I always just assumed that Yves was the only one who did it and I know how insaely busy he is, so I didn't really worry about it.

i believe stewf helps with the ID boards when he is available. maybe jared and joe need to recruit you, patty. ;^P

Last I looked there were like 4 moderators, am I wrong about that? if so, sorry Yves!

Yves is the only one who does the TYPE ID board. Stephen helps, but it really is Yves' party. Other moderators are afraid of Yves and so we let him have his only play area. :^P

sorry then... I'll shut up.

You could always make a simple "update" post in the threads that you see slipping through the cracks to keep them returning to the front page.

I also believe...as long as we help get the ID solved then we've done our job. Granted it doesn't help when people search or are perusing the Type ID board but the original task at hand is completed. :-)

One benefit to the IDers is that we don't spend time reading threads that are already answered. It would be great if there was a way for us to set a flag for Yves (or whoever has Closeout authority) that says we think we have solved the question. Then those threads can be checked more quickly to get concurrence and closure by the moderator.

Would that be possible?

- Mike Yanega

To further clarify my suggestion -- the 'flag' I was talking about should be something that shows up in the Type ID Board list of threads, so that we can all see which threads are probably already answered, even if they don't have the official 'X' and braces on them.

That would help us, and the posters, and harried Yves.

- Mike Yanega

I think Mike more clearly expressed what I was after - that when I go to the site I want to look only at the unsolved IDs or to find out what the experts have ID'd and when there are pages and pages of threads with out the {x} it's hard to know.

And it doesn't help that so many threads are titled "Help ID this font!" which I KNOW is not Yves's fault!

A few options to weed out solved IDs would help.
A good way would be to have 3 tabs up the top to open up seperate sub pages which could be:
1) Unanswered posts
2) Pending posts (replied to but not officially solved) and
3) Solved posts.
This way people could look in a more focused and uncluttered way.
And in each seperate sub page/section you could have a few options for each like:
1) omit posts older than X-days.
2) omit "cold" posts after x-days of inactivity.
3) Flag "Hot" topics to appear at the top of the list..
ETC ECT

And it doesn’t help that so many threads are titled “Help ID this font!” which I KNOW is not Yves’s fault!

Typophile needs some kind of smart filter, so thread subjects like that would:
(a) be refused and show a popup kindly reminding people not to do it;
(b) be instantly deleted;
(c) provoke a complete crash of poster's browser and OS.

I vote for (c) >:)

Sorry -- extremely busy. Clean now, explain later.

OK, it's 01:45 am now, and I had to drive all the way back to work to print the remainder of the 192 page book I designed the past two weeks, as they need to be proof-read by my colleague first thing this morning. While the prints are rolling out of the machine, I'll tell you guys a little story.

Once upon a time, I was a 'regular' visitor of Typophile. Managed to pull off a couple of successful ID's, built up a little rep, got friendly with a number of people. In those days, the Stewfmeister literally owned this place.

At some point, the tagging, (x)-ing and renaming of successful identifications was introduced. It was a vast improvement for the reasons we all know, but Stephen once explained me how much work it was. He had to open every single thread, check if it was identified and by whom, double-check both sample and result to assess if the identification was correct, then go to the Admin side and tag and rename the thread. All went well until I noticed that -- as traffic started to exponentially grow -- Stephen appeared to have trouble keeping up. I did know he was a busy guy, being co-owner of Typographica and actively involved in a couple of other type websites, but it still came to a point where I started to get annoyed by the lateness of the tagging.

Did I start a thread on the forum to whine about it? Nope, I sent an offline e-mail to Stephen, offering to help him with the maintenance of the Type ID Board. And now it's me who's head honcho of this place.

I realise this might sound like I'm ticked off, but don't worry, I'm not. That's why I first cleaned some of the backlog before replying. I just wanted to put some stuff into context.

The prints are all done, so I'll continue with some 'splainin' of the current situation tomorrow. Then, after that, I'll peek into my crystal ball and tell you what might be in store for this area once Typophile finally gets out of Beta.

Bear with me, it'll be worth it.

Oh, before I sign off a little clarification:

It says on the Forums page that the Type Identification Board is sponsored by FontShop, and there occasionally is some advertising on the site, plus there are quite a few paying members.

Don't be mistaken -- I don't see any of this money, not one cent. I wouldn't want to neither, but the fact still remains that I invest real actual time into this place, and quite a substantial amount even, for free. I used to participate in General Discussions, and I used to pull off double the ID's I do now. Not anymore, as I don't have any time left besides my family, my work, my independent graphic design activity, my rock band, and my three (soon four) writing assignments.

Please don't think I'm playing the victim here -- I like doing this, because it allows me to give to the community, to provide a real and valuable service. I'm not complaining, but maybe a reminder of the proper context was in order.

As I said before -- more later.

I just wish you the best of luck in your own activities. Any contributions here are appreciated, and any help you give me when I bother you on AIM is even better.

I hope to see you at TypeCon this summer. Take care of the important stuff!

Thanks David. :^)

While driving home I realised I forgot to answer Patricia's original question:

Whenever my daytime job starts spilling over into my downtime -- which is never really 'down', but what's in a name -- my voluntary work is the first thing to be sidetracked. I've been racing against the clock to design this book, so that's why I couldn't keep up with the maintenance of the Board lately. Today I sacrificed my lunch break to clean at least the current page, and I'll see what more I can do this weekend.

As long as the new functionality of typophile isn't implemented, this will be a recurring situation. It has always been like that in the past, it will be like that in the foreseeable future.

I will take into consideration any and all applications for assistance and pass it on to J'n'J, but please keep in mind I'm just the cleaning lady here -- it's not up to me to decide whose profile can be upgraded and granted moderator access.

At this point I would just like to 'Thank You', Yves.
For all the work you had, and may have, with Typophile and the Type ID boards.
For all those helpful replies, for clearing things up.

( I actually dont quite understand / get this thread, but what ever. I dont know how some of you even find the time to be 'here', day and night. Even I try to get back on here, log in as often as I can, but 'The Real Life' and what some may call 'Work' is sometimes more than just 'catching' up, with me. I love Typophile, I really like and respect its fellow members, its just that there sure still ARE other things happening beside and beyond it. )

Thanks, Yves.
Thanks, Typophile.

Dav

* I wouldnt want to be a Typophile moderator, as I not even had / have the time to be a regular user / member / reader / poster, in here, lately. ( And, Thats why I do respect those unpaid, freelance 'Moderators' like Yves, who gave and give their heart blood for Typophile, for keeping, along with the participation of all the 'regular' members of course, this place alive, and, clean. )

Yves, you're the "Typografico Identica Rex*"!
However you manage to find the time I never could figure out.
And how you keep track of all those fonts is a bigger enigma :-)

* homemade Latin

I didn't mean to sound unappreciative of Yves's (or anybody's) hard work, I didn't understand how this worked exactly. I was just having trouble finding some threads and figuring out if they'd been ID'd.

So Yves, thank you for providing me with an excuse to take a break from work. Ironically I'm on this site more often when I'm swamped with work because I'm spending more time in front of my computer. When I'm not that busy I try to get out of the house and to my painting studio or a museum.