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[Maklak]

I don't mind having some idlers. I think of them as reserves when a spike of activity comes (like carrying inside stuff from a siege), or whatever. They also clean, pull levers, feed patients, carry stuff when needed. I generally also keep jobs that don't influence item quality, like furnane operating on all my peasnats. That way someone will do the job when it needs doing.

[Lagslayer]

I make professional idlers. Any more is simply not acceptable. If I need a level puller, that dwarf idles near the levers. And just to make sure, I'll have a couple idlers so i can make sure one of them is gonna be there.

[Musashi]

I make professional idlers. Any more is simply not acceptable. If I need a level puller, that dwarf idles near the levers. And just to make sure, I'll have a couple idlers so i can make sure one of them is gonna be there.

I call that nobles.
*bah-dum-pshh*
No, I'm serious.
I mean, I force my mayor/baron/count/duke to idle now so he actually does his meeting within the year a diplomat arrives; he managed to hold hostage 3 diplomats at once. Also, without having any job, he managed to completely dodge 2 complainers who wanted to cry on his shoulders... so imagine what it would be like if he had something as minor as hauling or feeding enabled. He's become pretty much my own personal idler. The genius part is that he was elected as soon as he turned 12, which means the only practical skills are masonry and plant growing, therefore I'm not missing anything by forcing him to idle. And I can afford to let him be social since he's, well, both the mayor and duke.
So yeah.

[Shootandrun]

I have no problems with idling dwarfs. They can idle as long as they want, but every time I have enought of the highest metal I can find, I pick the ten always idling ones (the ones who don't have any skill or skills I REALLY don't need) and equip them, and do a squad with them. I think it is kind of an amelioration, because they go from random idiot to legendary random idiot.

[malimbar04]

I used to nitpick all over the place to control my dwarves, making them an efficient force to be reckoned with. Then I realized that I actually saved and quit the game whenever I had an immigration wave.

Now they throw a lot more parties, and I couldn't care less. A positive side effect is that they all haul stone away, thus my forts are generally pretty clean (on the inside. I'm not dumping stone right now, but rather storing it in HUGE stockpiles outside).

[612DwarfAvenue]

idle dwarves clean, pull levers, and get shit done when I need it.  They also take care of wounded.

This. My current fort has almost 200 Dwarves (), and around 80 of them are idle.

[UristMcDwarf]

I usually don't interfere with my idlers, because i'm not a homicidal madman.

[Max White]

I find that if you set your fort up so that certain dwarfs only have one labor enabled, and only one workshop aloows them, and any number of jobs is on repeat, then the number of idle dwarfs goes way down, because they need to haul around the clock to keep uo with your awesome production. And if the number of idle dwarfs goes up, then knock up a few more furnaces, build a new forge, and put some of those idles onto furnace work for the rest of there lives.

[HorrowshowTommo]

I'm too lazy to use burrows so I have about 10 different meeting areas all spread over the levels of my fort.. Which sort of spreads out my population (180+ and rising). Then they pretty much attend to jobs as necessary. Which means if I need something done down at my meeting area at the first cavern level it will get done instead of waiting for dwarves to come running down 20 levels of stairs..

[SurfinShroom]

Indoor idlers I don't mind too much, I usually only have 1 or 2, or occasionally my farmers but I ignore it and they get back to planting.
I set the ones idling too much to hauling.
My dwarves idle so little none of them have friends :/ I feel kinda guilty pahaha

[ElthMysterius]

For some reason, I keep thinking that having lots of idle dwarves is a bad thing, since it means I'm not doing something productive with my dwarven workforce. I guess I get that feeling because of conditioning, both from the economy of 40d, where unemployed dwarves would start to suffer, and RTS games, where having idle workers is ALWAYS bad.

I guess once the economy kicks back in I'll have something to worry about. For now the dwarves can socialize and party.

[blue sam3]

I build. Continuously. The aboveground gets built as fast as the miners can get stone for it.

[Don Blake]

Given my tendency to move hundreds of units of stone around at once, I think it's probably just as well that I've plenty of dwarves who aren't doing anything important.