alistair_uk Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 I don’t want to take anything away from people who have passed a significant landmark and I am certain it feels good to have your pears congratulating you, but I think we need to stop this. The problem now is that we appear to be getting so many, and by the summer we will be overrun with them. Tonight it feels like half the most recent topics are congratulation threads and in reality it is not far off that. One suggestion I have is to set up a site to log your congratulations and lock any congratulation topic to stop it from floating at the top of the list. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment
+CrazyL200 Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 (edited) Why not stick to using the pinned topic at the top of the page. Moderators ?? Edited April 19, 2006 by CrazyL200 Quote Link to comment
+John Stead Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 One suggestion I have is to set up a site to log your congratulations and lock any congratulation topic to stop it from floating at the top of the list. Any thoughts? Exactly what I proposed some time ago - this is a perennial topic. If people want to add to the congratulation they can do so in the pinned thread. Quote Link to comment
+Birdman-of-liskatraz Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 The way things are going - there will soon be more threads complaining about Congratulation threads, then there are Congratulation threads in the first place. And I have to say - they don't bother me.. If I don't know the cacher then I don't read it. Quote Link to comment
+perth pathfinders Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 (edited) Not sure what the answer is. The thing I don't like with the Pinned Thread, is that you don't see the cachers name, and I'm sure not all of us check that thread all the time. It does seem at the moment that there are lots of Congrats. threads, but it is not always the case. And yes like Birdman says, If you don't want to read it, dont! p.s. Congratulations on setting up a Congratulation thread about Congratulations threads! Ooops, will crawl away now. Edited April 19, 2006 by perth pathfinders Quote Link to comment
+Team Maddie UK Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 I would like to echo Birdman and Perth Pathfinders sentiments. Martin Quote Link to comment
+Mr'D Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 There is a problem with the pinned congratulations thread. I want to congratulate cachers who I know, and not so much (although sometimes I do...) cachers that I don't. To do this in the pinned thread, I would have to trawl through maybe pages and pages to find my fellow cacher (who may or may not have a thread started already?). Now, if someone starts a thread in the UK forum with the cacher's name, it's easy to get in there and congratulate, or alternatively skip down to view the next topic. And I have to say - they don't bother me.. If I don't know the cacher then I don't read it. Says it well! Jon Quote Link to comment
+Brenin Tegeingl Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Well I must be the lucky one not a single congrats thread on the first page. The solutions simple, use Firefox with the Ignore threads Script. And just ignore those you don't want to post in, post in those you do and then click on the ignore button. Keeps things nice and simple Dave Quote Link to comment
+Us 4 and Jess Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 stop being so grumpy if you dont want to read them dont read them!! but its nice to have something to be happy about after all the doom and gloom and arguing we get in here i never post in the pinned topic because its very impersonal and your thread gets lost in the crowd if i know the person i read the thread and congratulate them if i dont i skim over it M Quote Link to comment
+macroderma Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 No one has ever offered me congratulations .... ons Quote Link to comment
The Royles Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 No one has ever offered me congratulations .... ons Well done on never being congratulated, a wonderful achievment well worth celebrating. Quote Link to comment
Deego Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 No one has ever offered me congratulations .... ons Well done on never being congratulated, a wonderful achievment well worth celebrating. apart from here Quote Link to comment
+macroderma Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 No one has ever offered me congratulations .... ons Well done on never being congratulated, a wonderful achievment well worth celebrating. apart from here Gawd, you got me.... jeeez shucks Thankyouverymuch (retires gratefuly] Quote Link to comment
SlytherinAlex Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 There is a problem with the pinned congratulations thread. I want to congratulate cachers who I know, Why not email them?? Quote Link to comment
+wizard1974uk Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 There is a problem with the pinned congratulations thread. I want to congratulate cachers who I know, Why not email them?? So the cacher in question gets flooded with tons of emails? I prefer the individual threads, I'm not going to spend an hour trawling through the pinned thread, so I can find a post to quote. Quote Link to comment
+The Gecko's Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I agree something should be done. I use Firefox and the first thing I need to do when logging on to this forum is start crossing boxes and I now just cross any that mention congratulations. If there were not so many I would probably read and contribute to them again. Why not keep the pinned thread for most announcements and use this forum only for significant achievements such as 100, 500, 1000 etc? Dave - The Gecko's Quote Link to comment
