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[Goatmaan]

I'm still playing 40.19. On a 6*6 map, my mega fort keeps
a very high idler count. Having a very low fps is offset very
nicely by 2 or 3 hundred idlers. I simply do batch jobs, time to
cut trees and haul logs, ok. Done with that? Ok lets dump some
clothes, done? Lets mine and haul stones, done? Lets do some flooring.

Its pretty nice to watch them on the surface getting logs, or a flock of
masons haul stones, even at very low fps, mass haul jobs get done very
quickly!
Unfortunately game time still passes slowly, VERY slowly.

    Goatmaan

[quintilius]

i've had a couple forts with different experiences. A larger one with the temple set to unaffiliated where half the fort was praying or partying or writing books.  It's sorta fun to be honest - because in the past i always had waaaay too many idlers, which made me just want to limit the population.  Then i've had other forts where the taverns became problems because of drunken brawling (and a drunk stumbling miner dropping all his clothes, then having to go retrieve his pants).  The problem with the temples was that people who started praying and had been doing it for a while would get depressed because they werent accomplishing anything - and hence spend more time Worshipping!. Call it a Prayer Spiral.  So i'm going to try a very small (and alcohol-free) tavern, a smallish library, and an extremely small temple with very little room for Worshippers.  I've tried using civilian alerts to get them to leave - even disabling the temples altogether - but i still had a half dozen dwarves who insisted on staying in there.

So yeah - all 3 of them are new 'problems' to sort out. The benefits of libraries keeping doctors from going rusty is good - but i'm not sure i cant solve the problems with scupture gardens and zoos like the old days. But that's no fun - i mean - i've done that   So yeah, i dont think taverns are necessarily a great thing, but all 3 of these area ideas have potential

[Elanorea]

In my experience, you can get dwarves to leave the temple by removing the meeting area entirely - either through i-x-X if assigned as a zone, or through (f)reeing the piece of furniture if assigned through furniture. I usually only have the temple active when they're starting to get unfocused due to not enough prayer.

[Panando]

A good way to handle idlers is conscription. Military training keeps them busy and makes them useful.

[Niddhoger]

Complaining about idlers (outside of roleplay) just shows a misunderstanding of the game mechanics. Dwarves with no jobs assigned idle, so it's 100% your fault if the idler rate is high (not that it matters). Dwarves avoiding work to do other things are listed as doing those other things, not as idlers.
There's a lot less 'idlers' since temples, libraries and taverns were added.

Not just this, but there is only so much work that needs doing at any given time.  Trying to force 100% efficiency just creates needless busy work or massively overproduces products to the point of FPS death.  Once you set your fortress up, the only consumables that it needs are food/drink/clothing/ammo. Only a fraction of your fort is needed to accomplish these needs (~20 including haulers?), mindlessly creating more just to atom-smash it to avoid FPS death because there is just too much of it to unload on the caravan (not that we need anything from it in the first place) JUST to keep the idler count low... is beyond silly. 

Also, if you do find productive work to force the idle count down to nothing, it means you won't have the workforce on hand to do something NOW.  You'll have to either wait for the current work to be done, or start tweaking labors/cancelling jobs to respond to the new threat/issue.  Don't think of them as "idlers," think of them as "on-standby"

[Urist McShire]

Complaining about idlers (outside of roleplay) just shows a misunderstanding of the game mechanics. Dwarves with no jobs assigned idle, so it's 100% your fault if the idler rate is high (not that it matters). Dwarves avoiding work to do other things are listed as doing those other things, not as idlers.
There's a lot less 'idlers' since temples, libraries and taverns were added.

Not just this, but there is only so much work that needs doing at any given time.  Trying to force 100% efficiency just creates needless busy work or massively overproduces products to the point of FPS death.  Once you set your fortress up, the only consumables that it needs are food/drink/clothing/ammo. Only a fraction of your fort is needed to accomplish these needs (~20 including haulers?), mindlessly creating more just to atom-smash it to avoid FPS death because there is just too much of it to unload on the caravan (not that we need anything from it in the first place) JUST to keep the idler count low... is beyond silly. 

Also, if you do find productive work to force the idle count down to nothing, it means you won't have the workforce on hand to do something NOW.  You'll have to either wait for the current work to be done, or start tweaking labors/cancelling jobs to respond to the new threat/issue.  Don't think of them as "idlers," think of them as "on-standby"

This, plus an influx of idlers I don't need for a megaproject construction always smells like a draft to me, which also causes me to make job orders for more armour, weapons, and uniform parts.