Old threads.

[Donster]

It's just a question really concerning old threads on here as I've noticed that by mistake some people have replied to topics where the poster hasn't checked the date and they are old.

I know it must cause frustration and sometimes leads to comments that read a bit sarcastic to someone who perhaps isn't as confident with the forum banter. Can't these older threads be pruned and removed? I know pruning isn't always the best way as it can remove topics you don't want to remove, and manually removing topics can take a while but was just wondering if the forum was ever "cleaned up?"

Cheers. :)

[swirlyarts]

Good question! Lots of people do searches however for things that have been answered on here on threads and that brings them to the forum - are you with me. If they were pruned then it might result in no as many people joining etc. I'm sure Mr M will have an opinion!

[MrSwirl]

Close them if they are really old and irrelevant.

Does crafting info go out of date? Probably not, really, but things in the tax / startup kind of arena could be closed off if the information is no longer relevant.

Still turn up in searches etc. but you can't post.

To be honest, very few fora do this, though.

[Donster]

Yeah that's true, information and help offered is always good to keep. I guess it's more the introductions and craft fairs that go out of date and don't really hold much inportance afterwards. :) No worries.

[EMEvans]

I know one forum that deletes most things after 28 days of inactiveness if that is such a word. It does save old things being dragged up but Mr M has probably got a reason for keeping them.

[Beadsage]

I tend to close them if they've been resurrected but are going nowhere. ;)

[Donster]

I know one forum that deletes most things after 28 days of inactiveness if that is such a word. It does save old things being dragged up but Mr M has probably got a reason for keeping them.

Yeah when I ran a forum I used to delete things that were inactive for about six months depending on the topic subject.

[0103media]

There is only 1 real method that works but it very hard to program..

It goes like this:

Last veiw of the thread is greater than 6 months
And Last return referral from google (other search engines) greater than 6 months..



Many people searching the net are looking for something that has happened e.g. fairs.. It still has value even when it been and gone ;)

[beadsbydesign]

personally I think that the old threads have a lot of value. When people ask about a crafting technique etc the information is still very relevent. On certain bead related forums, people fish for long threads they've responded to questions with in the past where the answer is relevent.
I think for the very few times (proportionally) that it occurs it would be a shame to loose a great archive of information.
Once people are aware that it can happen, they look in the future. It tends to be a newbie thing!

[Tip Top]

I tend to close them if they've been resurrected but are going nowhere. ;)

I think to close them is best as I've noticed a few lately that have been quite out of date that have been added to!:D