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Do you wanna bump?!

Posted by (US Pacific Northwest) on

The new FAQs appear to be working to help both new posters and regular users of the site--but could use more help in bumping them to keep them on front page.

Anyone can bump a pseudo-sticky, at any time, the more bumps the better they work.

Some newbie posters browse the site but don't like to post a question, and the FAQ and other boldface "pseudo-stickys" help them since they can get answers without having to post a question, if they prefer.

And it helps the regular users because it reduces the number of FAQ/frequently asked questions that get tiresome to keep answering a hundred times.

So everyone comes out ahead.

But we could use more help in bumping the boldface pseudo-sticky topics.

Anyone can bump the stickys.

You just go to the topic, click Post A Reply like you normally would to reply to any topic.

Then type "bump" or a blank character (hit the space bar), or a little snappy saying if you want, and click Post.

This brings the pseudo-sticky up to the top of the list.

The goal has been to keep the pseudo-stickys in the top third or top half of the first page, on each of the six boards. (when people come to the site, their browser is only showing them the top third or half of page 1)

On some travel forums, bumping is not encouraged or even prohibited. Here, the Webmaster allows (even encourages, I think) bumping of the pseudo-stickys, until such time as the RS/ETBD staff has the time to do a comprehensive reprogramming of the entire site.

Posted by
606 posts

I might add that bumpers should occasionally go back and delete their old bumps so they don't build up over time. That way if somebody posts a worthwhile response to an FAQ, like an enhancement suggestion for Kent's answer, it won't get lost down at the bottom of a thousand old bumps.

Posted by
10344 posts

Patrick is correct. Only the last bump has any effect. If you bump and someone bumps in a few hours, you can later (an hour, day or week later) delete your bump without it having any effect.

No one needs to be compulsive about (leave that to me), but if you occasionally feel like using the Delete button on your old bumps, that would be helpful, for the reason Patrick gave: it gives me room to gradually add more FAQs, as needed.

But I'm not doing a FAQ on shorts.

Posted by
606 posts

As long as we're keeping a tidy table here, just one more thought for Kent. If old bumps do build up over time and don't get deleted, you could pretty easily use copy/paste to create a new FAQ thread, say once a quarter, and delete the old one. Deleting an old topic deletes the whole thread, including all those old bumps.

Of course, only Kent who starts a thread can delete the whole thing, so this should work well enough.

Posted by
10344 posts

Another good idea from Patrick on pseudo-sticky maintenance! We're making progress. In the old days, the regular users could only grumble about answering the same questions a few hundred times. And once a topic with good info had dropped off the first page, it was gone forever.

Posted by
2349 posts

In middle school we used to do The Bump to KC and the Sunshine Band. That's the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it, uh huh, uh huh.

(You do know I meant a dance, right?)

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