Personal Progress Threads. READ IF YOU HAVE ONE OR PLAN TO MAKE ONE.

[Username: Username:]

Maybe, but I’m not as active on Discord as I am on the forums, and I’m sure a lot of other people are too.

yeah but in there they can occasionally chat about their personal progress, I'm sure that people won't update their progress every minute

 

[CodingCuber]

Completely agree

 

[ep2]

The reason for the accomplishment thread is to consolidate achievements into one place rather than having everyone's own PB's cluttering the board. You're trying to tell me that progress deserves its own thread per person, despite "progress" being literally more frequent than a PB, and even more cluttering than a PB thread would be? If you don't think that rule applies to progress threads just because progress isn't a PB, then you're completely missing the point of the rule.

Yes, there's no argument that progress shouldn't be in one spot that doesn't clutter and stiffle other discussions. They are useful threads, for me at least, to see how people progress over time, and I learn a lot about how long it takes to achieve objectives and learnings from it.

The question is to how best to handle it. The options, unless I'm missing something are:
Accomplishment thread: This is more for genuine breakthroughs in achievement, and not personal strategies or goals
Superthread in general forum: hard to track individual progress, which for me, is the whole point of them
Users profiles: No easy way to see people's updates, without actively seeking it out.
Ban altogether: Stiffles a lot of conversation and engagement
Subforum: Best option for me, it solves all the above, and allows people to easily ignore if they chose to.

There are potential downsides, in that some threads are not incredibly insightful or useful, but in general, that gets managed by lack of responses or engagement. So the better threads, will last longer and rise to the top.

 

[PetrusQuber]

Yes, there's no argument that progress shouldn't be in one spot that doesn't clutter and stiffle other discussions. They are useful threads, for me at least, to see how people progress over time, and I learn a lot about how long it takes to achieve objectives and learnings from it.

The question is to how best to handle it. The options, unless I'm missing something are:
Accomplishment thread: This is more for genuine breakthroughs in achievement, and not personal strategies or goals
Superthread in general forum: hard to track individual progress, which for me, is the whole point of them
Users profiles: No easy way to see people's updates, without actively seeking it out.
Ban altogether: Stiffles a lot of conversation and engagement
Subforum: Best option for me, it solves all the above, and allows people to easily ignore if they chose to.

There are potential downsides, in that some threads are not incredibly insightful or useful, but in general, that gets managed by lack of responses or engagement. So the better threads, will last longer and rise to the top.

Yes, I agree. I never understood how posts cluttered the forums long term since they only take up one space on the bar, and fade quickly, put some people seem to point it out a lot. Maybe it clutters when trying to search for somebody's progress?

 

[Dylan Swarts]

I actually don't entirely understand the point of personal threads, unless it is actually something a lot of people are interested in. Not to be mean or anything but not many people would actively watch an average cuber progress like everyone else did at some point, or are also doing. Sure if a number of individuals care about Person X's progress in reaching a certain goal, world rank or NR or sub x, and it is a challenging goal, like PetrusQuber's, then it makes sense and I understand that. That's just my point of view on the matter. I feel the MBLD Discussion thread has almost become my personal thread since not many people post on there besides me. Lol

 

[ThisNameIsAlreadyTaken]

I actually don't entirely understand the point of personal threads, unless it is actually something a lot of people are interested in. Not to be mean or anything but not many people would actively watch an average cuber progress like everyone else did at some point, or are also doing. Sure if a number of individuals care about Person X's progress in reaching a certain goal, world rank or NR or sub x, and it is a challenging goal, like PetrusQuber's, then it makes sense and I understand that. That's just my point of view on the matter. I feel the MBLD Discussion thread has almost become my personal thread since not many people post on there besides me. Lol

Yes, but what is a challenging goal? I mean, it's not that PetrusQuber's the first one to try to use Petrus for (very fast) speedcubing. When does it make sense and when does it not? It's pretty much personal opinion at this point

 

[Dylan Swarts]

Very true, it does depend on opinion, but some goals are just harder to reach than others. For example top100 for multi is much easier than top100 for 3bld. So a more difficult goal would be top50 or 30 for multi. Regarding PetrusQuber's goal, it isn't the most common thing, but yes there are a bunch of people that are good at it.

 

[AlphaCuber is awesome]

Yes, but what is a challenging goal? I mean, it's not that PetrusQuber's the first one to try to use Petrus for (very fast) speedcubing. When does it make sense and when does it not? It's pretty much personal opinion at this point

Well he is trying to become the first petrus user to become sub 8 so that is a pretty challenging goal. I think that a progress thread should be attempting something no one has ever done before.

 

[ProStar]

Very true, it does depend on opinion, but some goals are just harder to reach than others. For example top100 for multi is much easier than top100 for 3bld. So a more difficult goal would be top50 or 30 for multi. Regarding PetrusQuber's goal, it isn't the most common thing, but yes there are a bunch of people that are good at it.

So If I change the title of my thread to "Quest to be Sub-Mark Boyanowski on Butter Eating [+ Other general updates]", is that okay?

 

[Nmile7300]

Here's my hot take. I honestly can't believe people are arguing AGAINST practice, AGAINST improvement, AGAINST progress. That is the real heart of the matter here. It has nothing to do with clutter. If you are arguing against progress threads, then you are actually arguing against the growth and progress of the community as a whole. I suspect some people are just jealous of other people's improvement so they are making an excuse to get that improvement to slow down or stop completely.

