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Should We Have A Single "milestones" Topic?


Keystone

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Hello,

 

The Northeast forum moderators are interested in hearing the community's views about having a single pinned thread which everyone could use to congratulate our fellow geocachers upon their achievement of a personal "milestone" such as 100 finds. Have a look at the highly successful Northwest Milestone Page or its first copycat, NEMP - New England Milestone Page, to see what this would look like. If adopted, this topic would be pinned at the top of the forum, and any newly opened milestone topics would be merged into this one.

 

Right now, just about half of the topics on the first page of the Northeast forum are milestone topics. This is great, as it shows how much interest we have in celebrating each others' successes. But, it does tend to clutter up the page, bumping topics on other subjects of general interest.

 

Arguments can be made for or against this idea. Some may think that every geocacher is entitled to their own "moment in the spotlight" rather than being mentioned in the course of a lot of other posts all jumbled together. With separate topics, it's easy to see when one of your friends has hit a new milestone. But others might be happier to just post in a single pinned topic that they could check regularly, instead of opening multiple threads to post similar messages.

 

This is why we would like feedback from the forum users before making a decision one way or the other. Thanks!

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I think our friends accomplishments are worth their own topic. I doesn't bother me in the least to see so many congratulations topics in hear. I don't think it takes away from the overall flow of the forum as it's still very easy to find whatever topic I'm looking for. The only reason I see to clump them all together is if it is in some way causing problem with the function of the board. That's my 2 cents.

 

Furthermore, once everyone gets in their congrats the thread typically falls off the page. As we saw with BP ancient congrats on 500 thread, there are very few exceptions to that rule. My opinion is, keep it as it is.

Edited by JMBella
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:P:D

YES. Please yes. Or a whole seperate forum! It seems this could be re-named NorthEast Milestones forum.

 

However...

 

In another gaming forum I belonged to their were set milestones that you could congratulate at. Those being 100, 500, 1000, 2000, etc... Even limiting ourselves to something like that would be nice.. I know its exciting to reach another '00'.. but in my opinion we dont need congrats for 200, 300, 700, etc.. As those aren't "Major Milestones" more like "Stepping Stones". :D

 

:P

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:P:D

YES. Please yes. Or a whole seperate forum! It seems this could be re-named NorthEast Milestones forum.

 

However...

 

In another gaming forum I belonged to their were set milestones that you could congratulate at. Those being 100, 500, 1000, 2000, etc... Even limiting ourselves to something like that would be nice.. I know its exciting to reach another '00'.. but in my opinion we dont need congrats for 200, 300, 700, etc.. As those aren't "Major Milestones" more like "Stepping Stones". :D

 

:P

I see your point, but it's still a nice gesture and I don't think it hurts anyone.

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Aw, 701 doesn't count. :P

 

I like the idea of a new forum as well. Maybe throw a couple other things in with milestones--some other sort of celebrations? It would be a good forum to watch and then you'd still get the email telling you who hit the milestone (or whatever the subject line says.) I wouldn't want that to be just a NE milestone forum--cover the whole world. I'd love to hear how the people are doing in other areas, and I rarely go to forums for other areas.

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I know I'd probably never look at a single "milestone thread". I know that these threads tend to take up a lot of room in the NE regional page now that 100 finds is not all that uncommon and I haven't heard of 3/4 of these people, but why not give them their few days in the sun? There is a scroll bar on the right side of my screen and I use it if I don't know the person. Not that big a deal.

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I'm a little bit buzzed - so bear with me...

 

I had a feeling that this was going to come up in here.

 

I don't like the idea. I know that I will NEVER look at a pinned thread that congratulates people.

 

The NE forums seem to be the most active and community centered forums of all. That is because a number of us have began establishing relationships (totally straight relationships - not Harriman rock relationships) with one another through group hikes/hunts, events and general communication.

 

People are individuals and their accomplishments should be celebrated individually - a pinned thread will lose continuity and bounce back and forth between congrats.

 

It's not like we make random threads and congratulate people for finding the easiest, quickest, most driveable road in Harriman to a cache. We congratulate them for milestones.

 

Perhaps coming to consensus (guess who's back at work???) on which milestones to congratulate people would make a better poll.

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Well, we should make it a rule that Squealy can only post when buzzed, because that was a very thoughtful forum post. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Squealy's position on a separate thread, some of the other statements are quite perceptive.

 

Posts discussing *what* milestones to celebrate are now considered to be "on topic" in this thread.

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While it may be true that half the posts on the first page are "congrats" threads, if you have a look, currently about 1/4 of the threads on the first page are locked. The last thread on the first page is several days old. This forum just doesn't see the kind of volume of forum posts where pinning a "congrats" thread to "clear the clutter" would make sense. If you did pin it, it'd probably get ignored (like whatever other topic is pinned there now) and the only posts to it would be the ones where you merge a new "congrats" thread into it.

 

Personally, I don't see the need for such a thread, and I don't think it'd work well for many of us.

 

Now, as far as what milestones to celebrate, as long as it not every 50, like another group I pay attention to, I could care less.......

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I prefer individual threads and like others, would likely ignore a pinned topic that went on forever.

