Pinned topics, possible separate "reference" forum for those. Your opinions please

[jklcpa]

On 6/4/2016 at 2:07 PM, Max W said:

Moderator!.  Might this be a topic worth pinning - to have the info needed for each state for retrieving the state withholding tax amounts?

The above was moved from an e-services question, and since some readers here complained that the pins at the top of the page caused unnecessary scrolling to read the active topics, I recently unpinned one for that very reason and was considering whether or not to unpin the one on states' EINs also when the above was brought up.

If anyone would like the states' withholding retrieval process or contact information in a pin, we could set up a separate thread for that so that the information isn't mingled in with discussion that would cause the user to have to scroll through a lot of text and discussion to find the useful information. That information could also be incorporated into the existing pinned topic about the state addresses and EINs.   I could easily do that by modifying the title and editing the one top post to include it there. 

 

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Maybe it would be worth considering a forum for pinned topics with just listing on this forum of all the pinned topics by subject.  With time and new (and older) folks facing new situations and the tax law changes, many topics are really worth pinning. Just my opinion at this moment.

[jklcpa]

58 minutes ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

Maybe it would be worth considering a forum for pinned topics with just listing on this forum of all the pinned topics by subject.  With time and new (and older) folks facing new situations and the tax law changes, many topics are really worth pinning. Just my opinion at this moment.

 

Do you envision something of a "Reference" forum?  In that case, they wouldn't need pinning if they were all reference-type topics that were mostly static anyway.

[Abby Normal]

I would support both a Reference forum and an ATX User Tips forum, for ease of finding both.

Earlier this year, I switched to viewing unread topics and comments as my primary view.

[Margaret CPA in OH]

Yes, Judy, I think what you describe would be workable.  It may be necessary to have some way to direct (newer or forgetful like me) folks there but so many currently pinned items are very useful.  Many things not pinned are often forgotten and the discussion gets regenerated rather than referenced.

Abby, how did you discover the unread topics and comments view?  Is that maybe in a pinned or not topic on how to use this site?  I'm still trying to find someone to teach me my smartphone!

[Abby Normal]

24 minutes ago, Margaret CPA in OH said:

Abby, how did you discover the unread topics and comments view? 

There's a small link at the top right of the page called Unread Content. Once you're on that page, you can pick filters at the top.

I wish I could filter out Drake and OLT forums, though.

[jklcpa]

1 hour ago, Abby Normal said:

There's a small link at the top right of the page called Unread Content. Once you're on that page, you can pick filters at the top.

I wish I could filter out Drake and OLT forums, though.

There appears to be a way to filter that, although I haven't tried so ymmv:

At the top left, click on "Activity" and then "Unread Content" from the submenu of items shown on the next lower horizontal bar.  That will bring up additional ways to filter the unread content. One of those selections is "Following" and it appears that if you were to choose the first option "Content posted in areas I follow" AND choose to only follow certain of the forums while not following others, I think that would accomplish what you want. You might have to click on that "Activity" when visiting the forum, not sure about that, and you always have the default if you want to look at the entire page. 

Users can also customize the type of notifications of followed content and notification frequency from within the user's profile, specifically within the account settings section.