+purple_pineapple Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I agree something should be done. I use Firefox and the first thing I need to do when logging on to this forum is start crossing boxes and I now just cross any that mention congratulations. If there were not so many I would probably read and contribute to them again. Why not keep the pinned thread for most announcements and use this forum only for significant achievements such as 100, 500, 1000 etc? Dave - The Gecko's I'm with Dave here, and many of the above posts. The pinned topic is rather impersonal, so why not keep that for any that want to use it, and ONLY have major milestones as indivisual threads... I would add 200 as well, as that gets entry into the Hall of Fame! so 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 (in my dreams...) Quote Link to comment
+Kitty Hawk Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 One suggestion I have is to set up a site to log your congratulations and lock any congratulation topic to stop it from floating at the top of the list. Any thoughts? Exactly what I proposed some time ago - this is a perennial topic. If people want to add to the congratulation they can do so in the pinned thread. I also suggested this some time back and still think it resolves all the issues, the thread drops down the list and anyone interested can send an e-mail as Slytherin suggests. No one has ever offered me congratulations .... ons Me neither, so I am an active contributer to the absense of congrats threads. Two further points - if it is that offensive, use Firefox and the ignore threads script. Even if you only use Firefox to access the forum and use IE to everything else. If you take it as read that we are all a nice bunch congratulations threads will persist and it's not our way to ban them. As an example, you see with 'self promotion' threads occassionally that people will gently point out that they are not allowed which is OK. Can you imagine someone setting up a congratulations thread only to have a couple of pompous messages to say 'we don't do this kind of thing here'? Quote Link to comment
+choccymandm Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 .... this forum ain't big enough for all of our requirements!! Perhaps we should do as the Aussies did and up and move to our own dedicated forum (or emigrate to the Geocacheuk forums?) You then get to setup complete sections for Congrats threads, Rants, Shameless cache plugging etc, etc, etc ... just a thought, thats all Quote Link to comment
+Munkeh Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I don’t want to take anything away from people who have passed a significant landmark and I am certain it feels good to have your pears congratulating you, but I think we need to stop this. I aint got any pears....got some bananas Quote Link to comment
+mongoose39uk Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I don’t want to take anything away from people who have passed a significant landmark and I am certain it feels good to have your pears congratulating you, but I think we need to stop this. I aint got any pears....got some bananas ROFLMAO Seriously just ignore them. To be honest have seen a lot worse on here recently. Quote Link to comment
Lactodorum Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 As has been pointed out, this is a recurring topic and I have tried to reconcile two completely opposite points of view by having the pinned "Congrats" topic at the top of the page. I agree that this is not perfect and has now grown so large that it has probably reached the point when I should close it (thoughts on this please). I have asked in the past to have a separate sub-forum but this has not been possible to achieve. I have my own thoughts on congrats threads but I won't bore you with them as they are not really important. Suffice it to say that I find Firefox and the Greasemonkey "Ignore" script an absolute godsend ! The suggestion to use Geocacheuk forum for these threads is a good one, however not everyone uses that site, despite it being a very useful resource. I suspect this will run and run. Sorry. Quote Link to comment
+The Bolas Heathens Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I like Lactodorum's suggestion of a sub-forum for these threads which would work very well. I was just about to suggest something similar. I don't use Firefox much and whilst the greasemonkey scripts are great, I don't want to be forced to use Firefox just for the GC.com forums and Safari for all other websites. I personally like the congrats threads as it's nice to see people achieving milestones but would rather they are separated from the main threads somehow so I can quickly see what is happening in those times when I don't want to read the congrats threads. Quote Link to comment
+Rose_Thorn Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I don't mind what people post about, especially if they are being nice to each other, so congrats threads don't bother me - but then I am just a humble dugong Quote Link to comment
markandlynn Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Simple solution. Delete the pinned thread it was meant to get rid of all congrats threads. Ask people to lock the thread after starting it so 2-5posts max unless its one of the agreed milestones (100, 200, 500, 1000) More complex. Move the entire UK forum activity over to GUK. Post one pinned thread pointing everyone over to GUK. Direct new thread statrters to use GUK. Most of the other countries and some of the seven US state forums do this allready. See Australia for an example. Quote Link to comment
+Team Clova Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Simplest solution is if you dont want to dont read them??? Even if you dont use Firefox/grease monkey scripts surely it takes a fraction of a second to scan the page and see what threads are congrats ones? There aren't that many posts on this forum, that for people checking on a daily basis, they will have to scroll through pages of posts to read the previous days unread ones - so why all the angst??? The pinned topic is way too impersonal - I dont (and wont) use it - I see nothing wrong with congratulating people on their achievements here. Which reminds me.... Well done Us 4 and Jess!!! Its a hunt for tupperware - if we are all mad enough to do that, why are we getting so uptight about a couple of cm of computer screen being used to congratulate people when that hit a milestone??? Quote Link to comment