 

[Sub1Hour]

I mean it's not like anyone is forcing you to look at people's progress. I know that I for one am interested in @Micah Morrison's thread due to his square-1 progression, and I'm sure that many others are interested in seeing others improve their times. I don't see any real reason why good progress threads should go. Now, there is such thing as a bad progress thread, something that is just there to take up space and whatever, but most of these active threads are well managed and don't have any issues with them. Most of the issues people have with these threads are just because there are a few bad threads that aren't well managed or interesting. A lot of people making these threads aren't just average cubers. I can easily see @Owen Morrison becoming world-class in megaminx due to his rapid improvement and I am very interested in seeing where he goes. I can also see @Cubingcubecuber becoming a major figure due to his ties with HK. Most of the threads aren't hurting anyone, especially the ones that people asked for. I even made a profile post to see if people wanted me to make one, and they said yes so I did. Also, the whole clutter thing only applies to a few threads, since most of the time its only major improvements or a new alg set. I will say it again no one is forcing you to read these threads if you aren't interested just don't read them. It's okay if a thread only has a few active users on it, as long as people enjoy them they have their place on these forums. Another point, they are basically a biography of someones cubing career. These forums have stuff on them from the early days of the cubing scene, basically archives of a time that passed. These progress threads can be an archive for the next generation of cubing, If someone made a progress thread in 2008, I would love to look at it and see what the scene looked like in 2008. These threads also help someone get the motivation to get better. It's much easier to follow your goals if you have a way to keep track of them and if you also get support from others, these threads accomplish both simultaneously.

TLDR; If you don't like progress threads, don't read them. They are important because they are a time capsule, and they also serve as motivation to get better.

 

[Nmile7300]

Indeed. I for one have been much more motivated to practice and get world class at big cubes because of my progress thread.

 

[brododragon]

Hey everything is fine right now so how about we stop arguing cuz it ain't broken.

 

[AlphaCuber is awesome]

The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “my quest to sub 17 with cn cfop” or “Luke skywalker‘s personal progress thread (mind Levitation PB 10 rocks!)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse if there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them.

 

[ProStar]

The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “my quest to sub 17 with cn cfop” or “Luke skywalker‘s personal progress thread (mind Levitation PB 10 rocks!)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse if there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them.

You could say that for anything.

"The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “2x2x3 Discussion and Help” or “Heise Discussion & Help (+ OAQT)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse because there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them."

 

[Sub1Hour]

The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “my quest to sub 17 with cn cfop” or “Luke skywalker‘s personal progress thread (mind Levitation PB 10 rocks!)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse if there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them.

If you consider 4 progress threads to be insanely cluttered, then yes there are too many,

Seriously, there are only 4 active progress threads for specific users on the home page.

 

[AlphaCuber is awesome]

You could say that for anything.

"The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “2x2x3 Discussion and Help” or “Heise Discussion & Help (+ OAQT)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse because there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them."

Except that’s what people come to a forum for not to see random people say they broke a PB.

If you consider 4 progress threads to be insanely cluttered, then yes there are too many,

Seriously, there are only 4 active progress threads for specific users on the home page.

Ok at the moment it’s not to bad but it definitely has been at pints in the last couple months and I think it would get a lot worse if there was a dedicated sub forum.

 

[ep2]

The problem is that many people who go on the forums just look at recent threads and its always full of “my quest to sub 17 with cn cfop” or “Luke skywalker‘s personal progress thread (mind Levitation PB 10 rocks!)“ which is annoying when you want to see what’s happening on the forums. Also this will become way worse if there is an official sub forum because everyone will make them.

There's a sub forum for puzzle modding, for example, I don't go into it, as it's not something I'm really interested in. There could be 1 new thread in there, or hundreds, and it would literally make no difference to me, unless I was interested in that part of speedcubing.

Would there me more personal threads in a sub forum for personal threads? Yes, probably. Who would that impact? Only the people interested in seeing more personal threads.

 

[Nmile7300]

Except that’s what people come to a forum for not to see random people say they broke a PB.

BUT WHAT IF I ACTUALLY DO WANT TO SEE SOMEONE SAY THEY BROKE A PB????
I personally love hearing about other people's progress, it inspires me to get better myself. I know plenty of other people feel the same way. The cubing community is unique in that we cheer the success of our rivals. Lots of people come to the forums to hear about how someone else is improving. If you don't want to hear about someone else's success, that's your problem.

 

[Sub1Hour]

Except that’s what people come to a forum for not to see random people say they broke a PB.

How can you prove this? I check accomplishment threads all the time to see what people are up to. Just because you aren't interested in something doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't pay attention either.

Spoiler: Side tangent

I see a kind of argument on these threads and on the WCA forum a lot where if someone has a problem, and then someone says "oh that has not happened to me so its not a problem for anyone else then too." This kind of stuff is ludicris. I have seen it happen on Github as well when people were trying to find a solution to counteract timer resets and then someone came along and said "I have never had a timer reset, just stop the timer with your thumbs in and you will be fine" and then the thread was closed. That stuff does not help solve problems nor does it help the solution. Be mindful of what other people's experiences were and don't shrug them off because you haven't been in their circumstance before.

Ok at the moment it’s not to bad but it definitely has been at pints in the last couple months and I think it would get a lot worse if there was a dedicated sub forum.

Would there me more personal threads in a sub forum for personal threads? Yes, probably. Who would that impact? Only the people interested in seeing more personal threads.