Nominations for Sticky Topics

[Glenn MacGrady]

Jim, a thread doesn't have to be stickied to be linked and shared. Nor does it have to be stickied to be found with search engines or thread popularity sorting.

I think this well-intentioned sticky idea actually mixes up two different categories of threads.

The first category are threads that we are sure will keep attracting more and more posts. Photo of the Day is the only on-topic thread that deserves to be in this category, in my opinion, although other members may have other nominees that I'm forgetting. While I don't favor stickies at all, I wouldn't object to a couple of these.

The second category are threads that may not attract future posts but are so well-written, or photographed, or videoed, or documented, or otherwise so highly informational that they may be valuable resources for future generations to read, if not to post in. For this category a sort of "Hall of Fame" sub-forum could be set up, and maybe Nokomis Build would be a great candidate for that. I really don't favor this idea, wouldn't vote on nominations, and certainly wouldn't want to administrate the inclusions and exclusions, because we already have too many sub-forums and the number of highly informational threads here is voluminous.

 

[Mihun09]

Along the line of Jim's Nokomis builds, what about Alan due the fact he designs his own hulls, builds it in wood and composites and experiments with carbon gunwales and other such things, then goes out and use the boats to the extreme?

Of course there is also that I build cedar strip canoes but use different techniques, not using staples and securing strips differently. There is no one way to build a canoe.

 

[DaveO]

I appreciate the strong opinions expressed, and that folks are invested in the quality of the site.

Mr. McCrea, I forgot that I had made sticky the “RIP Photos and Memorial” thread. Thanks for pointing that out. I made that thread sticky in lieu of making this topic its own subforum. I hope there will be ongoing posts to to the “RIP Photos and Memorial” thread.

Ms. Mihun09, I made sticky the "Nokomis Build" thread because it has 160 responses and 6,276 views. To be clear, it was not my intention to thereby denigrate other threads. It was also not my intention to endorse build techniques used by Mr. Dodd over other techniques used by you, Mr. Gage, or anybody else.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

DaveO posted:

To be clear, it was not my intention to thereby denigrate other threads. It was also not my intention to endorse build techniques used by Mr. Dodd over other techniques used by you, Mr. Gage, or anybody else.

With all due respect, Dave, I think you miss the point.

What one intends by an action is often irrelevant. The important thing, the potential danger, is the effect of the action.

For example, a leader may not intend his words to cause a particular emotion or belief, but his words may have that effect on the population that hears or reads the words. Or, in a different context, one may not have intended to depress the accelerator while driving unconsciously, but the effect of her unintended action may be that she has broken the speeding law. Lack of intention won't save her in court.

Future readers of a website will have no idea what the subjective mind intent of site administrator was when he stickied a thread, or even know who that administrator was, but the effect of the action inevitably will be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular thread as being more worthy, more true, more valuable, or in someway better than all the other threads on the same subject matter. I don't think such favoritism is the role of a site administrator, especially when the role customarily has been a temporary one, or even of all of the members by majority vote.

Because humans are emotional creatures. Despite protestations to the contrary, we all are suffused by vanity, jealousy, pride and many other emotional sensitivities. "Anointing" someone's thread on subject X over many other members' threads on the same subject will inevitably ruffle feathers, wound pride or otherwise cause hard feelings. It's better to stay away from acts that have these effects, whether intended or not.

Threads will become popular and widely read on their own merits . . . without any artificial boosts by majority votes, much less by minority fiat.

 

[Boreal Birch]

Should be Ms. Milhun09, I believe, not Mr.

 

[DaveO]

Glenn, for all of that, I can only hope that Ms. Mihun09, and Mr. Gage for that matter, two valuable contributors to the site, will take me at my word about my intention.

There is probably some way, unknown to me, for the administrator to search the threads by most responses/or and most views, which is an objective standard. I would be curious as to how the Nokomis Build thread compares.

Anyway, it is pretty much moot. There is not much enthusiasm for threads to be sticky, to say the least.

If anyone still wants to bring a thread to my attention that ranks highly in responses and/or views, I will consider it, but the bar seems set high at this point.

