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Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

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Gary Lewis

Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Folks,
I think we have way too many pinned items as they take up about half of the page at present. So I'd like to clean that up.

I started a couple of days ago by moving the 2021 truck show folder into the Events/Garagemahal Ford Truck Shows folder. (Boy, was that a learning process.)

And now I'm thinking about two more things:

Website: I'm thinking of creating a "Website" folder and then moving the several threads like the suggestion box and moving thread into it.

Truck Of The Month: Wondering about creating a folder for this and moving the various TOM threads into it.

What are your thoughts on those? And what other suggestions do you have?

There is a delicate balance between things being pinned to get attention and having so many things pinned they are easily overlooked.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/ZF5/3.55's, D60 w/Ox locker & 10.25 Sterling/Trutrac, Blue Top & Borgeson, & EEC-V MAF/SEFI

Gary Lewis

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Well, that brought out so many comments that I can't get my head around them.

And since I take silence as "go for it", here's what I've done:

Truck Of The Month: Polls; Pictures; Etc: I created a new folder and moved everything related to Truck Of The Month into it, with the exception of the discussion thread about creating the TOM, which I left in the main section. And I've asked John/Machspeed to organize it as he sees fit as he's graciously agreed to be the TOM king.

Forum & Website Discussions: Created this new folder and moved the Website & Forum Suggestion Box, the Good News We May Be Moving Soon, the New Joining Process & Guidelines, and the Planning The Migration threads in there.

WHYDTYTT: Pinned this so we can find it.

This has reduced the # of pinned topics a bit, but I think there is still room to improve. So if you have suggestions please let me know what they are. Or, if you don't like what I've done please let me know..

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Ford F834

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Gary, I saw this post during my lunch break but did not have enough time to comment. I’m glad you are de-cluttering the pinned posts. It was excessive. I was going to say the top 8-10 most used/needed items, and it looks like you whittled it to 13. It is visually much better, and keeps recent activity from getting bumped off the first page when there are many active topics going on at once

SHORT BED 4-DOOR DIESEL: 1986 F350 4x4 under construction-- 7.3 IDIT ZF5+GVOD

STRAIGHT SIX 4X4: 1981 F150 2wd to 4x4-- 300 I6 close ratio diesel T19, hydroboost brakes, Saginaw steering

BIG F: 1995 F-Superduty under construction— converting to 6.9L IDI diesel ZF5+DNE2

Gary Lewis

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Jonathan - Thanks. It was getting excessive.

However, if we could just train ourselves to use the Topics View there would be far fewer pinned things to get in the way - as shown below.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

grumpin

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Thanks for your work Gary!

Dane
1986 F250HD SC XLT Lariat 4x4 460 C6-Sold
1992 Bronco XLT 4x4 351W E4OD
1998 GMC Sierra SLE K1500 350 4L60E
Arizona

Gary Lewis

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Welcome, Dane. But I hope we don't lose sight of some of the things I moved.

I'm wondering if we should put new things on the main page and then move them into the folders after people have had a chance to see them? For instance, December Truck Of The Month Nominations is currently in the TOM folder. Should it be in the main section and pinned for the couple of weeks it is active, and then moved into the folder? Ditto each month's TOM polling thread.

We could create the nominations thread when the last month polling is done and the winner announced. Move the polling thread into the folder and pin the nominations thread in main section. That way we'd only have one TOM thread in the main section at a time, but it would be easily seen.

We could do the same with announcements about the forum or website, and other such things.

Thoughts? (John/Machspeed, the TOM is your area so you get to decide, but let's see what the others say.)

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

grumpin

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

I’m not sure I have an answer.

What I do is use the topics view and look at all the new posts which are blue, ones that haven’t been posted on remain purple. I stay logged in and the only time it doesn’t work is if I clear the history for some reason.

So my thinking is I’ll see it if it’s new.

Dane
1986 F250HD SC XLT Lariat 4x4 460 C6-Sold
1992 Bronco XLT 4x4 351W E4OD
1998 GMC Sierra SLE K1500 350 4L60E
Arizona

Gary Lewis

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

Yes, you'll see the new posts. As will I since I'm subscribed to everything. But not everyone knows to do one or the other of those things, so may miss things.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

BigBrother-84

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Hi Gary,
As new member, I'm still in the bottom of my learning curve...
- What is a pinned item?
- Is there a user guide available, explaining some mysterious functions such as "embed post" or "permalink"?
I apologize for my ignorance!

Jeff / 1984 F350 Crew Cab 4x4/5.8L w351 4V/ T18/ D50 4.10 front/ 8' bed.
Restored 2019-2022.
Nicknamed «Big Brother 1984», due to its soooo-looong shape & nod to George Orwell's 1984 famous novel.

Gary Lewis

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Administrator

No, there's no user's guide. I wish there was.

A pinned item is one that looks like it has a red push-pin through it so it doesn't float down the page based on when the last post was made. Saying it another way, in the normal view of the main page you'll currently see 10 folders with red pins through them and 3 threads with red pins. So those things will always remain at the top of the page. But the other threads, aka topics, will vary depending on which one has had the latest post.

Embed is what some of us do to put special things in our posts. But I don't use the "Embed" button up above. Instead I tick the "Message is in HTML Format" box and use HTML to put the special things in with. For instance, the other day I had the pdf of the Ford announcement of the Eluminator electric motor. So I embedded it in my post so you could read the pdf. You can see that on this post, and if you want to see how I did it click Reply to that post and then click Quote. It'll put the code there on your screen, and then you can tick the HTML box and hit Preview Message and see how it copies the document in.

As for a permalink, that is short for "permanent link". It is an address, but on the forum it is different than the URL you see in the web browser. I don't fully understand how Nabble generates the permalinks, but if you want to give someone a link to a post, as I did above on the Eluminator post, you need to click More and then Permalink and copy what it shows you. Don't use the URL in the browser's window as it usually won't get you where you want to go.

Please don't worry about asking questions. It is how we learn, and others will read your questions and learn as well.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

BigBrother-84

Re: Cleaning Up The Pinned Items

Thanks a lot!
I'll archive these clear explanations for future use!

Jeff / 1984 F350 Crew Cab 4x4/5.8L w351 4V/ T18/ D50 4.10 front/ 8' bed.
Restored 2019-2022.
Nicknamed «Big Brother 1984», due to its soooo-looong shape & nod to George Orwell's 1984 famous novel.