Sticky threads

[AverageGlabella]

Sticky threads are not always viewed nearly as much as they should be as they normally contain very useful information and benefit the reader most of the time. Only the highest content usually gets made a sticky thread.

Take as an example Hilariousandco's very informative thread which has been sticked: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0

This was posted just over a year ago and has only had 7000 views which means that the majority of members visiting the meta board are ignoring it. When comparing it to a normal post (high quality) like: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4720640.0 which currently has 13.5k views it is obvious that most people are skipping sticky threads for what ever reason. This isn't always the case as some of the sticky threads do have a lot of views but have been posted for a few years. But in other boards stickies seem to be more ignored than the ones in Meta.

Another point about sticky threads is there are many different threads which probably deserve to be stickied and would benefit the community but there simply is too many sticky threads to display at the top of the board.

To solve the first problem we could randomly place sticky threads among the other threads so they are not always on top. These wouldn't get bumped like normal threads but would be randomly placed within the board. This avoids the issue of people ignoring sticky threads because they are at the top and look like advertisements.

To solve the second problem I propose we put other threads in rotation slots which would randomly pick from threads in the queue. You could have 3 random slots and they could pick from 20 different threads which deserve to be stickied. I consider theymos's posts about the new merit requirements and default trust threads important threads which should probably be stickied. There are a bunch of other threads which are escaping my mind right now which provide informative information that the majority of users would find beneficial.

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[TryNinja]

This was posted just over a year ago and has only had 7000 views which means that the majority of members visiting the meta board are ignoring it. When comparing it to a normal post (high quality) like: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4720640.0 which currently has 13.5k views it is obvious that most people are skipping sticky threads for what ever reason. This isn't always the case as some of the sticky threads do have a lot of views but have been posted for a few years. But in other boards stickies seem to be more ignored than the ones in Meta.

I can see a few reasons for this.

In the post from iasenko, there is actually an active discussion happening from time to time. So people check and post in that thread regularly (bumping the views). Meanwhile, hilariousandco post only has to been seen a few times when you are searching for some information. I could read the thread once and get everything. iasenko's thread is still active (the last post was yesterday).

Unless... the view count only increases once per user (which I assume it's not, but I can't confirm for sure).

[AverageGlabella]

I can see a few reasons for this.

In the post from iasenko, there is actually an active discussion happening from time to time. So people check and post in that thread regularly (bumping the views). Meanwhile, hilariousandco post only has to been seen a few times when you are searching for some information. I could read the thread once and get everything. iasenko's thread is still active (the last post was yesterday).

I just tested whether entering and exiting a thread would continue to push the views up but it doesn't. I don't know how it works without being logged in but at least being logged in and exiting and reentering doesn't continue to up the view count. I think it would require a new post in the thread until it allows the same member to count towards another view count.

Yes I probably agree that is partly the case but 7000 views for a thread which is very informative and appears important which was posted just over a year ago is kind of shocking when there are several threads in this board and others which are getting much more views.

[elda34b]

Yes I probably agree that is partly the case but 7000 views for a thread which is very informative and appears important which was posted just over a year ago is kind of shocking when there are several threads in this board and others which are getting much more views.

According to BPIP, there is at least 200k active users in Bitcointalk. If we assume 1 view = 1 user, it means there is less than 5% of users who read that thread. Not so surprising for me, most people are lazy to read or doesn't care about rules.

[TheBeardedBaby]

For your post view to be counted I think your session has to be renewed. I think it takes a few minutes for one session to expire.

[LoyceV]

Another suggestion: It could also help to randomly add sticky threads to Show unread posts since last visit. until the user has read them.

According to BPIP, there is at least 200k active users in Bitcointalk. If we assume 1 view = 1 user, it means there is less than 5% of users who read that thread. Not so surprising for me, most people are lazy to read or doesn't care about rules.

Many of those active users belong to the same users. They won't all read the same thing again (and I have no doubt the spammers won't read it at all).

[TheBeardedBaby]

Better, for those who get posts deleted they should be forced to read the rules before they continue to use the forum.

Like you have to write answers to random question from the rules to continue.

[1miau]

I just tested whether entering and exiting a thread would continue to push the views up but it doesn't. I don't know how it works without being logged in but at least being logged in and exiting and reentering doesn't continue to up the view count. I think it would require a new post in the thread until it allows the same member to count towards another view count.

As far as I know the view count will be renewed if you enter a new topic, leave the new topic and enter the topic again you viewed at first. You can try it with random topics from Meta page 4 or older, I just tried it myself again if it's still calculated like that.

1. enter first topic => view count of the topic will increase +1
2. go back to the meta board overview
3. enter another topic => view count of this topic will increase +1
4. go back to the meta board overview
5. enter first topic again => view count of the first topic will increase again +1 (total +2 since step 1)

When you refresh the meta overview, the updated view count will also be shown in the topic overview.