I can't recall if anyone asked this before, but it is more a question for Harris. When looking into forum sections to find something I come across lots of old threads that will never be used again. I mean things like so and so died 4 years ago, or this show is scheduled 3 years ago. Threads that will not generate any other comments because the topic is long gone or was of no interest to more than a couple of members.

Would it not make searching forums easier if these "obviously stale" threads were removed?

Now I don't know if that would effect member post numbers, which is about the only reason I could think of that anyone would object to freeing up the space. Otherwise I can't see why threads that have not be read by any members in say 1 or 2 years should have no expiration date.

I'm all for it. I never go back to a lot of the threads. We have one or two that like to go, "Well, I posted the answer to that question here in 2007. Why did you not look it up?" The only section that I can see keeping for long periods of time is box breakdowns. I am all for cleaning anything before Jan 1, 2011.
Just my opinion.

I have deleted content from time to time. For example, if you look at the Shows & Convention thread, that only gots back to about Jan 1, 2011. BUT...many of the others go back to 2008.

Does everyone else feel the same? I'm for it too as we could use the space to be honest.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Would it not make searching forums easier if these "obviously stale" threads were removed?

This I don't get. If the content is removed, wouldn't it make searches harder since you are searching for something that's been deleted? Are you saying that it would take a shorter amount of time to perform searches since the DB will be smaller? Or that you think it will be easier to find relevant things if old stuff is deleted? Sorry...I'm unclear.

quote:

Originally posted by H_Toser:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Would it not make searching forums easier if these "obviously stale" threads were removed?

This I don't get. If the content is removed, wouldn't it make searches harder since you are searching for something that's been deleted? Are you saying that it would take a shorter amount of time to perform searches since the DB will be smaller? Or that you think it will be easier to find relevant things if old stuff is deleted? Sorry...I'm unclear.

Sorry, I go about things backwards a lot of the time.

When I look for something on the forums I tend not to do full searches, especially if I'm unsure what section I saw it in or what key words to use to find it. I often go thru the sections and look backward from the subjects with the most recent postings through the older ones. Doing that I see many subjects that are about events that are long passed and will not generate anymore responses. That's the kind of stuff that I was asking about because it does expand your database and it would be faster to find relevant things without slogging through them if you are less than efficient, like me.

Thanks for asking.

Any information that was posted a year ago or more is probably out of date and not much use anymore so delete it all.

It is not much of a hardship for us to answer the question again if anyone ever asks it.

Go mad with the delete button.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Thanks for asking.

And thanks very much for explaining! And your input.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Any information that was posted a year ago or more is probably out of date and not much use anymore so delete it all.

It is not much of a hardship for us to answer the question again if anyone ever asks it.

Go mad with the delete button.

Yeah, but you just know that the minute I delete stuff, someone will come along and say there was a useful thread that I've referred to but can't find any more....

It really would help to lower our post count (we pay when we are over our limit, which we always are) so I think I will do some pruning soon. I'll probably keep a year's worth of posts though...depends on the forum. Like has been pointed out, Shows is the one where I can prune the most and Box Breakdowns the least (probably not at all).

Thanks.