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[Drazinononda]

Bins?  Hate 'em.  Space is cheap and quantum stock piles are even cheaper (pun intended).

I make 9x9 stockpiles with a central stair.  That's 80 squares of space to drop things on.  Immediately to the east of the stairs just off of the stockpile I place a one square dump zone.  When the stock pile fills up completely I dump all to that dump zone.  Those zones are always a multiple of 80 even when I undump them (when the stockpile gets empty I un'd' the entire zone, then re'd' it when the stock pile is full).

I can always easily see how much of whatever that I have.  I hate bins because I have to look inside them to see how much is there AND they always have mixed items.

Redesignating what items a stockpile takes is trivial.  Setting only one dump zone active allows me to easily move whatever to where ever.  I used a "sorting" floor of stockpiles just under my depot.  I use it mostly to sort out the wood that I buy off the treehuggers.  All my traps are made of Alder.  All power generation and distribution uses Oak.  This is how I keep things organized.  Bin just mess everything up.

Bins, bah!

You sound like one of those people who is OCD to a point beyond simple ridiculousness but is in denial about it, so much so that you blame everything else for "messing things up" when it's really just fine, if you know how to manage it.

[Brenticus]

@drazin your just jealous lol!   Actually so am I.  I use bins but have encountered bugs like the ops.  When I have more patience I might try his tactic.  My best sorting endeavour consisted of mining out 3 complete map levels and very time consuming designations...

[jimboo]

Love ‘em.

Bins allow much quicker trading when the goal is getting rid of stuff, such as a single finished goods bin full of worn out clothes or a dozen bins of scavenged troll fur from the siege.  Bins make hauling items around much faster.  A stockpile with bins next to a smelter holds a lot more than single bars scattered around the floor.  If you’re moving bars of charcoal or bags of sand, bins speed things along and minimize the hauling job stack.  A single bin of stone blocks in a wheelbarrow moves at top speed.  Making bins of copper trains peasants into blacksmiths with a useful moodable skill.  Storing stone blocks of pretty colors in bins speeds construction of Stupid Projects.  When your fortress is far enough along that you’re splitting coin stacks to get infinite amounts of precious and blue metals, bins are indispensable.  The only bug I’ve had is sometimes I can’t see what’s in ‘em but I’ve never had one “lock up” on me as others describe.

[TheCoolSideofthePIllow]

I personally do not like using quantum stockpiles, and so I love bins. I can fit thousands of items in a 9x9 grid if they are stored in bins, and don't feel like I cheated. I don't even really like having "Garbage" zones to dump everything in one spot, but it's the only way to really clean up an area filled with stones mined out when I want them gone now and not "when the dwarves feel like it." Especially when digging downward channels, since those rocks can now fall on your dwarves.

[Di]

Bins are mostly fine.
For trading they're great. I remember times when I used to sell stuff from bins but not the bins and traders would pack up for two seasons before finally leaving.
The problem with them is that they override stockpiles. Say you want automatically sort gobbo armour and masterwork one: you set respective stockpiles but once bins are brought up it all goes to nothing. Every once in a while a masterwork steel breastplate will end up in the bin on a stockpile intended for blind d-b-m'ing. And once something is in a bin it never gets moved to more appropriate pile.
I've changed storage options in d_init.txt but those aren't really flexible and bins with worn goblin clothes still end up on a stockpile made for newly tailored ones and a lot of masterwork socks get mixed with goblin thongs meant for trade.

[Sutremaine]

Bins are very useful for hoovering up goblin clothing, and for trading small items that save a lot of hauling jobs when stuffed into a single bin. For heavy or bulky items (such as goblin armour...) they're not so hot, and you can get the same functionality from a minecart route. You do need a killzone to make the minecart option viable for goblinite collection, but if you can manage that then you can transport the corpses and miscellaneous jewellery items as well.

Binned stockpiles are just a tool -- a general one if you don't use quantum stockpiles, and a specialised one if you do.

[jimboo]

Bins are very useful for hoovering up goblin clothing, and for trading small items that save a lot of hauling jobs when stuffed into a single bin. For heavy or bulky items (such as goblin armour...) they're not so hot, and you can get the same functionality from a minecart route. You do need a killzone to make the minecart option viable for goblinite collection, but if you can manage that then you can transport the corpses and miscellaneous jewellery items as well.

Hmmm.  An option to my siege refuse immolation zones … minecarts on the surface?  You dump then close to the Depot?  Tracks interfere with caravan paths; how do you get around that?  Extra wide bridges to allow ==||  ||== dual tracks and still three wide clear in the center?  I’m not asking for a tutorial but haven’t seen this discussed before.  Null on keyword/Wiki search –

[Hamiltonz]

You sound like one of those people who is OCD to a point beyond simple ridiculousness but is in denial about it, so much so that you blame everything else for "messing things up" when it's really just fine, if you know how to manage it.

I blame the Elves.  I can't tell you how many Elven traders got angry because some item inside of a (copper) bin had wooden decorations.

