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What happened with Pip's sticky?

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truehobbit
Post subject: What happened with Pip's sticky?
Posted: Sun 29 May , 2005 4:45 pm
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A while ago I stickied a thread by Pips, about virus attachments.

Seeing the danger was probably past, I PMed her to get her ok that I could unsticky it. She gave her ok just now and I went to do it, only to find the thread had been unstickied a week or so ago.

No one asked Pips about it or informed her.
No one informed me (seeing that as I stickied it, I would probably keep an eye on it).
No one informed the other admins (seeing someone else might think of asking about changing the thread's status).
No one even made a post at the end of the thread to give notice (an admin name in the last post might draw your colleagues' attention to the thread, if you can't be bothered to post in the "touching base" thread)!


I'm really, really annoyed at this, folks.

- We don't do things to people's threads without their ok!

- We tell each other when we do stuff, so the next person won't have to waste their time trying to do it again!

(Edited for tone.)

Last edited by truehobbit on Sat 11 Jun , 2005 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sun 29 May , 2005 5:14 pm
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Hobby, I sincerely apologize. I unstickied the thread yesterday and should have posted in it to say so. It had not been posted in since May 9.

It never occurred to me to ask Pips—I did not edit the thread, or delete it; it is still there. I simply unstickied it to try to reduce clutter in the forum. The thread had been quiet for almost three weeks and had outlived its usefulness, and this seems to me like simple forum tidying.

I was remiss in not posting that I had unstickied it, and I will be more careful in future.

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truehobbit
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Posted: Sun 29 May , 2005 9:03 pm
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Thanks Prim! :)

No harm done - the thread had definitely become dated, I just think that if it's not your own thread, you should let the threadstarter know and also your colleagues (I'm sure anyone who stickies a thread remembers it's kind of their responsibility and keeps an eye on it).

And I'm sorry for freaking out! I spoke so harshly, because I was really annoyed.

(Strange, I thought the thread must have been unstickied a while ago because I found it somewhere on the second page, and the first page ends at around the 20th for the last post - looks like they immediately drop to where they would be according to the last post date.)

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Mon 30 May , 2005 3:48 pm
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It's fine, Hobby. But I do think this raises a minor point of interest. I agree that it would have been better if I had told Pips what I was going to do. But I don't think we need to ask actual permission for something that does not change or remove a post, that is basically tidying up. What if the person for some reason refuses? Do we then have to keep the sticky forever?

I think unstickying threads is an example of the kind of housekeeping work that falls within an admin's authority and judgment. Yes, as a courtesy, notify people, and if they have a good reason to let the sticky stay a while, respect it; but it should be an admin's decision.

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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Mon 30 May , 2005 4:32 pm
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I completely agree with Prim. I have unstickied threads without asking the threadstarters permission in situations where it was clear that the threads no longer needed to be stickied. No one ever objected.


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truehobbit
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Posted: Mon 30 May , 2005 10:07 pm
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Well, I wouldn't expect anyone to object, and maybe "permission" is too big a word, anyway (I don't think I used it, though, did I?) - but I think in such a case it's nicer to tell people before you do it - just something like: "I thought I'd unsticky your thread if you don't mind". Not sure whether you'd call that asking permission or not - I think it's just polite, and I think in most cases there'll be no hurry in cleaning up, so there's no problem to wait a day for a reply.

If the person does mind, I agree we should respect it if they have a good reason.

Hmmmh - I stickied the thread before asking - just posted in the thread saying "hope it's ok". If Pips had said it wasn't ok, I'd have unstickied it again.

I guess I think that doing positive things (sticky kind of heightens the status of the thread, doesn't it?) and doing negative things (taking that status away) ask for a different approach.

I couldn't really tell without looking it up what we said admins can do independently in order to "clean up" - I just know that I'd rather err on the side of caution, and I myself would react pretty strongly if I found, for example, my thread moved to a more appropriate forum and no one told me even afterwards.
I think informing people is one of the main pillars of this board - it might not be what we voted on for admin powers, but I remember campaigning for "only with the poster's approval" with respect to doing most things, so I guess that's still my personal approach.
I think this is because my reason for limiting admin power here is not only to protect the board from corrupt or power-hungry people (a pretty unlikely case anyway, IMO) but in order to remove that feeling posters have of being powerless. I just don't like the idea of admins doing stuff "at their discretion", when a simple communication would show everybody involved that the admin does not assume to have a different status.

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