Purging and Deletion of Topics/Threads (Necessary?)

[Zubie]

(re:http://www.starshipmodeler.net/talk/vie ... 3#p1106443)
Topics that do not have a reply in a set amount of time (14 days in the most active forums, 30 days in others) will be deleted...(The only exceptions are the Construction, Finishing and Lighting forums - topics there do not get automatically deleted, but may be trimmed if the administrators decide they are redundant or otherwise not useful)

How does one request permanence?

I ask because while it is logical we don't keep stuff forever (Sturgeon's Law definitely applies to discussion groups) there are some threads that try to collect links from everybody: a kind of "found it on the internet" for a particular topic area. The nature of those threads make it hard to blogify (being that they may have many authors). Now there are some permanent threads along those lines like the Buran-Dynasoar ref thread, but there are others that really survive on personal sponsorship in a sense, meaning some kind soul makes it a point to post something every couple of weeks or so to keep it alive (like publiusr). The card modeling area had a "40k goodness" thread for quite some time (years?) with lots and lots of posts and many download links (which is the stash source for card modelers), but I just noticed it is gone now. Admittedly you can go to papermodelers.com and find a similar thread there, but still. As far as I know the "books, Books, BOOKS" thread is fair game for deletion if it doesn't get replied to which would be a shame for anybody looking for a good read.

Full disclosure: I've recently started a general SF art thread on the Virtual Designs and other Art area and have been trying to post something every couple of weeks or so (at least once a month). I'd also like to start a thread for podcasts and audio streams. I don't mind being the "sponsor", but I'm too scatter brained to be sure I'll reply before it goes away.

So the permanence question is; do we pm the request of a moderator? do it publicly? is there a flag? Is this the same as a sticky? anything but turning a thread into a poll which for some things is nonsensical (and some of those polls could probably go away too).

Kind regards...Z

EDIT: Addendum (Oct.4-2024) - the volume of postings in the last few years has decreased considerably. Even the General topic area has dropped to a handful of threads. Threads with hundreds of views are dropped. While it was an issue when topic areas could span for pages, many areas are listing no more than 1 or 2 threads if any which is disheartening. I think this question is worth revisiting.

[onezero]

Ask me nicely and catch me on a good day.

[naoto]

Wound an appropriate ...(shatnerian pause)... tribute expedite the process?

[Zubie]

[extreme_deference]
[meekness=mild]
[smile=full]
[gratitude=on value=high]

Could deletion be set to "last time seen" as opposed to last time replied to?
Many thanks
Z
(It is Friday - TGIF)

[/extreme_deference]
[/meekness]
[/smile]
[/gratitude]
...dang kids! get off my lawn!

[onezero]

I actually don't know. I'll have to look.

[rayra]

very disappointing. Went to a lot of trouble building a topic on my Falcon build, lighting, painting techniques - TWICE, after photobucket pulled their extortion stunt - just to find out now that it's been erased / pruned. I cannot fathom why those genre forums are being so ruthlessly erased. So many people's work, techniques just erased. what the hell?
Especially in these days of cheap storage and bandwidth it doesnt make any sense at all. Surely some stronger squirrels can be arranged? An unlimited storage / unlimited bandwidth website costs all of ~$135/yr

I admin a discussion forum that right now sits at 653820 Posts in 94519 Topics and our SQL database is running just fine. Just don't see a reason why all that modelmaking history and reference was just thrown away?

[Tracy White]

Hey Rayra - how often do you personally handle the backups on that message board? How big is the database backup and how long does it take to run the backup and then copy it down to your home system? How about the upload and restore when you test that?

There are actually some good reasons for keeping things nice and clean. I'm not saying I haven't missed some threads that have auto-pruned, but I doubt the settings were put where they are out of malicious intent or lack of caring.

[onezero]

Take a look at the construction and lighting sub-forums. Those do not get pruned. Notice anything? Besides how the same questions and topics keep coming up? Maybe because it's too much of a pain to search for the answer in 10 years of posts?

[EVApodman]

I have used my notification to the Books,books, books thread for about 10 years as a means to access the forum. It was the only link I have had since I haven't received notifications when I posted on other threads for years.

Now I see that it is gone and all the forum sites only have one page when before there were two or more on some.

Have all the old treads been purged so there is just one page per forum?

[Zubie]

Looking through the different topic sections I noticed that a thread dated 2011 and I know people have done threads there just in the past year, the title of said section is ask your question for SSM here. The problems seem to be getting worse.

The post in that section is an announcement which never gets deleted - Is it possible that the threads which were created just got deleted by the inactivity system?

So, I'm moving this topic up to the top of the area here by replying to this thread. If one checks through on the initial info area quoted on the first post here that is indeed the case. The question is whether this is still necessary as posted in the addendum

EDIT: Addendum (Oct.4-2024) - the volume of postings in the last few years has decreased considerably. Even the General topic area has dropped to a handful of threads. Threads with hundreds of views are dropped. While it was an issue when topic areas could span for pages, many areas are listing no more than 1 or 2 threads if any which is disheartening. I think this question is worth revisiting.

With the exception of the Movies/media page, there are no areas where the the deletion policy is in force where the number of pages generated exceeds 1. In fact many of these areas have no more than 2-5 active threads. As of this posting Star Wars only has 2. Some have active threads only because somebody bothers to "bump" threads to keep them alive - and if a user does that they must be worth something.

Now I have noticed lately that some areas do seem to have their dates extended by more than 30 days, but the actual length and the areas involved are unclear (Irwin Allen seems to have at least one thread last active 4 months ago as of this post, but then again, it only has 2 threads).

In theory this area should be discussed in the "Ask SSM Question Here" area, but oddly enough, that area appears to not be protected from purging so unless this topic is regularly bumped it could be dumped before the question is answered (no one as asked a question there since 2011?)

It seems that a blanket extension of 6 mo would not affect anything that drastically given the low posting rate, particularly when compared to the FB site, but the forum is not FB and discussion IMO here is more varied and detailed than it is there. With the exception of the media area, I would even argue that even 12mo would be workable. Can the forum be set up to delete only after topics drop off the second page? With respect to the las "read" as opposed to the last "posting". Can certain areas be made permanent that may have value over a long term such as "On the Bench" and "Ask SSM"?

Would additional moderators for certain areas help? It appears that many moderators have not been particularly active here in months, or even years. As we have read recently, there does seem to be no mods around.

Given the current state of the forum this is all perhaps moot (see "glitch" and "500 error"). Perhaps to a large extent the forum is "work" as opposed to FB. I'm unclear as to the technical intricacies of both. It would be unfortunate to loose what seems to be the last online speculative modeling forum around right now.

[Richard Baker]

Agreed
So few posts now there is no reason to remove older ones to save server space

I think if none were to be removed for six months it would still be less that the total of what would active for one week on this forum in it's heyday