I’m sure it wasn’t like this yesterday but the sticky threads currently have a salmon orange/pink background colour in the thread listing view.
If this was done deliberately (which I assume would be the case), to attract attention perhaps, then it is quite frankly an annoyance. Is it not enough that the threads are persistently stuck to the top of the listings and prefixed with “Important:”?
Would it be a problem to ask about reverting the change? Of course, I’m only one voice here (and not a particularly noisy one).
P.S. I had a look around for a thread on this topic, but did not spot one. Apologies if this is already being discussed elsewhere.
Just as a half-conclusion to this thread, I’ve taken the step of removing the colour on my own browsers (and added in small llama icons (:). I wanted to stick with it and see if the salmon background “improvement” grew on me, or at least see if it could be ignored—I couldn’t do that… which I guess is a good thing for all those people that you wanted to make visit those threads.
So, I’m back to being a happy customer but I feel sorry for all those folks having to put up with it (or do something about it themselves). Then again, maybe no-one really gives a hoot what colour, if any, highlights those stickies.
Looking forward to seeing what (“better”) alternative(s) can be implemented. Thanks for listening.
Unfortunately, here at work I’m back to the colourful background. The llamas are all safely tucked away on my home computer, I’ll take a screenshot this evening. (:
It’s rather trivial with Firefox equipped with the Adblock Plus extension. Simply add the following filter to your blocklist to hide all of the stickies:
After living with them for a day (not a lot I know, but certainly enough to get an idea) “blocking” them out is proving more difficult than one might imagine; if anything it’s getting more distracting/annoying/tiresome. I’m all for separation, indeed highlighting the threads in some way (perhaps more than a coloured background and a tiny, brief mention in the thread-posting page)—whatever it takes to get folks to read those important threads—but I think that for the general/regular member (I can only really speak for myself) it’s overkill.
How about strongly highlighting them for everyone when they’re unread, then going to some less distracting highlight (I like the notion of an animated animal ( after that. Perhaps giving special treatment to those most likely to not have read and absorbed the information in the stickies yet (the “new” or “infrequent” visitor)? I don’t know, it’s your place to think up the best strategy I guess: the current one, however, isn’t that.
Off Topic:
Three posts outside of the PHP forum… eep! runs back to safety
I like the colour - but I guess I didn’t need to say that.
I’m keen to run with this for a while as a test and then we’ll revisit it in a month. There are sound reasons for making the change but I don’t have an issue with revoking it if it doesn’t have the desired effect. It’s too early to make that call though.
Well there you have it, folks, I have some support here. Dancing llamas as an animated gif. Except the Perl sticky should have a spitting Camel, because… camels, Perl… though there is a Llama book.
We could have llamas, and then people could download this script to hide the llamas.
Ok I’m prolly the only one who thinks that’s awesome but I want to be remembered as the one who put it forth when time shows what a brilliant idea it is.
That’s actually not a bad idea, except it’s the td’s getting the styles right?
I would predict that that just isn’t going to happen even if you went as far as making the text animated, glowing, and HUGE.
Oh I just thought of something nasty: animated llama icons like they pass around at Deviant Art.
Actually, that’s not a bad idea: there’s always some goofy little icon that doesn’t mean anything next to a lot of threads. At least for programming, it would be cool to have a symbol of the language (in full colour) on the left for icon. And then a background colour of, I dunno, one of the forum blues? That could make them stand out AND not look so… I admit, the colour is kinda pukey.
You would think that having Important in the thread title (and being sticky) would be enough but alas that doesn’t appear to be the case. The reason why it was changed was a result of the forum getting constantly inundated with people reposting the same questions (over and over - ad infinitum), not bothering to read the rules for particular sections or even take the time to consider if a question has appeared before (and certain sections were literally getting the same question appear on a daily basis by different people - who seem to think that perhaps the universe and everything in it may have suddenly changed within 24 hours). Since all other efforts to get people to read before they post have failed we have taken the step to “highlight” the important threads to give them further emphasis.
I must admit it’s not my favorite color. But I like the way it creates an easy separation from the stickies and the other threads.
Hopefully it will both get the attention of those that haven’t read them yet and allow those that have to “block” them out when looking for the most recently posted non-sticky thread.
And you think that the hoards of people not bothering to check out the sticky, “Important:” tagged threads at the top of the forums they’re posting in will magically start paying attention (i.e. reading them) due to a background change? I would predict that that just isn’t going to happen even if you went as far as making the text animated, glowing, and HUGE. Heck if you forced them to view the messages, they would likely not read them!
As a regular member here (who doesn’t post much) Sitepoint has given me a very good reason not to visit. I’ve read the stickies, I know what they say, I don’t need them shoved in my face. I want to read the new content, answer questions, etc. not to be presented with “read me, READ me, READ ME! Oh please, please READ ME!!!” every time I visit the listing pages to check on new threads/replies.
Perhaps I’m just being sensitive to the issue (which is likely) so if no-one else is really all that bothered, just put the above down to miscellaneous Friday ramblings.
) but man that salmon color is ugly.
