are going on and new. Yes they _might_ be interested in a sticky ... but more probably one of them if any.


----------



## kps (May 4, 2003)

EhMax, I think we should wait for that one big proverbial epic thread and then...."sticky" it. lol

It'll come, trust me.


----------



## ehMax (Feb 17, 2000)

I think you're right mguertin. Let's just let popular threads (Hopefully we get some) stay on top naturally.


----------



## Guest (Nov 20, 2010)

ehMax said:


> I think you're right mguertin. Let's just let popular threads (Hopefully we get some) stay on top naturally.


I think that allowing it to grow "organically" is a good idea 

Hard to say if there will be a lot of popular threads in this forum or not .. lots of hit and run Q/A stuff


----------

