December Threads of the Month.

[Vanamonde]

It's December already? Huh. When did that happen?

We didn't get many nominations this time. We can't honor them if you don't nominate them, folks. But here are the ones you felt and we felt were deserving this month.  

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@adsii1970 liked this thread pretty well, and so did many other folks. 

The lights add color, but they're not just eye candy and actually convey useful information about game parts. It's the kind of meticulous work @Snark puts into everything he does, including moderating. 

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Next up is @cratercracker's ruminations on why he used to like KSP. 

And why he still does. Nominated by @The_Cat_In_Space. 

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What gamer doesn't like to brag? None of us, that's who. And now here's your chance, as @AlamoVampire wants to know about... 

You may have told your best story already. So what? Tell it again.

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Thank you to those who nominated and congratulations to those who were selected. Wear your badge with pride. 

 

[drtedastro]

How do we nominate?

[Snark]

16 minutes ago, drtedastro said:

How do we nominate?

Easiest thing to do is probably to just report the post that you'd like to nominate-- that'll ping the moderator team and we'll be sure to see it.  Just be sure to include a note with your report, saying that you're nominating the thread for TotM.

[drtedastro]

thanks snark.

appreciate the quick come back and info.

cheers.

[purpleivan]

6 minutes ago, Snark said:

Easiest thing to do is probably to just report the post that you'd like to nominate-- that'll ping the moderator team and we'll be sure to see it.  Just be sure to include a note with your report, saying that you're nominating the thread for TotM.

I'd never have guessed that... it seems very counter intuitive, in that it's a mechanism associated with something highly negative (this thread has a serious issue that I need to report) used for something very positive (this thread is great, please make it thread of the month).

If this is the system, I would seriously think about changing it... that or somehow heavily promoting its use for this purpose in the forum.

Edited December 2, 2018 by purpleivan

[Snark]

8 hours ago, purpleivan said:

it's a mechanism associated with something highly negative

Hm?  No it isn't, not even slightly.  It's not any more negative than picking up a telephone and dialing the operator (if that's still a thing... gosh I'm old).  Maybe you could do it to report abusive phone calls-- but maybe you're simply asking for directory assistance^*.

It's simply a way of getting the moderator team's attention, nothing more-- people use it all the time for friendly purposes-- e.g. "help, I accidentally posted, could you remove my post for me" or "could you lock my thread, please" or "here's someone who looks like he's asking for help, maybe move this to Gameplay Questions"

...or, in this case, "hey, this would make a great TotM." 

8 hours ago, purpleivan said:

or somehow heavily promoting its use for this purpose in the forum.

Well, what do you think I just did?    I'm sorry if you've somehow gotten it into your head that reporting is an inherently "negative" thing, but if anyone ever told you that, it certainly wasn't one of us moderators.  We frequently (and publicly) encourage people who ask us "how do I <get hold of the moderator team for some reason>" to report things.

To go back to @drtedastro's original question about "how do we nominate"-- the short answer is "just let the moderator team know".  It doesn't really matter how.  It's not super formal, all we need is for someone to point us somehow at the plaudit-worthy thread in question.

I only mentioned reporting, specifically, because forum users sometimes get the (wrong) idea that the best way to engage us is to send a PM to some moderator, or to @-ping us (e.g. like this: @Snark) in a message.  There's nothing wrong with doing those things, of course (people do it all the time, and it's fine)... but those mechanisms aren't as "effective", because they're directed at a single moderator and therefore are subject to the vagaries of individual people's schedules.  For example, if you send one of us a PM, what if that particular moderator happens to be off on vacation or something?  Remember, we're just volunteers who do this in our spare time, it's not like we punch a clock.  The advantage of using the "report" feature is that it'll ping whichever moderators happen to be online at the time, which is a prompter and more reliable way of getting our attention than "PM a random moderator and hope they're around this week".

(It's also more convenient for us, too, because reports get in our faces and stay in our faces until we explicitly dismiss them, so we don't have to worry about something getting lost in the shuffle and forgotten.)

 

^*"Directory assistance" is a thing that old people used to use to find telephone numbers, back in the Pleistocene when people still cared about phone numbers.  It was in the days before Google and involved talking to an actual human.