 

In addition, at my age, I need the f_norm_dot.gif icon to tell remind me if I posted for a specific individual's accomplishment or not. I'd lose that ability to determine if I congratulated a particular individual or not without having to scroll up to where I found the announcement for the individual someplace in the long thread and then scrolled through to the end to see if I posted against it.

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I generally feel that congratulating people individually is a nice quality that adds to my reading the forums. :o

 

I think it should remain as individual threads, however I agree that the forum should probably be split into two parts. With DC area states becoming a different forum entirely.

 

This is off topic, but it was brought up by a previous user.

 

Milestones such as 100,200,300,400 should still be recognized until 1000, then 2000, 3000 etc.

Just my e-pin-yun.

 

:(

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Keep it as it is, please.

 

Do you recycle Birthday cards? No. Milestones don't deserve the same treatment as recylced birthday greetings, nor do birthdays. :(

If it were in a seperate "milestone" thread no one would really feel they are, or accomplished something, special (eg. centennial milestones). , If it were in in its own thread, no one would know its there. As the way it is here and now, everyone knows who accomplished what and if they know him/her they can congratulate. If we know them not, we simply scroll away.

 

I don't mind it at all, I like it the way it is now. No changes. Please. :o

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So far, the majority is in favor of keeping things the way they are. By my count, it's 13 votes for that, and only 3 in support of a pinned thread. I will keep this open a bit longer for comment, through the weekend, but it would take a groundswell of opinions in favor of the pinned thread to overcome some seriously held views by some of the more active Northeast forum participants as expressed above.

 

We are still open for discussion on WHAT milestones to celebrate. I like the idea of an informal guideline that milestones ought to be reserved for finds ending in 00, up to 1000, and then every 1000 after that, or perhaps every 500 after that. "Congratulations on 175 finds" doesn't have the same ring to it. That being said, nobody will get banned from the forums for being enthusiastic, and there are always exceptions. A good friend of mine with mobility limitations will deserve a HUGE party when he reaches 50 finds. In my mind, 50 for him is like 5,000 for most all the rest of us.

 

And there are always people who color outside the lines. For those suggesting a whole separate forum for congratulations topics, I don't see that happening. (Then again, until this week I never thought we would have an off-topic forum, and I recall threatening to resign from being a moderator if such a terrible thing would ever occur. Now I am a moderator in the off-topic forum.) :(

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We are still open for discussion on WHAT milestones to celebrate. I like the idea of an informal guideline that milestones ought to be reserved for finds ending in 00, up to 1000, and then every 1000 after that, or perhaps every 500 after that. "Congratulations on 175 finds" doesn't have the same ring to it. That being said, nobody will get banned from the forums for being enthusiastic, and there are always exceptions. A good friend of mine with mobility limitations will deserve a HUGE party when he reaches 50 finds. In my mind, 50 for him is like 5,000 for most all the rest of us.

I wouldn't mind a pinned topic for people to post their "way to go messages." Would I read it every day, doubtful, weekly, maybe.

 

I agree with your line of thinking on the milestone numbers. It should end in 00, and once it gets to x000 every thousand. Besides, after you reach 1000, what's the point, right? :(

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I am not buzzed right now but probably will be later on - so maybe this won't make much sense to KA -

 

I like the idea of a guideline for congrats - so I will throw this one out:

 

100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000...I imagine everyone can get the pattern at this point.

 

Once in a while, if someone doesn't follow the guidelines it shouldn't be harped on - maybe it was someone who got to personally witness a milestone (like 600) and was able to be the one to post a congrats for the first time for one of their friends etc.

 

But like I said, these should only be a guide - we already deal with enough terms of agreement, guidelines and other restrictions. These are after all, OUR NE forums. :lol::unsure::lol:

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Should keep it as it is.

 

We don't have enough traffic on this page for it to be a problem.

 

If it was a separate page, not many of us would be looking at it.

 

I think it's good for the hobby. You see somebody you know (or even if you don't)on the list and give them kudos. They enjoy the achievement all the more.

 

It generates good will and togetherness. Much better than all that blasting that goes on in the general forum thread.

Edited by mikedx
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If we had a single page I know that I would never look at it again.

Well done. I'm with you on this one. Especially since this is the only forum I read regularly now due to time constraints, and if there were no new congratulatory threads, this place would be a ghost town.

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If we had a single page I know that I would never look at it again. I only post congrats to people I know. After a few posts about people I've never met I would lose interest quickly.

 

This is just one mans opinion. Yours may be different.

Ditto. I'm with Harrald - leave it as is.

 

On a related topic, congratulations to Keystone Approver for 4,000 finds! :unsure:

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Based on the feedback in this topic, we'll leave things just as they are. Please continue to post "congratulations" topics just as you have been. Do take note of some of the suggestions made in this topic for only recognizing significant milestones -- not every 25th cache. Thanks to everyone who responded.

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okay, not reading any of the posts above, im just gonna blindpost and hope that no one says exactly what i am about to say:

 

yeah, one thread would be nice. its kinda a pain in the butt when getting new posts to have a few on every page that say congrats to so and so. getting rid of them would be nice.

 

downside... this means that the people will get less attention.

 

another separate thought... a separate chunk in the forums (like OT, cept for all) for milestones?

 

but then again... to end this very bipolar post... it's not about the numbers, right?

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