 

[Mihun09]

Should be Ms. Milhun09, I believe, not Mr.

Yes, Ms would be correct, thank you.

One issue with my build thread as well is the failing of Photobucket removed the bulk of photos and two hard drive failures makes them gone forever.

Such is ilfe. Next build I will have all my photos backed up in 3 places.

 

[Robin]

With all due respect, Dave, I think you miss the point.

What one intends by an action is often irrelevant. The important thing, the potential danger, is the effect of the action.

For example, a leader may not intend his words to cause a particular emotion or belief, but his words may have that effect on the population that hears or reads the words. Or, in a different context, one may not have intended to depress the accelerator while driving unconsciously, but the effect of her unintended action may be that she has broken the speeding law. Lack of intention won't save her in court.

Future readers of a website will have no idea what the subjective mind intent of site administrator was when he stickied a thread, or even know who that administrator was, but the effect of the action inevitably will be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular thread as being more worthy, more true, more valuable, or in someway better than all the other threads on the same subject matter. I don't think such favoritism is the role of a site administrator, especially when the role customarily has been a temporary one, or even of all of the members by majority vote.

Because humans are emotional creatures. Despite protestations to the contrary, we all are suffused by vanity, jealousy, pride and many other emotional sensitivities. "Anointing" someone's thread on subject X over many other members' threads on the same subject will inevitably ruffle feathers, wound pride or otherwise cause hard feelings. It's better to stay away from acts that have these effects, whether intended or not.

Threads will become popular and widely read on their own merits . . . without any artificial boosts by majority votes, much less by minority fiat.

Excellent response there Glenn, only thing you left out was "Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury"

 

[memaquay]

I've never been a stickie user, in fact, I always use the Today's post button, and if i want to find something, the search button seems to work pretty good for me. Glenn has done a good job "psychologizing" a certain portion of the population. There are also those of us in the "don't give a crap" section of life, who are generally unbothered by the to-ing and fro-ing of the powers that be, and just carry on drinking beer and cussing. However, Dave's response actually piqued my curiosity, so I went through the Builders threads, looking at post counts. The top three are as follows:

The Light Weight Solo Tripper Build by Cruiser 9, 297
The 20 foot Freighter Canoe by (isn't my face red) Me 8, 169
Another Kite Build by Dogbrain 7, 248

There were several others in the 5 and 6 thousand view category. So I can see if a person was the kind to get his nose out of joint, based on post counts, he might be screaming in capital letters WHERE"S MY STICKIE?!!!

Fortunately, at Canoetripping, I believe most of us don't give a rat's arse about post counts, and are more concerned with the daily dispensation of interesting trip reports, builds, and opinions. It is a community, and if you hang around long enough, you get a sense of each member that contributes, and you will read posts based more on personalities and interests, as opposed to post counts.

So to make a long story short, I think stickies are a waste of time. LOL!

 

[DaveO]

Ms. Mihun09: My apologies. One would think I could remember that after 2265 posts by you.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Mem

In no way am I saying my Nokomis build thread deserves a sticky any more than the rest !!!

I'm very impressed by the detail Cruiser adds to his threads ! His newest Paddle building thread, is amazing ! I would totally nominate his as well as others a sticky !

Again my reason for appreciating the Nokomis build, as a sticky, is the ease of sharing it, in other forums and Face book.

Daily I share something from this site. No doubt bringing new members into our realm. I first met Cruiser over on the Bear Mountain site. I shared this site there.

My purpose is to share my building experiences, with others to their benefit. Not mine ! I have not gained one dime from my sharing.

If you look at the posts I've started ? They are about building canoes. How to cut strips with a Skilsaw, is my most shared thread ! Spring clamp improvement, Bead and Coving strips, and so on.

Paddlin Pitt's Trip reports, are so far above any I've read, He if anyone, deserves a sticky !

OK I'm off the Podium ! All be Well !