[swjr-swis]

35 minutes ago, Snark said:

It's not any more negative than picking up a telephone and dialing the operator (if that's still a thing... gosh I'm old).

 

[purpleivan]

7 hours ago, Snark said:

Hm?  No it isn't, not even slightly.  It's not any more negative than picking up a telephone and dialing the operator (if that's still a thing... gosh I'm old).  Maybe you could do it to report abusive phone calls-- but maybe you're simply asking for directory assistance^*.

It's simply a way of getting the moderator team's attention, nothing more-- people use it all the time for friendly purposes-- e.g. "help, I accidentally posted, could you remove my post for me" or "could you lock my thread, please" or "here's someone who looks like he's asking for help, maybe move this to Gameplay Questions"

...or, in this case, "hey, this would make a great TotM." 

Well, what do you think I just did?    I'm sorry if you've somehow gotten it into your head that reporting is an inherently "negative" thing, but if anyone ever told you that, it certainly wasn't one of us moderators.  We frequently (and publicly) encourage people who ask us "how do I <get hold of the moderator team for some reason>" to report things.

To go back to @drtedastro's original question about "how do we nominate"-- the short answer is "just let the moderator team know".  It doesn't really matter how.  It's not super formal, all we need is for someone to point us somehow at the plaudit-worthy thread in question.

I only mentioned reporting, specifically, because forum users sometimes get the (wrong) idea that the best way to engage us is to send a PM to some moderator, or to @-ping us (e.g. like this: @Snark) in a message.  There's nothing wrong with doing those things, of course (people do it all the time, and it's fine)... but those mechanisms aren't as "effective", because they're directed at a single moderator and therefore are subject to the vagaries of individual people's schedules.  For example, if you send one of us a PM, what if that particular moderator happens to be off on vacation or something?  Remember, we're just volunteers who do this in our spare time, it's not like we punch a clock.  The advantage of using the "report" feature is that it'll ping whichever moderators happen to be online at the time, which is a prompter and more reliable way of getting our attention than "PM a random moderator and hope they're around this week".

(It's also more convenient for us, too, because reports get in our faces and stay in our faces until we explicitly dismiss them, so we don't have to worry about something getting lost in the shuffle and forgotten.)

 

^*"Directory assistance" is a thing that old people used to use to find telephone numbers, back in the Pleistocene when people still cared about phone numbers.  It was in the days before Google and involved talking to an actual human.

Maybe I've missed something specific to this forum, but the primary purpose of "report post" on most forums is the reporting of unsuitable content. Fortunately on this forum such content is extremely rare, so perhaps the negative connotations I have regarding of "report post", might be misplaced here. My comment wasn't meant as any kind of dig at the decision to use this, just extreme surprise, as I've been on this forum for 4 years and this was the first time I'd seen reference to the report post system being used to nominate threads.

I understand that your post with the information about using this method for nominating threads of the month, highlights this mechanism. However as things stand, shortly after this thread becomes un-stickied (and replace by the one for January), it will drop down the list in the Announcements section, and the highlighting of that information will disappear. Would it be possible to put this information somewhere more long term and prominent, so that future threads of the month stand the best chance of a complete set of nominations.

Again, this isn't meant as criticism, just a suggestion.

[Vanamonde]

If you don't want to use the report button to nominate a thread, just send a moderator a PM. No one will force you to do it through a report.

Now please get back to honoring this month's selections. 

[cratercracker]

what is going on

[cubinator]

19 hours ago, cratercracker said:

what is going on

people are appreciating your contributions to the community

[Chel]

Hmm... 'First hours in KSP' and 'Finest hour in KSP' sound similar. But hey, they say that imitation is the finest form of flattery!

[Superfluous J]

39 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Hmm... 'First hours in KSP' and 'Finest hour in KSP' sound similar. But hey, they say that imitation is the finest form of flattery!

...and the first form!

Congrats to the winners and I'd just like to say IndicatorLights is one of those all-time favorites of mine. once you get used to them you can't live without.

[AlamoVampire]

I am truly humbled to see a thread of mine get not only nominated but chosen as a Thread of the Month! Thank you all very much!

[Cerallias]

Wow, that's interesting! (I'm just doing this for the beginning 5 posts, Moderators, please approve, thanks!)