Pinned Threads

Are there rather a lot of pinned threads? 7 in General Discussion (which is the whole of the screen-page "above the fold" for me). "What we are doing today" and "Salvias". Even my "Water conservation" thread, which may well be topical in future but probably doesn't deserve a reserved parking space just now?

How about a Pinned (and if you like Locked) topic with links to threads, thus only one pinned topic, but making it easy to find things that are both "Perennially Useful" or "Currently topical"?

I don't think that a thread that people just post links to is helpful - after a while you have to wade through miles of the posts to find anything; I would suggest a thread where the first post is maintained as a current, useful, list. If the thread is not locked then folk could post proposed links, and the Topic Author, or Admin, could update the first post. I'd be very happy to be the Author as I'm quite good at maintaining those sorts of things.

So the first post would become an Index, which could well be very helpful to Newbies to find the best thread(s) on specific topics - Grow Lights for example: discussion comes up periodically, which is fine by me, but there are some great threads out there already; If I did a search probably likewise for Carrots, or Greenhouse construction, or Pond building / repairing, Plant Choices ... in fact making a half decent index could be a lifetime's work!

 

I've got mixed feelings about "Indexes" on a forum. On the one hand, yes, they are a good idea and have a practical purpose; on the other hand, isn't that what the "search" function is for? I've spent a good portion of my time on GC searching certain topics and finding some interesting threads/posts, not all of the posts directly related to what I wanted to know, but threw up some really interesting tidbits nonetheless.

I've seen sites where they introduced indexes but it actually stopped the natural flow of threads because the moment someone asked a question, which may have been addressed before, the replies merely pointed them to the topic in the index. Reminded me of a forum version of automated phones calls

Half the appeal of forums has to be the flow of 'conversations' in threads, otherwise what is the point ... we could all simply "Google".

Maybe I've misunderstood?

 

No you didn't, and those are good points.

 

Fair point Kristen, we do go thru & unpin periodically. I'll do it again soon

 

Sorted.

Just let me know if you need any new tails pinning on the Donkey

 

Thats Nathan, he can't stop fiddling with the Valves

 

Me too!

While I'm here, what's with the Smilies tab at the bottom of posting boxes please?

 

Thats still being tested Sheal, Nathan hasn't found the right Valve for that one yet

 

I think Nathan's got too many valves to play with!