Duplicate message (float)

[TomSmith]

There appears to be duplicate messages in the "Feedback & Suggestions" community.

Message Subject:

"New Forum Locations by ITRC Tree"

-Tom

[Dennis Handly]

While it may look like a duplicate, it is a topic floated to the top by the admins.

And another "copy" is in its normal position.

And if you want more duplicates, you can float your own selections.  ;-)

[TomSmith]

Thanks Dennis,

How would one recognize the difference?

Perhaps I will float a few, I would really enjoy the redundancy.

-Tom

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

>How would one recognize the difference?

Between the original and the float?  (The latter is at the top and the date would be out of order.)

Between your float and the admins float?  Yours would have this "Float this Topic to the Top" greyed out, under topic options.

(Floated topics now have a RED bar to the left.)

Or the hard way, count from the bottom the number of topics per page and the floats would be extra.

(No kudos to go with the solution?)

[Kevin_Paul]

There is a slight difference (yes, it needs to be more obvious) in the grey for "floated" posts vs the grey that every other "normal" post has as well...

[TomSmith]

OK Dennis, fair enough, I will award your answer a kudo, for the shear humor of pointing out the insanity of the current system.

[Kevin_Paul]

Tom - what's "insane" about having the ability to make sure certain posts stay at the top of a particular forum?  This is a pretty common message board feature that allows important information to receive extra attention - so I'm curious what it is about this feature that you don't think is useful.

[TomSmith]

Kevin,

The idea of floating, or pinning is not insane at all. It is very common on many boards and has been for years. Most boards make it very clear that something is pinned or floated. All of the silly icons on this site for posts and you chose to not mark floats with something other than light grey shading.

What was humorous, and mildly insane, was the suggestion that I should look to see if a message is floated by looking for messages out of order, or that I should pull down the option list and look for the "Float this Topic to the Top" greyed out". And the best was "the hard way, count from the bottom the number of topics per page and the floats would be extra". All this progress and I need to waste extra time doing this?

Which of those options sounds sane?

HP has seriously missed the mark here, Kevin. If HP wanted a "social network" they should have just started one and left the GD ITRC forum alone. This change has impacted how I do my job and HP's hubris is going to cost them customers.

-Tom

[Kevin_Paul]

Thanks for the reply Tom.  As I mentioned previously, you won't get a disagreement out of me that the difference is greys is too subtle - and we are looking into other options to make floated/pinned topics much more obvious.

And the intention with this new community was not to create a "social network" - but we are attempting to bring some capabilities to the community to make it easier to share knowledge with other users.  It's hard to have a "community" without it being somewhat "social" - but I don't see how this has become Facebook where users are posting about what they've just had for lunch, or what their weekend plans are.

[TomSmith]

Kevin,

My "Facebook" comment is not in regard to the content here. It is the look, feel and functionality, if you compare the new community with the old ITRC forum, which one more closely resembles Facebook?

The bottom line, however, remains the same. HP has done away with a very useful and valuable tool and replaced it with something that does not match up. And the manner in which it was cutover was abysmal.

From Lithium Web Site:

"Using gaming dynamics is hot, but we’ve been doing it for years. It’s our secret sauce for motivating consumers to participate, ensuring your community is vibrant, not just a tech site."

I would like the simple and professional "tech site" back that has, for years, been so useful for me.

-Tom