Is it best for plugin "brands" to have a single announcement thread?

This one: Is it best for plugin "brands" to have a single announcement thread? [edit] Why do you ask?

Okay also presuming you where not in the thread just now… And now? I’ve edited the top post.

When a user clicks on any thread, they are directed to the first unread post in that thread. If a user has not read any posts, they are directed to the first post.

So you didn’t see the top post again?.. If not, It didn’t used to be this way, when the top post was edited it would go to this rather than last unread post. I distinctly remember this on Blamsoft v1 beta’s, these posts were edited from the original post with each beta release.

Also to note when I visited this thread just now I was presented with the top post, even though I have posted in the thread: ‘the post at the top of the page was is latest b10.’

As far as I’m concerned, if you post something on Facebook, you’re screaming it to a void that refuses to show me anything unless I provide a login I will never create.

So far in my thread I’ve been editing the OP with a change log, the OP title with the name of the latest module (so people notice something is new), and in the OP, I added a little " [ Jump to the release post in this thread > ]" link for every module mentioned. Seems to work out OK?

1 Like

Certainly, use Announcements for any announcements you have, as long as it follows Rules for Announcements category, i.e. relevant and professional.

Announcements doesn’t either. Who said you have to update old posts with new info?

I don’t understand why you would need to do this. Just open a new thread, no need to delete anything.

I have no idea where you’re getting the idea that announcement threads have to be long. If you’re a plugin developer, create a new announcement whenever you announce something. If you’re a user, post a comment if you have questions/comments about the announcement. Simple as that, no need to make it more complicated than it is.

Announcements should be like reading a newspaper. Only the top post really matters, everything else is just chatter. For example, VCV Chords released doesn’t have too many comments, but it has 700 views. If you scatter your announcements at post #42 and #112 of an enormous thread, nobody’s going to see it.

4 Likes

So I think the conclusion is that @Vortico sees nothing wrong with making a whole new announcement for new things, whereas before we had an informal agreement to try not to do that.

But I think those of us who have lots of announcements feel the old agreement doesn’t work so well, and that @Vortico is probably correct here.

Is that a fair summary?

2 Likes

Fair enough, lots of people don’t like FB. Anecdotally I would say I reach 20 to 100 times as many people with a FB post, so it would be silly for me not to post there.

There needs to be further discussion on it but for now yes. My concern is that a few years down the line there will be many superfluous topics in announcements that will have to be cleaned up.

There must be a more elegant solution than posting individual topics for each announcement especially if an announcement is for the same plugin pack, but at this time there is no back-end to accommodate announcements in a way that users see everything and is clean / balanced. Iv’e a few ideas regarding this that will probably be discussed in the staff category when Andrew has the time.

1 Like

News articles are never “cleaned up”. You can read NYTimes articles from 1851 here https://spiderbites.nytimes.com/, and not a word has changed since they were published.

Even these get Archived! :slightly_smiling_face:

What do you mean, and how is it relevant to this conversation?

Will people want to visit old threads for a complete history? Even if they do would it not be better to have them organised in the one thread by looking through edits of the top most post. Instead of manually searching that is.

Why not ask devs to maintain a single thread per plugin in Plugins & Modules (if they so wish) AND make fresh Announcements. The thread is then the (dev maintained) archive.

2 Likes

I like that solution Nik :slightly_smiling_face:.

Nope, jumped to first unread reply from Bruce, 11 months later.

The title was edited back to the original title yesterday so this could be because of: after the fact, but if not then something changed to how this used to work.

I think from MindMeld’s point of view a new announcement thread per module / significant piece of news would definitely work best. We tend to release few modules, with a substantial time gap between each because we spend a long time on each one.

When our EqMaster announcement thread was merged with the MixMaster announcement yesterday we ended up having a new announcement 70 replies down on a 3 month old thread about a different module. The old thread was renamed to show it was for EqMaster which meant anyone familiar with and looking for the MixMaster thread title would have a hard time finding it (thread has since been separated again - thanks).

I see announcements like news articles - when you have a piece of news you post it in a new thread. All replies in that thread will be relevant to the announcement topic. If developers want to maintain their own thread in Plugins & Modules (as Nik suggested) I think that’s a good idea too. Having separate threads for each article also helps with keeping things neat and tidy imo - you could have announcements sorted by year for example and archive old announcements. It also makes things easier to find as there is one thread title per announcement and it stops threads becoming extremely long which they would do otherwise over time if there was just one announcement thread per developer.

1 Like

Either way is all good if there is a few announcements being made every so often, but for a pack like Nysthi @synthi or an aspiring developer who wants their pack to contain many more modules. How many announcements threads will there be by this time 2-3 years from the developer.

If a pack has many subscribers this does mean more replies I understand, but will users need or want to visit the first/third/tenth announcement. How far could someone stretch it also with announcing they have a new module, every 2 days every week? Do these get new posts each time?

What if the announcement was locked for replies and only the author can post? Each reply would be a new announcement, there is also markup formatting which can give each post a style. Doing this currently and keeping the discussion: very easy, filter by user which is available when you click on someones picture. Could this not be turned on by default @Vortico for announcements in order for users to see if there was a reply in each announcement, perhaps an un-filter button could become available or as suggested a discussion thread in plugins and modules. Editing the top post can also be filtered without scrolling through the discussion by clicking the the orange pencil icon, there you see the title of the announcement and the context. There is also making a post a wiki which has not been done yet so not sure how it looks.

Everything in the one place is very organised and requires the least interaction which will also promote a healthy forum for users and developers alike as the users will have read or skimmed through top most or filtered announcements and may have that extra time to skim through or few more or have more time patching.

It was a fair point Aria brought up about Facebook, this is not Facebook there is no need to spam with many announcement threads. Linking and styling a post is very easy here and should be even easier for developers; but what is the best solution, style and format that we can come up with that suits everyone? Having different solutions for everyone is no solution!

Honestly, around here, threads are split and merged so frequently, I find it hard to follow discussions. You enter a thread and the OP refers to things said earlier, or you see a big announcement mid-thread. Since the mods generally don’t add posts to explain how the conversation was re-arranged, it feels jarringly incoherent, like you’re the only person in the conversation who lacks crucial context to understand what’s going on.

It’s supposed to be a conversation! Those are messy by nature. Trying to organize it more than necessary just kills it. There’s wikis for rigidly structured information (and VCV could really use a good one)

3 Likes