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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Flags? What's the low down on that?

 
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Just noticed it the other day and couldn't find and explanation. Will somebody please enlighten me?

Thanks
 
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Explanation here: https://permies.com/t/31086/tnk/Jumpin-JForum-Day-features
 
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Threads can now be awarded flags to draw attention to them. The number of flags you can award should equal the number of apples you've been awarded. Kind of 'what goes around, comes around'.

I'll put a flag on this thread to show you what I mean...
 
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We also need red flags that indicate when a thread has wandered off topic or the topic was too silly to begin with. A pirate flag could indicate that it's been hijacked. And how about a flag with a D, for the many subjects where the originator asked a question and then disappeared. And a V for those whose title is misleading or vague. I've got more.
 
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How does one get an apple? I have never know.
 
Craig Dobbson
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Thanks folks.

 
Dale Hodgins
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Terri Matthews wrote:How does one get an apple? I have never know.



It's a reward system. This thread explains it all. --- https://permies.com/t/20289/tnk/apple
 
Terri Matthews
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Ah! Thanks!
 
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I'm just going to say it- I dont like the flags.

Creates more clutter on the webpage. Makes me feel like there is some immediate problem jumping out at me. Very modern-media-ish.

Maybe a more subtle visual indication? Maybe just a dot?

There's my 2cents. Hope it helps.
 
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Dale wrote
"We also need red flags that indicate when a thread has wandered off topic or the topic was too silly to begin with. A pirate flag could indicate that it's been hijacked. And how about a flag with a D, for the many subjects where the originator asked a question and then disappeared. And a V for those whose title is misleading or vague. I've got more. "

Why am I not surprised ?

David


 
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David Livingston wrote:Dale wrote
" I've got more. "

Why am I not surprised ?

David


You're not surprised, because I'm as predictable as the tides, when it comes to picking things apart and examining them and then advocating for changes that suit my whims. Just be glad I'm one of the good guys.

We have the hot topics symbol. It works, but it's just a post counter, not a quality meter.

I'd like to see a thumbs up or down symbol or a slider bar at the end of a thread, where readers could rate the quality of what was presented. To me this is more important than the post count. I'd like to see a "was this helpful" or "was this a bloody waste of time" check box at the end of threads. I'd like to see a timing system used so that people who didn't take the time to read it couldn't vote. I'd like a lot of things. I offer this wish list as someone who has no idea of how any of this is done or how much work it would entail. --------- You're welcome.
 
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I've tried out the flags. A couple questions. Do they ever lock in place or are they always movable ? I Just dumped a bunch onto my fog wall topic to test it out.

I have edited out a chink that I found in the armor. It will be fixed so that the flags probably won't be able to do what I did as a test.
 
Burra Maluca
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Dale Hodgins wrote:I've tried out the flags. A couple questions. Do they ever lock in place or are they always movable ?



I think you can always get them back. There may be a few glitches, like if we have to compost a thread that's flagged. But I think that if a moderator marks a thread as resolved the flags all go home to their owners, so we might have to remember to do that if the occasion arises. Also, they are new, so there may be more glitches we haven't found yet.
 
Craig Dobbson
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So can I barter my flags? Like could I trade my flags for seeds or whatever with other permies? If somebody with no flags wanted to grab some attention on a topic of theirs could they barter something for my flags? Can you drop money in a paypal account and then tell me what topic you want the flags on? Like paid advertizing!

Just asking.
 
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bump
 
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Burra Maluca wrote:

Dale Hodgins wrote:I've tried out the flags. A couple questions. Do they ever lock in place or are they always movable ?



I think you can always get them back. There may be a few glitches...But I think that if a moderator marks a thread as resolved the flags all go home to their owners, so we might have to remember to do that if the occasion arises.


Oh ho ho, this flag thing could be fun!
So, flag-happy members, feel free to hit 'report' on a thread you consider resolved if you'd like your flags back!
 
pollinator
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The flag system has obviously improved since 5 years ago, I see as I read this thread.

I still have a burning question though: Do they work only by attracting visual attention to the thread? So I'm helping the topic out by making a brightly colored little flag appear in the general list with a number 1 or 3 or 30 next to it? Or does my giving out flags, and giving a thread 30 flags instead of 3 for instance, actually help the topic circulate onto the front page more often or something like that?

If it's just a visual thing, then it seems like the impact of giving a thread 1 flag is pretty similar to giving 30.

Anyone really know how this works?
 
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Ah, flags.

Personally, when I see more than 1 or 3 flags on a thread, I find it kind of a turn off--like someone's trying make me interested in that thread by using their apple power. I'm a bit stuborn and contrary by nature, so that might just be my one weird reaction and no one else's.

I do know that when more than, like, 20 flags goes on a thread, it does really weird things to people's screens, making it hard to navigate the page. I'll demonstrate by putting an insane amount of flags on this thread.

When I see 1 or 3 flags on a thread, it makes me think, "Oh, someone really needs some help here, I'll go take a look." I don't think more than that is really useful, but that's just me...
Staff note (Nicole Alderman) :

Ha! I just threw 250 flags at this thread and totally messed it up. Bwhahahahahaha!

