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Input Needed: Reducing the Trope Repair Shop Backlog

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FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#451: Nov 16th 2011 at 1:30:55 PM

Yup. Limiting the number is, we hope, an incentive for people to actually work the issue, rather than just put up complaints.

Obviously, there is a finite number of open threads that can be serviced. That number is... whatever it is. We know it is not 2000. We're trying smaller numbers to find out what the limit should be.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#452: Nov 16th 2011 at 1:47:20 PM

I agree, topics should not have to wait months to be taken care of. With as many pages of issues we have, that's what they do. The hang around in the back. They stagnate with work undone. Just because we can make a topic for a page doesn't mean anything if the work isn't done.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#453: Nov 16th 2011 at 2:37:59 PM

Those threads that were made and stagnate because no-one, not even the OP has any interest in them should be locked for lack of interest, not left to take up spaces that threads for pages that really do have both issues and interest could use.

Two things would help that:

Give the deadlock clock back its teeth. When the clock runs out on a clocked thread, make it generate a canned post along the lines of "This discussion died for lack of interest or lack of consensus. No action is to be taken on the basis of this thread." Then make it lock the thread.

And so that threads which do revive after being clocked won't be chopped off because none of the mods remembered to extend the clock, give us a way to remove the clock, as well as extend it.

shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#454: Nov 16th 2011 at 2:55:10 PM

It's not always lack of interest. Going back through the TRS I found quite a few things I really wanted to get done, but they just got lost in the shuffle of the thousand other things and once they fall off the front page it's harder to keep track of them. With the pace the TRS moves, that can happen quite quickly.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#455: Nov 16th 2011 at 2:57:37 PM

If someone has opened too many threads open to keep track of them all (since we have the thread watchlist now), they have opened too many threads.

shimaspawn from Here and Now Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: In your bunk
#456: Nov 16th 2011 at 3:08:01 PM

But they aren't all threads I opened. Most of them are threads I merely posted in but that doesn't mean I don't want them seen through.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#457: Nov 16th 2011 at 3:42:44 PM

That's what the watchlist is for.

And if you're the only person who cares enough to keep up with them, they're still stagnating for lack of interest.

edited 16th Nov '11 3:43:36 PM by Madrugada

ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#458: Nov 17th 2011 at 6:52:29 PM

I worry that deleting everything that stagnates would eliminate many legitimate problems that are lost in the STACK.

Example: I have started only one thread in the TRS. I don't know how to add it to my watchlist. I bumped it once. I don't want to be a jerk by bumping it over and over, but it fell off the first page. I'm waiting until the backlog clears before bumping again, even if that takes another year.

edited 17th Nov '11 7:01:31 PM by ArcadesSabboth

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
20LogRoot10 Since: Aug, 2011
#459: Nov 17th 2011 at 6:58:25 PM

[up]Just don't bump it too often and you'll be fine. If somebody gets annoyed they can holler for a clock.

Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#460: Nov 17th 2011 at 7:02:07 PM

What's the point of bumping it if it will instantly fall off the first page again? I'd have to bump every day to keep it visible.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
20LogRoot10 Since: Aug, 2011
#461: Nov 17th 2011 at 7:06:17 PM

[up]If nobody else is interested, then it's probably not worth having it take up valuable shop space.

Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#462: Nov 17th 2011 at 7:18:48 PM

I don't know if nobody else is interested, I had one person helping me with it intensely for a while and there were several replies. It might just be the STACK problem. I can't tell.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
blackcat Since: Apr, 2009
#463: Nov 17th 2011 at 9:28:47 PM

If it was it this thread you created the thread on 11/02/11 and the last post was on 11/09/11. Nine days ago. Falling to the second page is not a death knell, but it may indicate that others don't see the problem that you see. If you bump it with commentary that is geared toward rekindling discussion you may be surprised at the results. Or not.

FastEddie Since: Apr, 2004
#464: Nov 17th 2011 at 11:07:25 PM

Yeah, a content-empty 'bump' does more to turn people off to the thread than almost anything else would.

Doing something like claiming the issue at hand will cause leprosy if left unattended would be more engaging. It might not result in useful action, but it would be more engaging.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty
Spark9 Since: Nov, 2010
#465: Nov 18th 2011 at 5:11:18 PM

It strikes me that the main reason threads stagnate is that there's so many of them. If the TRS were limited to an arbitrary but low threshold, there'd be less stagnation. I like the spirit of getting the previous work done before starting new work.

ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#466: Nov 19th 2011 at 8:34:32 AM

Yeah my one bump wasn't content-empty. It's hard to add more (short of dire warnings of meteors and leprosy!) now that I've finished all the cleanup that can be done without consensus.

I'm with Spark 9 about the stagnation. Some threads will stagnate just because nobody actually cares. But some get lost in the shuffle and right now, with the focus on resurrecting and finishing super old threads that have waited for months, there's a flurry of threads competing for a spot on the first page. Space, attention, and forum-goers are finite.

The backlog has been about 650 threads for a while now. Earlier it was decreasing steadily. Has something changed recently?

This might be crazy but earlier there were suggestions to take the 20 oldest threads, and auto-bump them at regular intervals. What about giving the 10 oldest both stickies and timers? I think the backlog would move faster if attention was focused on a smaller number of threads at one time. Attention shouldn't be the only criterion for judging if a problem matters, after all. Some problems may be ignored because they're difficult/require work. See: Relationship Upgrade and The Ditz.

edited 19th Nov '11 8:47:04 AM by ArcadesSabboth

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
Nocturna Since: May, 2011
#467: Nov 19th 2011 at 11:57:47 AM

I suspect things haven't been moving as much in TRS because it's getting into the holiday season, so people have less time, particularly those in school who are hitting the end of semester crunch.

Osmium from Germany Since: Dec, 2010
#468: Nov 19th 2011 at 12:03:25 PM

The backlog has been about 650 threads for a while now. Earlier it was decreasing steadily. Has something changed recently?

Eddi locked a bunch of the oldes threads, I think the ones with the last post older than two month.

It seems as if we reached the point, when a reducing of the amount of open threads is not simply reached by locking all the stagnated or stillborn threads with no discussion. All the low hanging fruits are gone and to close the now open threads actual work has to be done.

troacctid (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#469: Nov 19th 2011 at 2:37:09 PM

We know that stickying threads doesn't work because we tried that with the Extreme Trope Makeover project and it failed pretty abysmally. Shoving stuff in our faces isn't any guarantee that anything will get done.

Zyffyr from Portland, Oregon Since: Apr, 2010 Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
#470: Nov 19th 2011 at 4:28:47 PM

Essentially, people work on the issues that they care about and largely ignore the rest. No matter how hard 'the rest' gets pushed forward.

ArcadesSabboth from Mother Earth Since: Oct, 2011
#471: Nov 19th 2011 at 8:22:55 PM

Hmm there may be an error in the script that gets the stale discussion list. Can't Hold His Liquor is at 0 days open and it was started in June. The thread itself is nearly finished now but the list-making script might have a bug.

Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
Ironeye Cutmaster-san from SoCal Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Falling within your bell curve
Cutmaster-san
#472: Nov 19th 2011 at 8:31:14 PM

It's possible that re-tagging resets the counter. In the time since the thread was created, the article had been moved off the ptitle, so I changed the tag today when I bumped it.

I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me.
DrMcNinja Batman Since: May, 2011
Batman
#473: Nov 21st 2011 at 5:36:50 AM

I think a good way to help would be making the list be ordered by the time that the thread was opened instead of the last time there was a new post. The oldest threads would be always in the first page. When people see that other threads are in the first page while the one they opened is stuck at the end they'll care to fix the first page so their threads move steadily to a place where people will pay attention to them.

There are no heroes left in Man.
20LogRoot10 Since: Aug, 2011
#474: Nov 21st 2011 at 6:35:12 AM

[up]That just changes which threads get buried(and I think it was already tried).

Yeah, unwritten rule number one: follow all the unwritten procedures. - Camacan
LiberatedLiberater 奇跡の魔女 from [DATA EXPUNGED] Since: Jun, 2011
奇跡の魔女
#475: Nov 21st 2011 at 6:43:12 AM

I believe I saw the suggestion that clocked threads should lock automatically if the timer runs out. If this gets implemented, I'd like to add a suggestion for a "Show Clocked Threads Only" button so people can easily tell which discussions are stalling.

MAL || vndb || Blog

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