Here is my full monitor screen when I open ETO:
There are only four "content" posts on the whole page. The rest are stickies. Is there any evidence that stickies are actually read?
One might consider the number of views as evidence for that, but the first two content items have comparable views to many of the sticky items.
Some of the stickies do have a lot of views, for example, "Where To Buy Electronic Components and Parts." It also has a lot of pages to weed through to cull a minuscule amount of non-redundant, current information. Surprising to me, JimB's post for beginners has the smallest number of views. I do not think the number of views or responses to an ordinary thread should be a determinant of making that thread a sticky.
So, what prompted this rant? What great value does anyone see in the latest addition to the stickies, namely a thread about abbreviations that went nowhere and provided no conclusions. I can't imagine anyone who has doubts about an abbreviation reading hopelessly through 50 pages of posts instead of going to Google or another search engine.
Let me propose that the number of stickies for a forum be limited to no more than 6. They primarily should be helpful to posters, particularly new ones, and limited in number of replies. Technical electronic content is of secondary importance, as there are already sections for such content (e.g, Articles). For example, "This is how to add schematics to your post," would meet those criteria, if its content is current. "Basic Op-amp Circuits," while informative is not particularly helpful to someone who is attempting to post a question about mosfet power supplies or flashing LED's. Maybe it should be in another section, such articles.
In other words, instructional stickies about how to post images, schematics, code, multimedia clips, editing, file formats not supported by the forum and other user options would be useful to a poster. Content stickies might better be presented in an archive or articles section.
Regards, John
There are only four "content" posts on the whole page. The rest are stickies. Is there any evidence that stickies are actually read?
One might consider the number of views as evidence for that, but the first two content items have comparable views to many of the sticky items.
Some of the stickies do have a lot of views, for example, "Where To Buy Electronic Components and Parts." It also has a lot of pages to weed through to cull a minuscule amount of non-redundant, current information. Surprising to me, JimB's post for beginners has the smallest number of views. I do not think the number of views or responses to an ordinary thread should be a determinant of making that thread a sticky.
So, what prompted this rant? What great value does anyone see in the latest addition to the stickies, namely a thread about abbreviations that went nowhere and provided no conclusions. I can't imagine anyone who has doubts about an abbreviation reading hopelessly through 50 pages of posts instead of going to Google or another search engine.
Let me propose that the number of stickies for a forum be limited to no more than 6. They primarily should be helpful to posters, particularly new ones, and limited in number of replies. Technical electronic content is of secondary importance, as there are already sections for such content (e.g, Articles). For example, "This is how to add schematics to your post," would meet those criteria, if its content is current. "Basic Op-amp Circuits," while informative is not particularly helpful to someone who is attempting to post a question about mosfet power supplies or flashing LED's. Maybe it should be in another section, such articles.
In other words, instructional stickies about how to post images, schematics, code, multimedia clips, editing, file formats not supported by the forum and other user options would be useful to a poster. Content stickies might better be presented in an archive or articles section.
Regards, John