• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

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

Is this a good idea?


  • Total voters
    44
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
335
WCA
2017OWEN01
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.
yeah but that’s 1 or 2 Accomplishment threads not 30 different ones.
"Hey I can't get faster now what"

That's way more interesting
Yeah but they should go in existing threads in which case it isn’t a problem
 

EngiNerdBrian

Premium Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
960
Location
Denver
YouTube
Visit Channel
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.
Well if “what’s happening on the forums” is people posting on their progress threads and that is annoying it sounds like what YOU WANT and what the COMMUNITY IS DOING are different things.

I am in no way insinuating that your preferences are incorrect or invalid it’s just a nice platform to say that it seems that there is an ideological difference between what some of us think the community should be and what others find annoying or unacceptable. This idea seems to be an underlying divide in this discussion.
 

Hazel

Premium Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
1,681
Location
in your walls :3
If there is a way to mute entire sub-forums, I think it would be a good idea to create a sub-forum for Progress Threads. This way, people who want to see them can see them, and those who don't can choose to mute them. If them cluttering up the home page and dissuading new members from joining becomes an issue, they can always be muted by default.
 

GenTheSnail

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
2,249
Location
Illinois, USA
WCA
2016GEEN01
YouTube
Visit Channel
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.

No one is arguing against improvement, practice, or progress. I don't know what thread that you've been reading that may have given you that idea, but if you've been reading this one, then you definitely need to pay more attention. I, and other people, are arguing against personal threads for updates. You can still practice, improve, and progress all you want. But you don't need to post about it every single time.

Something that I've voiced is the option of using your status to update your progress. I know that the posts are only limited to 420 characters, but maybe that could get expanded so that people could make fuller posts (even if not, you can just reply to the message with the rest of the post)

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.

Can you clarify this? I doesn't make any sense. Me arguing against someone posting in a progress thread does not have to do with their improvement or growth as a community. You not posting about finally learning your 5th OLL does not prevent you from learning the rest of OLL or improving you LL times.
(guys, status updates don't clutter the forum)

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.

lol

BUT WHAT IF I ACTUALLY DO WANT TO SEE SOMEONE SAY THEY BROKE A PB????

There's this really cool thread called the accomplishments thread, where you post when you break a PB. You can both watch the thread for new posts and follow people so you can see when they make a new post that may or may not be a PB.
(u can also use status updates and follow them for that)

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.

thats nice
have you considered that maybe other people don't? Because there are other people who don't.
(ssstatuss updatess don't get in the way)

The cubing community is unique in that we cheer the success of our rivals.

I don't know if you've ever, like, interacted with other people or been on a team of some kind, sports or otherwise, but cheering the success of rivals is in no way unique to the cubing community at all, whatsoever.
I recently started casually watching MMA, and I have seen fighters literally trash talk each other for days leading up to an event, punch each other in the face multiple times and then get up and congratulate each other on having a good fight.
I ran track in high school and university. I congratulated the other people in my heat both before and after races. I congratulated and was super excited for the the kid who beat me and got my spot to state. I've congratulated someone who beat me at the line by .15 seconds. And it's not just me, because I see lots of people around me congratulating each other after races, because they have healthy rivalries within their friendship and sportsmanship.

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.

says who? you say its my problem? well I say it's your problem
(seriously people this is what status updates are for)
 

ProStar

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Messages
6,246
Location
An uncolonized sector of the planet Mars
WCA
2020MAHO01
SS Competition Results
I don't know if you've ever, like, interacted with other people or been on a team of some kind, sports or otherwise, but cheering the success of rivals is in no way unique to the cubing community at all, whatsoever.

There's a difference between being a good sport and cheering your rival
 

Nmile7300

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
1,030
Location
Arizona
WCA
2019MILE04
YouTube
Visit Channel
No one is arguing against improvement, practice, or progress. I don't know what thread that you've been reading that may have given you that idea, but if you've been reading this one, then you definitely need to pay more attention. I, and other people, are arguing against personal threads for updates. You can still practice, improve, and progress all you want. But you don't need to post about it every single time.

Something that I've voiced is the option of using your status to update your progress. I know that the posts are only limited to 420 characters, but maybe that could get expanded so that people could make fuller posts (even if not, you can just reply to the message with the rest of the post)

The reason I said that is because without their progress thread as motivation, many people would not have improved as much. I highly doubt @PetrusQuber would have made as much improvement without the Quest to Sub 8 Petrus thread. The difference between my motivation before and after I made a progress thread is like night and day. Neither the accomplishment thread or status updates could give such a motivation boost. So yes, you are arguing against progress, because without progress threads, many people's motivation would go down.