Staff note (Nicole Alderman) :

Oooops, I totally messed up Recent Topics with all these flags. Maybe I should take away 100....

 
Dave de Basque
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Nicole, you're hilarious! 🤣🤣🤣

It's funny, people's views must be different according to what device and browser they use or something. For multiple flags, I get a flag with a number by it, not a big long row of flags, so it never really messes up my view.

I see the color change with more flags though.

See below.

It looks like it's just a visual thing to attract attention, though now with Nicole's "insane" number of flags, we can see if it exhibits any unusual behavior, such as taking a long time to slide off onto the next page or anything. Doubtful but worth a gander, just so we know.
Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-09.36.45.png
[Thumbnail for Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-09.36.45.png]
Lotsa flags
Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-09.37.43.png
[Thumbnail for Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-09.37.43.png]
Two flags
 
Nicole Alderman
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Ah, click the Recent Topic link at the top of your screen: https://permies.com/forums/recentTopics/list

Zoom in a bit, and you'll see all the collums go wonky...
 
Nicole Alderman
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And, here's what happens on this thread on my screen. At 90% zoomed in, it looks fine. But, if I'm zoomed it at the normal percentage of 100%, the  thread gets too wide to fit the screen because the flags stretch it out...
Flags-90-.jpg
flag demo
flag demo
Flags-100-.jpg
flag demo
flag demo
 
Dave de Basque
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Wow, I had never even noticed "Recent Topics" before!

Mine seems to behave well, the default view doesn't require text wrap, but then I zoom in, and the text wraps to the next line just fine and the columns stay all nice and purdy...
Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-10.36.40.png
default view
default view
Screenshot-2019-06-06-at-10.37.15.png
zoomed in
zoomed in
 
Dave de Basque
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OK, now I see the problem. I was looking on a big screen. When I narrow the screen a lot, I see that the big row of #X exclamation marks that is kind of incorporated just on the front of the post title when you give the post #X flags refuses to break lines itself. So it doesn't hyphenate, and it doesn't recognize that a row of 185 exclamation marks can be broken up at any point. Which would cause the much-dreaded horizontal scrolling and column wonkiness on smaller screens.

So this seems like a development (IT geek) issue: They need to program in something for these exclamation marks in particular (the ones that appear from assigning flags) or for exclamation marks in general, to allow them to either break or hyphenate if there is a line of, say, 6 or more of them, so they can wrap lines.
 
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And all this time I assumed that flags meant the thread was a "sponsored post" that someone was paying me to look at. Whoops! (sorry Permies, it`s been less than a year since I ditched social media and I'm still learning to trust again)
 
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The other day I had like 16 to give. Today I have 9. Do they expire?
 
Nicole Alderman
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They're tied to your apples. So if you have 29 apples, you have a total of 29 flags. Once you put them on a thread, they're on that thread.

So, if you put 12 on this thread, you'd have 17 left. But, when you get more apples, you get more flags. And, you can remove your flags from threads you put them on, and then you can use them elsewhere.

I'm not exactly sure how one finds where one put their flags in case they forgot...
 
Chris Watson
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Today my number is back up, with no new apples. It must have just been a temporary glitch.
 
Nicole Alderman
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Any forward progress on how one relocates where one has placed flags? To take them back?
 
Nicole Alderman
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Cindy Haskin wrote:Any forward progress on how one relocates where one has placed flags? To take them back?



I found it! Go to your "view profile" to look at your profile. Scroll down, and on the left side--under your likes/apples, and above your scavenger hunt--is a section that says "Forums and Threads." In that section is a link that says "Flagged threads." Click that, and you'll be taken to a list of all the threads you've flagged!
 
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I'm probably missing something, from not being as active here at Permies as I was a year or two ago. But it seems harder to find the Forums-section list of flagged topics. Where's the clickable title?

I've always thought the flags were intended to indicate that some forum members thought a particular thread was of special or abiding worth. Is it that flagging a thread apparently still remains possible, but the Flagged Threads system itself (fostering attention) has essentially been abandoned or brushed off?

Or, am I blind to some obvious link (clickable title) still on the site now?
 
Nicole Alderman
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I'm not sure if I have any answers here, but I have some thoughts.

(1) People on mobile view might not have access to the button that puts flags on things, and so less people use it, because over 50% of people on our site use mobile view. (EDIT: I just checked mobile view, and didn't see any way to add flags to a thread)

(2) Here's the link to the flagged topics page: https://permies.com/forums/posts/flagged. It's found under the little of a page in the desktop menu, and down in the main menu of desktop view.

(3) People might just not like using flags? Or know they can?
 
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Joel, are you asking where to find the "Flagged Topics"?

If so, look on the left-hand side below the address box. Do you see a piece of PIE? Next to it is a pull-down menu that looks like a rectangle. Click on that and you will find "Flagged Topics" with "Recent Topics", "Hot Topics" , etc.
 
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