I place a quantum dump zone directly in front of the depot.  On that I have a bridge.  All trade items get dumped there.  My guys are done moving items into the depot long before the traders get there.  Anything that isn't worth trading I atomize after the traders have left.  Initially the bridge was for protecting the traders, but as my defenses improved it was no longer needed for that purpose.

The sort floor was initially the staging area for all trade goods, but that was before I learned about quantum dump zones.

I didn't start out OCD.  Dwarf Fortress made me that way.

[Larix]

Your dwarfs cannot put wooden decorations on stuff, apart from artefacts which can't be traded anyway. Decorations that piss off elves are either wooden deco on stuff you bought/stole from traders, _or_ decorations in clear or crystal glass, as that can't be made without wood ash (-> potash -> pearlash). Once i learnt that, i found handling elven trade taboos much easier. Basically, i pretty much stopped encrusting finished goods with glass - there are more than enough types of gems the elves won't throw a fit over, and encrusting is better used to fancy up stuff kept in the fort anyway.

You can also sell stuff from wooden bins to the elves, as long as you don't try to give them the bin itself.

[Hamiltonz]

I should have put wooden decorations in quotes as I meant anything that made the tree huggers angry.  I was sure that all finished goods could be 'menacing' with spikes of alder not just artifacts.  I never got into the decorating part of the game.  All my taboo goods were acquired from the battlefield.

I don't have a witty or cleaver way to say this so I'll just say it.  I don't enjoy micromanaging the trade screen.  I suspect that everyone else just stops trading with the elves for that very reason.  I needed the wood badly (for fuel) so that wasn't an option for me.  Instead I went as 'wood' free as possible.  I even stopped making clear glass everything just to avoid accidentally pissing off the elves.  Until I completed my green glass pump stack and switched my manufacturing floor to magma fuel.  After that the elves just became unwelcome visitors.

To get this back on topic.  I would love bins that only accepted one subtype of good.  It would go something like this.  The stockpile accepts all forms of cloth but each bin would only accept wool, plant, or silk cloth.  Make them as easy to set up as the stockpiles themselves.  Each bin remembers it's settings and can only 'land' in a 'friendly' stockpile.  You can get the same effect by having one square stockpiles, but that defeats the idea of stockpiles

Edit: This sounds a bit angy and I'm kind of embarassed.  I put all my effort into getting my point across and nothing into the tone.  Um, imagine that I'm smiling when you read it, maybe that will help.  I'm really not angry, and nothing anyone has said has offended me.  Thing is I'm really tired and I'd rewrite the entire post but I don't think I'm awake enough to do any better.

[Broseph Stalin]

"Oh someone dropped a spear on the other side of the map, I'll just take the bin over there and put it in."

"The bin contains about a thousand pounds of weapons, maybe you should just take the spear to the bin."

"No that's inefficient."

"But it's going to take you several days to take the bin there and back."

"Yeah but I can pick up a bunch of weapons in one trip."

"There's only one weapon"

"GRAAAAH! I'm sorry I can't hear you because of how hard I'm already doing this. I'll be back in a week."

[Ianflow]

"Oh someone dropped a spear on the other side of the map, I'll just take the bin over there and put it in."

"The bin contains about a thousand pounds of weapons, maybe you should just take the spear to the bin."

"No that's inefficient."

"But it's going to take you several days to take the bin there and back."

"Yeah but I can pick up a bunch of weapons in one trip."

"There's only one weapon"

"GRAAAAH! I'm sorry I can't hear you because of how hard I'm already doing this. I'll be back in a week."

This is one of the problems with it
I'm also having the problem of trying to put armor of any type on a dwarf, that I know is in a bin, when I try to equip it for military, it doesn't show up (this seems to be something that happens half the time and the other time doesn't)
I've tried bins again, and they are okay
As long as you are dealing with Dwarvan Caravans, no worries

[Broseph Stalin]

This is one of the problems with it
I'm also having the problem of trying to put armor of any type on a dwarf, that I know is in a bin, when I try to equip it for military, it doesn't show up (this seems to be something that happens half the time and the other time doesn't)
I've tried bins again, and they are okay
As long as you are dealing with Dwarvan Caravans, no worries

You don't have access to items being hauled inside a bin, that might be the problem you're encountering.

[thrush_titan]

Hate 'em.  I've found that using a quantum stockpile saves me many FPS that would otherwise be spent pathing around a huge stockpile every time a dwarf wants to go anywhere.  I'm of the opinion that anything that saves me from FPS death is a Good Thing.

[Ianflow]

This is one of the problems with it
I'm also having the problem of trying to put armor of any type on a dwarf, that I know is in a bin, when I try to equip it for military, it doesn't show up (this seems to be something that happens half the time and the other time doesn't)
I've tried bins again, and they are okay
As long as you are dealing with Dwarvan Caravans, no worries

You don't have access to items being hauled inside a bin, that might be the problem you're encountering.

I know about this bit, I'll check it next time it happens to see if its being hauled