Can you clarify this? I doesn't make any sense. Me arguing against someone posting in a progress thread does not have to do with their improvement or growth as a community. You not posting about finally learning your 5th OLL does not prevent you from learning the rest of OLL or improving you LL times.
(guys, status updates don't clutter the forum)
Let's use your analogy here. What I am trying to say is that without their progress thread, that person might not finish OLL or at least not as quickly as they would with the progress thread. The status updates that you keep suggesting are a far cry from progress threads and wouldn't be a suitable replacement.

There's this really cool thread called the accomplishments thread, where you post when you break a PB. You can both watch the thread for new posts and follow people so you can see when they make a new post that may or may not be a PB.
(u can also use status updates and follow them for that)
The thing is, progress threads contain much more than just accomplishments.

thats nice
have you considered that maybe other people don't? Because there are other people who don't.
(ssstatuss updatess don't get in the way)
@PetrusQuber I suggest we change the poll to "do you like hearing about other peoples' progress?"
I don't know if you've ever, like, interacted with other people or been on a team of some kind, sports or otherwise, but cheering the success of rivals is in no way unique to the cubing community at all, whatsoever.
@ProStar already dealt with this one.


says who? you say its my problem? well I say it's your problem
(seriously people this is what status updates are for)
It's your own problem that you don't care about someone else's improvement.



Here's the thing. If you don't like progress threads, then you don't have to look at them. They are just kind of popular right now, so just wait it out until they aren't anymore. The home page is not even cluttered yet. If you don't want to see progress threads then guess what? YOU DON'T NEED TO LOOK AT THEM!
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
335
WCA
2017OWEN01
The reason I said that is because without their progress thread as motivation, many people would not have improved as much. I highly doubt @PetrusQuber would have made as much improvement without the Quest to Sub 8 Petrus thread. The difference between my motivation before and after I made a progress thread is like night and day. Neither the accomplishment thread or status updates could give such a motivation boost. So yes, you are arguing against progress, because without progress threads, many people's motivation would go down.


Let's use your analogy here. What I am trying to say is that without their progress thread, that person might not finish OLL or at least not as quickly as they would with the progress thread. The status updates that you keep suggesting are a far cry from progress threads and wouldn't be a suitable replacement.


The thing is, progress threads contain much more than just accomplishments.


@PetrusQuber I suggest we change the poll to "do you like hearing about other peoples' progress?"

@ProStar already dealt with this one.



It's your own problem that you don't care about someone else's improvement.



Here's the thing. If you don't like progress threads, then you don't have to look at them. They are just kind of popular right now, so just wait it out until they aren't anymore. The home page is not even cluttered yet. If you don't want to see progress threads then guess what? YOU DON'T NEED TO LOOK AT THEM!
The don’t need to look at them thing doesn’t apply here because the problem is that the Threads appear when your looking for other things and if the only thing motivating you to cube is a random thread then that sounds like you don’t actually want to cube.
 

Nmile7300

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
1,030
Location
Arizona
WCA
2019MILE04
YouTube
Visit Channel
The don’t need to look at them thing doesn’t apply here because the problem is that the Threads appear when your looking for other things and if the only thing motivating you to cube is a random thread then that sounds like you don’t actually want to cube.
First of all, there are literally 3 progress threads on the home page at the time of writing. You could easily avoid looking at these threads, and even if there are more in the future, you don't need to click on them if you don't want to. Also, my progress thread isn't the only thing motivating me to cube. I cube because it is a fun hobby. I just think that my progress thread is at least partially responsible for my recent improvements, and I should not ignore its role in my practice.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2019
Messages
986
Location
Nashville, TN
WCA
2017MORR05
YouTube
Visit Channel
The don’t need to look at them thing doesn’t apply here because the problem is that the Threads appear when your looking for other things and if the only thing motivating you to cube is a random thread then that sounds like you don’t actually want to cube.
you can't just assume nobody wants to look at personal progress threads. I personally like watching how people progress in cubing, and many others have said that too. And I think that without my personal progress thread and all the encouragement other people have given me, I wouldn't be as close to being CN as I am now.
 

Kit Clement

Premium Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
1,631
Location
Aurora, IL
WCA
2008CLEM01
YouTube
Visit Channel
First of all, there are literally 3 progress threads on the home page at the time of writing. You could easily avoid looking at these threads, and even if there are more in the future, you don't need to click on them if you don't want to. Also, my progress thread isn't the only thing motivating me to cube. I cube because it is a fun hobby. I just think that my progress thread is at least partially responsible for my recent improvements, and I should not ignore its role in my practice.

"If you don't like off topic threads on the home page, don't look at them."

"If you don't like cubing cult threads on the home page, don't look at them."

"If you don't like personal progress threads on the homepage, don't look at them."

Sounds like I'll just not be going to SS anymore at this rate.