+ryme-intrinseca Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I have never started a 'Congrats' thread myself, but I have to say that I don't have a problem with them as long as the thread is clearly labelled. I have dial-up access at home, the page loads pretty quickly anyway, so it's no hassle just to ignore threads that I'm not interested in, whether they are for congratulations or not. Quote Link to comment
+Firth of Forth Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Congratulations threads are important. Is there anyone here who doesn't appreciate significant milestones being recognised? A lot of the Scottish milestones are congratulated on our own forums, thus 'saving' space here. However, one reason to post it here is so that Deego can update the Hall of Fame. This could be done via an email I suppose, but I'm not sure that every cacher who reaches a milestone knows about it and some may not want to 'blow their own trumpet' as it were. Quote Link to comment
+ryme-intrinseca Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I didn't know about it - we reached 100 last weekend (now I'm 'blowing my own trumpet!') but didn't know there was a 'hall of fame'?! Quote Link to comment
Nediam Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 (edited) I didn't know about it - we reached 100 last weekend (now I'm 'blowing my own trumpet!') but didn't know there was a 'hall of fame'?! The Hall of Fame can be found here, but you need to reach 200 to be entered. So go on....get caching (congrats on your first 100) For the record, I prefer the indiviual threads Edited April 20, 2006 by Nediam Quote Link to comment
+The Hokesters Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 [grump mode] Close all congrats threads PLEEEEAAAASE! [/grump mode] Quote Link to comment
andy_the_rocketeer Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 How am I supposed to just ignore them? Some have "congratulations" in the topic, some have "well done", some have "xxx reaches milestone", etc... so I have to intelligently read each topic and ignore, rather than just mindlessly ignore anything that looks like a congrats thread. How about insisting that congrats threads must begin with a standard text. At the time of writing this reply, about 25% of threads on 1st page are congrats threads, but it certainly seems a lot more when you have to keep re-filtering out the same threads which have been replied to since the last refresh. Personally, I find it's just noise which just hides the real topics. If people are suggesting I ignore 25% of the throughput of the forum, then either that 25% is spam or that 25% needs its own subforum. Quote Link to comment
+macroderma Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Why not add a congrats topic icon - a champagne bottle or somesuch Then it will be obvious from the listing and those that don't want to read them can avoid them without opening them Quote Link to comment
SlytherinAlex Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 So the cacher in question gets flooded with tons of emails? You obviously have way too many friends. Quote Link to comment
NickPick Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I'll add my 2p in. I'm happy for things to stay as they are. I don't find it difficult to ignore any threads that I'm not interested in. If we ban congratulations threads, then we might have to start complaining about something else. what'll be next? Quote Link to comment
+Simply Paul Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 ...If we ban congratulations threads, then we might have to start complaining about something else. what'll be next?PDA problems/info threads would get my vote. However, should I ever get around to getting one, no doubt I'd regret gryping. My feelings on congrats threads are well documented but I can see both sides of the argument, especially when someone's worked through a week's worth and bumped them all to the top of the forum. I don't think getting rid of them to the pinned area is the answer - nor is making it 100, 200, 500 etc. I would say anyone about to post one would do well to ask themselves if they know the person or team actually read this forum, as I have seen congrats to people I've never seen post here (I accept they may be a keen lurker) and wondered if they'd ever be seen by the intended recipient. Quote Link to comment
andy_the_rocketeer Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Why not add a congrats topic icon - a champagne bottle or somesuch Then it will be obvious from the listing and those that don't want to read them can avoid them without opening them The problem is not a case of opening them or not... it's a case of having to filter the topic titles to find the 'real' topics. I don't think getting rid of them to the pinned area is the answer - nor is making it 100, 200, 500 etc. Regardless, in N months time when this has all blown over, someone (very possibly some who's not lurking/posting for this argument) will start posting messages not in accordance with the guidelines. This would be true whether the guidelines are that all congrats threads are banned or listing specific milestones that are allowed. If some people really do think that congratulting someone else for reaching 400 or 600 or 1100 really is 'important' then the other option could be to ban all non-congratulations threads here and rename it the UK Geocachers Congratulatory forum and then have another forum elsewhere with a number of different topics, and explicitly ban them there (or have a dedicated sub-forum). rant over... not against congratulating people, just a really bad signal to noise ratio Quote Link to comment
Deego Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 I spend way too much time in here and dont have a problem with it either way (I use both) Quote Link to comment
+alma Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 i agree with the thought that if you dont like it dont read it i think it is nice to congrgulate someone on a milestone Quote Link to comment
+Moote Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Ooooo, I'm not commenting, I can upset too many Quote Link to comment
+CrazyL200 Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Is it possible to set up a child board for congrats ? Quote Link to comment
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