Approvals - Do you want to see them or not?

[140_takes_4ever]

We seem to have reached an interesting cross roads with a host of approvals being issued by INS in the near past. Hopefully this is a harbringer of good tides. It is interesting to note that people are actually talking about it being a clutter as compared to it being the most sought after thread in times past.

The approvals have been showing up with such great regularity, that the rest of the the forum business gets pushed down. Also it diverts the energy of the forum from continuing the fight to reduce backlogs, into waiting for approvals. Not to mention that consolidating approvals in one thread makes for easy browsing.

Everyone appreciates and thanks the good folks who post their approval information for everyone to see. These approvals give a very important indication of the progress that INS has been making in reducing the backlogs, and allows people to share the joy of an approval with friends they have never met or seen.

So here is the proposal, please cast your vote on whether you would like to see each individual approval posted on the main thread, or moved to a sub forum? Offcourse the approvals will continue to be tracked in the single tracker thread in the main forum.

Thanks for your time and vote.

 

[cosmos]

I voted for sub-folder. But there may be another way of doing this too.

I actually like the idea of someone posting an approval on the main thread and thanking the people who helped the person get through the ordeal. But all the congratulatory messages that follow should be taken to the sub-folder. Only specific questions or request for information should be posted on the approval thread. Congratulatory messages clutter much more than the actual number of approval threads.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for high-fives, but that certainly pushes campaign threads way down quickly.

140_takes_forever made another good point. Some people keep asking information which is available in archives. This clutters too. Maybe, we should keep a FAQ thread. Sample questions would be "What is the format of fax inquiry? What is the number to fax? What is FBI name check?". These are all important questions, but have been answered many times before. If people like this idea, I can create a FAQ thread. If there is already such a thread, please let us know where it is.

Thanks.

 

[zipzap]

How about this?

I would think a sub-forum would be a good idea but how about this:
Remember how we used to have certain petitions posted that we needed to sign? They had a table format and any time someone would enter the information you could see there details and others details on that table............. Couldn't we do something like that for approvals? We could have fields like :
username
RFE (y/n)
FP (date)
Concurrent (y/n)
RD
AD
comments
etc......

It would make the information a lot more easier to read........
Ofcourse I have no clue if this forum has the capability to create tables but it would sure be a nice option.........

 

[djh]

I understand the discussion about subforms etc but I also think it incumbant on us as a forum to "put up with some clutter"

After waiting for 2 or 3 or 4 years I think the least we can do is let whoever gets approved their day in the sun and to have the various individuals congratulate them.

I think all the messages of congratulations would get lost in the subforum or would not happen and I think it would be an injustice for those who have waited so long to share their joy with us.

Sure it may be an inconvenience but I think it a small one and I actually enjoy coming to the forum and seeing instantly each ones approval

In summary I guess what I'm saying is that it would be a sad situation for the sake of "efficiency" we set aside peoples importance and emotions on the day they've been waiting for, for possibly years having their lives on hold. "Efficiciency", it makes me think we are turning into a government department thinking about people like numbers instead of the individuals they are, each with their own story.

 

[140_takes_4ever]

Looks like it is going down to the wire. I am not sure I completely agree with the fact that the messages will get lost in the sub folder, though I agree that congratulatory messages are NOT clutter (I would have hated it if I could not congratulate a few people like PCee and Kashmir). But if moving to a sub folder will cause even a single person to not post their details then I would strongly vote against it.

So here is a compromise solution. How about us creating a sub folder, but not enforcing the practise too stringently? In which case, it is up to each and everyone's discretion as to where they want to post their approval. (Their threads will NOT be moved around by moderators) I would imagine that within a short period of a month or two, we will know general trends. The least it buys us is, some reduction in the approval congratulatory traffic for those who prefer it that way. And gives the approval posters the freedom to choose, which should satisfy the rest of us?

Is that a feasable move?

 

[ThelastMile]

A few thoughts:
1) The postings should be moved to subforum ">>>>>Tracker, I-485, California Service Center<<<<<" and we should ask folks to post there. That, I believe is the right location for such postings.
2) Having specific format of posting would help but I prefer requesting for a few data points as highly recommended and the user should be able to freely add his/her own, without adhering to a format, The user could potentially add case specific information that might help.
Example: Highly recommended: among others ND, RFE details (if any), AD
Case specific details: FP done earlier than indicated, Expedite request rejected etc.,
3) We should have a FAQ, which will be a living document. The FAQ should be at the top (sticky). To start the FAQ, We could start a thread to collect question/answers to add to it and finally consolidate the questions and post them. I personally expect the FAQ to be fairly large but if properly organized very usable. As CSC's polices change we need to update the FAQ.
We should also revisit the "stickiness" of some of the threads we have now. Some of them don't seem to be so relevant anymore.
As far as tracking thread is concerned, it is getting harder to track all the approved messages now that such posting have steadily increased. I would still want to get an idea of the numbers though. I see that other forums use rupnet for such tracking (members update their status there)

 

[cosmos]

Looks like it is going down to the wire. I am not sure I completely agree with the fact that the messages will get lost in the sub folder, though I agree that congratulatory messages are NOT clutter (I would have hated it if I could not congratulate a few people like PCee and Kashmir). But if moving to a sub folder will cause even a single person to not post their details then I would strongly vote against it.

So here is a compromise solution. How about us creating a sub folder, but not enforcing the practise too stringently? In which case, it is up to each and everyone's discretion as to where they want to post their approval. (Their threads will NOT be moved around by moderators) I would imagine that within a short period of a month or two, we will know general trends. The least it buys us is, some reduction in the approval congratulatory traffic for those who prefer it that way. And gives the approval posters the freedom to choose, which should satisfy the rest of us?

Is that a feasable move?

I was not against congratulatory messages. I certainly feel that these messages clutter and therefore should be moved to a sub-folder. But as reasonable people, we will agree to disagree on that point.

But your compromise solution is a good idea. And I think it will work too.

Regards!

 

[max2k1]

sub-forum is a neato way - just like I had said in my original post
( http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=127866#post795501 )

Thanks!

 

[kadamtal]

Ok, here is the deal. If congratulatory messages and other faq's are as important as serious activities, then why not create a sub-folder for the serious activities.

That way, you know, if anyone is really serious enough to come to the thread and participate in activities...

My thoughts!

 

[gc0299]

kadamtal, I think that approvals are the most serious activities, our little luxury of joy and hope.

 

[kadamtal]

Ok gc0299, i re-phrase it, "Let us create a sub-folder for little less serious activities like fax/email campaigns ,events etc"