unforum

[danteIL]

Thread-moving

[SuperSlug]

Hmmm, yes, very confusing, especially since they were still here earlier this afternoon.

And I'm not sure Timewasters is the best place you have for them, especially since the stated purpose was ARG development.

[Euchre]

If you have posted in said thread, you can merely do a 'vanity search' for your own posts to find where a thread has gone. I suggest clicking your own icon in a post or the Profile link in a post then clicking 'find all posts...' as the easiest way to accomplish this.

[danteIL]

[imbri]

I moved them - perhaps in error, but as they were a series of puzzles and not "general meta discussion" I thought they'd get better traffic with other series of puzzles and whatnots which would add additional viewpoints to the discussion.

I moved this thread as well seeing as it is about the forum administration and not "general meta discussion" which is more about the genre as a whole and not just about how unfiction is managed.

And, I tend to not leave shadows when I move things. My thought being that if we left shadows every time we moved a thread the forums would be insanely difficult to navigate - I moved a handful of threads today and am just one of many mods/admins.

[Euchre]

Actually imbri brings up a good point about the 'shadow threads'. We move threads to encourage and maintain organization on the forums. I am reluctant to leave shadow threads because I don't know of a way to remove the shadow later, after (hopefully) the fans of that thread have found it's new home. Of course if you want to be sure to be able to catch up on a thread, you can watch the topic for replies.

Moving of threads is not meant to 'ditch' players from participating in them.

[danteIL]

um so....

I understand why you might not want to leave shadow threads... That's fine guess. BUT it would still be nice if mods would give people reading a thread some advanced warning about an impending move-- as well as an explanation. It is disconcerting to go somewhere expecting to catch up on a thread only to discover it gone.

I wont even comment on the irony of this thread being moved.

[ScarpeGrosse]

What exactly would qualify as "advanced notice" for you? An admin or mod notices that something is out of place and then needs to post 24 hours in advance that they're going to move it? What if every person reading that thread doesn't see the post in the allotted time frame? Should there be a requirement that the admin/mod private message all readers of said thread? Or perhaps an unrelated thread posted somewhere in administration announcing all pending thread movements? Does that seem excessive and silly to only me?

I apologize that you were inconvenienced, Dante. Allow me to make a couple of suggestions that may prevent this issue for you in the future:

When I follow threads, I either have the thread number available (which doesn't change regardless of moving to other forums), or I use the 'search' function, or the "follow this thread" function at the bottom right of each individual thread, or, 99% of the time, I follow threads using the "View new posts since last visit" function link available at the top right of the forums. These things work because they allow me to follow a specific, static topic, not a constantly changing, mutating forum.

[vpisteve]

Yeah, agree with Scrappy on this. I move threads the way most every other forum I've seen does, without notification, pretty much. I avoid shadow threads as it kind of defeats the purpose of moving it, which is keeping things neat and tidy and organized and....hey! Who edited my post?!

[thebruce]

also agreed. another tip I used to do - bookmark the last page of a thread I'm following that I read. Then no matter where it may be, the link will always go to the thread. It's nice for single-thread topics, also works for forums. It's tedious if you're following one of the 'various' categories with unrelated threads, but even in that case, it's worth either bookmarking significant threads you want, or as mentioned above, 'watch' the thread to be notified of updates. Any way you can get the thread number (as steve said), then you're set for not 'losing' the thread in the forum.

Now, I personally just follow the forum's entire rss feed for new posts, so tracking threads and categories is moot.

[danteIL]

Okay I give up, and take back my request/suggestion. Apparently I read the forums in a much more 'bottom-up' fashion than everybody else, meaning that I rely on browsing through the threads to tell me what I have and haven't read, which is why it really really bothers me when a thread that I expect to find in a certain place no longer exists.

but in the face of overwhelming agreement that this is stoopid, nevermind.

[Giskard]

Erm, a thread was moved, there was no question of it "no longer existing", also, I don't see anyone calling you or your ways of using the forum stupid, so why the drama?

fwiw, I browse the forum pretty much in the same fashion as you do. If I lose track of a thread I was following, a quick search for it usually points out its new location pretty easily. No, this isn't ideal, but I think it's still the best of the available options.

[danteIL]

Oh good lord I was trying to let it drop.

"it really bothers me when a thread that I expect to find in a certain place no longer exists" in that place.

But thanks for the tips. I rather like reading the forums the way I do now, but I will keep these other methods in mind.

[vpisteve]