Jim

 

[PaddlingPitt]

I wasn’t going to add my opinion, but I’m not doing anything else right now, except waiting for Kathleen’s live-streaming church service to end, after which she comes down to make another beautiful Sunday morning brunch. I have fairly narrow interests regarding topics on this site. Mostly I want to READ about Canadian trips lasting at least two weeks. I am less interested in shorter trips, and much prefer prose to videos. When I first joined, I simply scrolled through Canadian Trip Reports. It was pretty easy to do, and I quickly found Alan Gage’s excellent Wollaston Lake report with over 15,000 views. Didn’t need no sticky to guide me. Scrolling through the forum is a good way to get the lay of the land.

In the beginning, I often clicked on Who’s Online, and then scrolled through the multiple pages. This introduced me to a lot of threads I would never have knowingly searched for. I often read some of them, even though they weren’t Canadian trip reports. I still sometimes do this.

I have to admit that I find the sticky to be intrusive. It’s sort of yelling at me. READ ME. READ ME. READ ME. Hey, I’ll read you if I feel like it. Just leave me alone, already.

Kathleen will be coming down in about 18 minutes. I better go get the tea water on. (By the way, we drink tea on canoe trips. No need for special coffee makers. Pretty dang easy. And we actually like tea!)

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Congratulations, Professor Pitt, for contributing opinons to about three different threads in your last post. You should do more of it here. Those proficient with prose are rare and valuable in the increasingly prosaic FB/Twitterverse.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

DaveO said:

There is probably some way, unknown to me, for the administrator to search the threads by most responses/or and most views, which is an objective standard. I would be curious as to how the Nokomis Build thread compares.

Dave, I just figured out again how to sort threads. Apparently, it can't be done across the entire site. But if you go into any forum, in the top right corner (next to Page) is a drop-down menu called Filter. With that menu, you can sort all the threads in the particular forum in a variety of ways, including number of replies but (darn) not including number of views.

Jim Dodd said:

Again my reason for appreciating the Nokomis build, as a sticky, is the ease of sharing it, in other forums and Face book.

Jim, you have repeated this but I'm confused about what you mean. Unless I'm missing something, making a thread a sticky does not make it more or less shareable. This is the web address of the Nokomis Build thread:

https://www.canoetripping.net/forums...-nokomis-build

You can share this address whether or not the thread is stickied or not.

And I want you to know that I do usually look at all the pictures in build threads, and always drool over yours, and even read some of the words. That's how I know the best way to rip strips is to use a Skilsaw, except for the people who say to use a table saw, jig saw or band saw. I have never owned any electrical saw, but did use a rip saw and crosscut saw in wood shop in 8th grade. That was the extent of my woodworking career, which I actually enjoyed. I envy those who have perfected the hobby and have paid through the nose all my life to buy their products.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Thanks for your kind words, Barrister MacGrady. I have always been conflicted by the word prosaic, which I have sometimes used as an adjective, because it sounds so good, as opposition to poetry. But here is one definition: “having the style or diction of prose; lacking poetic beauty.” Lacking poetic beauty doesn’t sound so good. Another definition is “unromantic, commonplace.” Again, not so good. So now I reject prosaic, in preference of the noun, prose, in opposition to poetry.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Actually, I was more solicitor and professor than barrister in my career, and I stickied "prosaic" in my sentence more for rhyme and alliteration than denotation.

And here I was thinking that PaddlingPitt was spending hundreds of hours trying to fix a hundred year old stove in order to make coffee.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Jim, you have repeated this but I'm confused about what you mean. Unless I'm missing something, making a thread a sticky does not make it more or less shareable. This is the web address of the Nokomis Build thread:

www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/paddlecraft-construction/37923-nokomis-build

You can share this address whether or not the thread is stickied or not.

Glenn, it appears you posted a a broken link.

Try again ! .

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Jim, the site software messes up the address when I try to post it.

Go to the first page of the Nokomis Build thread. Its internet address will be in the address bar of your browser. Copy that address, and you can then paste it on FB or anywhere on the internet as a link to your thread.

Here is a picture of the address in the address bar of my browser:




P.S. I fixed the link to Nokomis Build in my earlier post.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Thanks Glenn.

 

[DaveO]

Glenn, thanks for the tip on sorting, in a particular forum, with the filter function, for number of replies and other parameters. I had looked at the filter function previously, but did not see or appreciate functionality of the parameters.