Suggestion for a top of the page/thread announcement

Botznoy

I'm suggesting as addon for the forum that will allow certain threads/people to make an announcement or something similar and be able to keep it at the top of the page or thread when browsing the forum.
In specific, the forumer who's running and administrating the G&T Minecraft server is making a lot of posts and announcements regarding the server but it can/will get lost in the clutter of other posts by him and others,
The addon will allow him or the thread creator to keep relevant information at the top of the page for quick and easy access/reading, such as his plans for the server, mod pack we're using and other things that might get lost in the thread but not necessarily belong in the OP

zerzhul

Why is it that the info in question does not belong in the OP?

Botznoy

In the example I gave, Takel, who admins the server didn't create the thread. So he would need to contact (Empirical) in this case to edit the op with the relevant information, and because he makes constant changes and announces things it'd be easier and ungainly for him to have permission to quickly edit the addon and keep it on the top.

And compounding this specific example, Takel lives in a different timezone to the majority of players, so there's that delay when they aren't able to check PM's

zerzhul

So this would require moderator intervention for every thread, to designate someone to be able to make these sorts of announcements. I get that in your example the thread OP would designate this person, but I doubt that giving out special permissions for a thread would be something that users would end up being permitted to do. It seems like a much simpler solution would to be to have the person who administrates the server make the OP, yeah? Or have some other living document that people can refer to for updates that is linked in the OP.

zerzhul

Having the OP of a thread have the ability to have a totp short announcement that isn't the thread title is a neat idea though, but I wonder if that would be a place for abuse to occur.

Botznoy

I understand that, and can see the potential for abuse. I meant it for specific threads, such as those where a server is being administrated and allow a designated user to possibly edit it. Living document is a good alternative

Donovan Puppyfucker

Google Docs, son. Or set up a Wiki for the G&T Minecraft server, just like the SE++ server has.

Sterica

I feel like that's way too much micromangement for such a niche feature. It raises too many questions like determining who actually gets to control such a feature. Then there's crap like all the potential squabbling we'd have to deal with. It's a lot of work for little payoff.

Perhaps expanding the Geth stuff to allow mods to make in-thread announcements would be a more reasonable option.

MechMantis

Expanding Geth to do that sounds like the best idea to me. I can remember some instances where we've had people with the OP of a thread banned and thus not able to make any edits to that thread. I mean in the past we just bugged mods to do that for us, and I'd imagine it'd be the same thing here just... a little more codified.

I'd imagine it'd be limited to vital information only; we've got OPs for a reason, ya know?

Athenor

Well if the OP gets banned, it'll probably mean the control of the thread is banned for good as well, unless there's a rule to allow a mod to hand control of Geth to someone else.

Also, I don't think the right place is "top of the page." Using the #Latest, I generally only see the top of the page for 1-2 seconds before the code kicks in to take me to roughly where I left off, +/- two posts. No, the better place for announcements is part of the system we already have, where Geth announces the banned users / banned phrases.

Sterica

If person in charge of an OP gets banned and the thread needs updating, you can always PM a mod to request it be closed so someone else can make it.

Updating the Geth functionality would put the message near the reply box where banned users and phrases go.

Tube

It's unlikely that we'll implement an addon to solve this. It's too niche of an issue to justify the dev time. If Icy happens to swing by and feel like taking a crack at it he may make a liar out of me, but for now I would file this under Probably Not.