I preferred the In Memoriam thread when the notices were all in the OP, which was added to on the sad occasions the need arose.
Separating the names into individual posts will make new notices more visible, as the thread will have new posts; but removing the names from the OP makes it harder to remember the ones who have died.
May I suggest a compromise? Return the list to the OP, and keep the individual posts. This will entail one more step for Marley23; but it would alert Dopers when one of us dies, and make it easier to see the names of dead Dopers.
I’m not sure that solves the OP concern, which isn’t about missing new announcements. Under the new system you’d be likely to just see the new post only and not have a chance to remind ourselves of other dopers who died, unless you take the time to scroll through the whole thread.
By having a consolidated list in the OP in the In Memoriam thread, as well as a single new post added to the end, you can do both. It’s like visiting family grave sites when you have a funeral to go to. The focus is on the recent death, but it gives you a moment to remember all the others.
Right. I usually catch the death threads shortly after they appear. I check the In Memoriam thread every few months; but if a Doper dies, I’ll probably see it before it gets posted to In Memoriam.
When I went to In Memoriam, I looked at the list in the OP, remembering certain Dopers. It’s harder to do that now.
If there was a thread/post that explained the rationale for the change, could someone point me to it? Was it done so people could subscribe to it and be automatically notified when it was updated (i.e. no notice if it were just edited).
The extra lines do make it somewhat vexing to scroll through.
Here’s the thread. That’s exactly the issue- as it was, there was no way to know its been updated, as an edited post doesn’t show a date changeor come up new in your subscriptions, but a thread with a new post added to it does.
This is what I’d like; for new deaths to be listed in the OP. I can take or leave the individual posts, and have no objection to them. I’d just like to have all of the deaths (with links, as before) posted in the OP to make them easy to see.
I understand what you’d like, and the only response from moderation was a suggestion that people just subscribe to the thread. I’m asking what the objection is to having new deaths added to the OP.
ISTM to be a case of extra work–having to edit the OP and then add a new post.
If this is the case, then perhaps asking for a favour would be in order–this isn’t an ordinary circumstance of some members preferring X and some preferring Y. That is, in the ordinary case it’s generally sufficient to say “hey look, we’re mods with enough on our plate–the extra work isn’t really worth it.” I imagine the issue is further complicated given the nature of the post; it can’t be an easy thing to do.
But that notwithstanding, taking the time to double-post (which though can be described by some as trivially easy, still adds a layer of work to a volunteer task) would both notify subscribers that there has been a loss and keep our lost members interned together. This isn’t something to do in the ordinary course of running the board, but this is not an ordinary thread.
(Another option might be to turn on the yellow light thingy at the top of the board, but I don’t know if that’s related or how it functions).
Think of it like an article on Wikipedia. You can just scroll up and down, but it’s much more user-friendly when there is a table of contents so that you can click on the part you want to go to.
There are 46 posts in the thread now. People will die, and the thread will go to two pages. So it will no longer be a case of simply scrolling; the reader will have to jump between pages.
The posts are in chronological order by date of death. It would be much easier to find a name if the OP was returned to its original format, with everyone listed in it (and with the original links, of course).
ISTM that the reason someone requested the format change is that the poster was unaware of some deaths. I understand that, and sympathise. But the change makes it harder to ‘remember’ the dead Dopers (band name?), which is the whole point of having a memorial thread.
Fortunately, we’re not dying daily or weekly, or even monthly. While some deaths have been close together, the sad announcements are fairly infrequent. Returning the OP to its original state will require an extra step on your part. OTOH, it will make the thread much more readable. Giving the announcement its own post in the thread will alert people of new deaths, either when they see that the thread is unread or if they subscribe to it. So returning the OP to its original format and posting new announcements satisfies both parties – those who want to read the names and remember the posters, and those who just want the notification.
Since the thread is locked, stickied, and only updated to add a new entry by a mod, it just makes sense to have only the OP with a list of names, followed by the relevant link(s) for each name. May perhaps the date of last post or death.
I don’t know that we need the dates. If the names are in the OP as they were originally, then we only have to click on the link to see when it happened. I think the OP should just be returned to its original format and added to as necessary, and we can still have the additional posts for people who want to be notified.
It doesn’t, though. All you have to do is scroll or hit ‘Page Up,’ and moving from page one to page two isn’t exactly onerous either.
Yes, that’s exactly how the thread looked before I broke the OP into separate posts. That was all of two months ago. People said it would make it easier to see updates, and nobody thought it was going to make the thread less readable or create difficulties in ‘remembering’ people who had died previously.
It’s my impression is that the issue is of general readability (which is decimated by putting announcements in separate posts) versus notification to subscribers when there is a new addition (which doesn’t happen when merely editing the OP).
And readability takes a huge hit with separate posts, as Johnny L.A. points out. Not only is there extra space between lines, but that space is filled with visual clutter–icons, colours and text. I’d shit before I’d sign off on a printing a book like that and would refuse to hire a graphic designer who did that.