And I'm definitely not alone in this realization, lots of other cubers have made that decision too - the best speedsolvers we're almost universally on this forum about 6-7 years ago. Today's users may like these types of threads I've listed above, but it has honestly turned the forum into a more juvenile cubing forum rather than the one where cubing breakthroughs like Yau were first proposed and developed. Maybe that's just the natural progression here, as it's far more likely that 11-12 year old kids will be allowed to make SS accounts over Facebook accounts, which is where more productive cubing discussions are actually happening now.
 

Nmile7300

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2019
Messages
1,030
Location
Arizona
WCA
2019MILE04
YouTube
Visit Channel
"If you don't like off topic threads on the home page, don't look at them."

"If you don't like cubing cult threads on the home page, don't look at them."

"If you don't like personal progress threads on the homepage, don't look at them."

Sounds like I'll just not be going to SS anymore at this rate.

And I'm definitely not alone in this realization, lots of other cubers have made that decision too - the best speedsolvers we're almost universally on this forum about 6-7 years ago. Today's users may like these types of threads I've listed above, but it has honestly turned the forum into a more juvenile cubing forum rather than the one where cubing breakthroughs like Yau were first proposed and developed. Maybe that's just the natural progression here, as it's far more likely that 11-12 year old kids will be allowed to make SS accounts over Facebook accounts, which is where more productive cubing discussions are actually happening now.
I definitely see your point, but I'm personally fine with the majority of people on the forum being kids and teens because that's basically the main demographic of the cubing community. I understand what you mean about the forum being "childish", but honestly I think this is to be expected when kids and teens take up the majority of the cubing community. It is unfortunate that many of the great cubers that were on here back in the day are gone now, but this is probably how it will be for a while unless some kind of age limit is enforced. (And people would break that anyway)
 

PetrusQuber

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
3,460
Location
my house, cubing.
YouTube
Visit Channel
There are over 30 spots on the homepage for threads, it’s not that hard to look for active threads you want to see. And again, being able to filter threads and sub forums will be really useful. Moderators, is this viable?
 

Sub1Hour

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
1,873
Location
Utah
WCA
2018BECK05
YouTube
Visit Channel
And I'm definitely not alone in this realization, lots of other cubers have made that decision too - the best speedsolvers we're almost universally on this forum about 6-7 years ago. Today's users may like these types of threads I've listed above, but it has honestly turned the forum into a more juvenile cubing forum rather than the one where cubing breakthroughs like Yau were first proposed and developed. Maybe that's just the natural progression here, as it's far more likely that 11-12 year old kids will be allowed to make SS accounts over Facebook accounts, which is where more productive cubing discussions are actually happening now.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see more world-class speedcubers on this forum but that's not gonna happen for either a long time or ever. Unless some sort of giant change happens in the forums I don't see any world-class cubers coming back. It does however represent a majority of the speedcubing community and I find it just as fun to talk to someone like @brododragon who isn't all that fast (no offense bro) compared to a world-class solver. I do think that the focus of these forums has changed from "How can we make the best method/mods possible" to "Let's connect together as cubers". I don't think that one of them is objectively better than the other, but as of right now the major reason I am on SS is to talk with other cubes about pretty much anything. Now, if I wanted to go somewhere to find revolutionary ideas, I would go to the facebook groups but thats not what my interests are. I don't think that there is anything wrong with the forums as of right now aside from people just being unfamilliar/uneducated about how to use the forums. If we as a community on SS want to get the "Good Ol' Days" back, then maybe a separate forum that is still connected to SS would work.

Things have changed on SS, and that's okay.
 

BenChristman1

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2019
Messages
3,505
Location
The Land of 11,842 Lakes
WCA
2019CHRI11
SS Competition Results
My opinion is that if we really want people to come back to SS, we need to make a huge change. But if we really want cubing to evolve, we need to let the community decide where it takes us. We shouldn't be trying to force the activity in one direction or another, we should be changing things as necessary and letting the community make some decisions. One reason I think some people were enraged by the removal of Feet from the WCA is that there was absolutely no community involvement in the decision. If we want to keep current cubers, and keep getting new ones, we need to let the community decide what cubing should look like. Right now, as the WCA is formatted, it is just an oligarchy (fancy word for a few people rule the whole thing). I think that we should have some sort of system where we elect WCA leaders. Sure, this is probably a long ways in the future (in the unlikely chance that it ever happens), but I think that it would change cubing for the better, and it would make the community happier. As for the SS forums, there is really nothing we can do about all of the threads that one person likes reading, and another doesn't. I think that the idea of filtering subforums is great. I, personally, am not very into all of the puzzle theory stuff, but there are a lot of people who are. If some people like reading personal progress threads, great. If somebody hates all of those threads, then it would be nice for there to be a way to just filter them out.
Things have changed on SS, and that's okay.
 
Top