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[Clover Magic]

Caged prisoners are docile and can usually be hauled places with no repercussions.  I like to designate a death pit that my archers overlook - just a 1 zlevel pit with a sealed door/floodgate and a stationed archer squad above it.  Assign a pit area, assign the gobbo to be chucked into the pit and once he's in the squads turn him into a pincusion.

Of course just a deep death pit with nothing special can also be used, or a pit over a volcano for live sacrifices to the magma god, or something.  You can also build a cage with a gobbo in it and set it to a lever - when the level is pulled, they'll be released, in case you'd like a time-delay system.  Or, if you're feeling like making an actual jail for prisoners of war, you can build a chain and assign them to it.  Be warned - all caged prisoners, if they get free of their bonds and aren't being handled by a dwarf, will immediately attempt to run away from the fortress causing cancellation spam as the streak through the dining room.  If they don't have their equipment, they're generally not deadly - barring lucky punches to the head if a dwarf engages them for whatever reason - but it's a waste of valuable military experience if they get away.

As for the thread - turn off brewing for pig tails.  Dwarven ale is tasty, but it doesn't give the fortress tantrum-reducing pants.  Make sure you've got pig tails in your stockpiles too before trying a processing job.  If you need some immediately, designate some Gather Plant jobs in the caverns - pig tails should be in there somewhere.

Remember, only rope reeds and pig tails are processed into thread, so if you want plant-based cloth you need seeds of those crops to grow (pig tails only grow during summer and fall).

[Raptomex]

Well I have a drawbridge over an empty moat. I have cage traps in front of the bridge where I caught him. My question is how exactly do I move him now? I want to get the trap up and running. Can I have my military kill him?

As for the pig tails I think the default is set to not cook. I'll have to gather more and see.

[Urist McVoyager]

ALSO for the thread, you're better off setting up a second "food" stockpile that only accepts them. Otherwise they get added to the same barrels as food plants, and when someone hauls one of those barrels off to collect something . . . there goes your thread jobs.

I just ran into the same problem. I had 15 plants showing up in my stocks, but only two were used for thread. I double checked stocks and they showed 13. I then understood the problem, and immediately thought of yours. I fixed it by setting up a Rope Reed (I'm a surface player) stockpile right behind the thresher's work station, and now they're available for use any time.

[Clover Magic]

Yes, pig tails cannot be cooked or eaten in any way (except a very hungry dwarf might grab the seeds to eat if they like to eat them).  They can be brewed however, and if you often set up brewing jobs or leave them on repeat, this can eat them up.  Brewing can be turned off just like cooking, only with b instead of c.

Also yes, barrels and bins interrupt jobs like no one's business.  My raw ingredient stockpiles always have them off by default - only drink and extract stockpiles get barrels.  So creating a new stockpile for just rope reeds and pig tails and turning off barrels will help reduce cancellations.

[Raptomex]

ALSO for the thread, you're better off setting up a second "food" stockpile that only accepts them. Otherwise they get added to the same barrels as food plants, and when someone hauls one of those barrels off to collect something . . . there goes your thread jobs.

I just ran into the same problem. I had 15 plants showing up in my stocks, but only two were used for thread. I double checked stocks and they showed 13. I then understood the problem, and immediately thought of yours. I fixed it by setting up a Rope Reed (I'm a surface player) stockpile right behind the thresher's work station, and now they're available for use any time.

So basically set up another stock pile for thread? Because I know I brought enough pig tails.

[Urist McRas]

Lol I have my most successful fortress yet so I'm running into all these new things. I have a goblin caged from a caged trap which is cool. I had a dwarf confiscate his items, how do I transport the goblin or do whatever to get the trap re-set up?

One of my initial problems is still an issue. Thread. My dwarves always report they need un rotten plants to process which is not making sense. Should I disable cooking certain things?

Designate an animal stockpile, dwarfs should bring there caged creatures, including goblins. Then a mechanic should reload the trap with an empty cage.

Do you actually lack for thread and cloth? If you don't, just ignore cancel job spam. If you do, plant more pig tails.

[Raptomex]

I disabled the cooking of pig tails and now I'm able to process plants. I'm starting to get the hang of things now. Which is cool. My fortress is still running but it's unorganized. My next fortress, I think I'll plan a better design.

The animal stockpile worked. Amazing when things work. Thanks.

[SixOfSpades]

Lol I have my most successful fortress yet so I'm running into all these new things. I have a goblin caged from a caged trap which is cool. I had a dwarf confiscate his items, how do I transport the goblin or do whatever to get the trap re-set up?

Designate an animal stockpile, dwarfs should bring there caged creatures, including goblins. Then a mechanic should reload the trap with an empty cage.

Then, picture what would happen if a dwarf came out to haul the caged goblin away, and a mechanic came to reload the trap with a fresh, empty cage, while a siege was taking place, and there were plenty of goblins just hanging around, looking for a dwarf to skewer. For this reason, it's always best to keep your cage traps {forbidden} unless you're positive that it's at least reasonably safe. Remember to forbid both the cage and the trap itself, to keep both dwarves from marching out to their deaths.

And then, go to the Dwarf Fortress wiki and read about Mass Pitting.

[smurfingtonthethird]

Better still to use burrows and alerts, because everyone has a day when they forget to forbid the traps.

[Urist McVoyager]

Yes. It's always good to set up stockpiles for specific ingredients right next to the workshops using them. It improves efficiency by putting all the necessary ingredients right where they're needed the most.