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How old is old?

Brian Doyle

#21664

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

I figured I would start a new thread about this to keep it focused.

How old is a thread when its considered old? In otherwords, when should we lock it?

30/60/90 days?

two weeks?

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#21668

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

If it keeps generating interest (other than sales promos) on a day to day basis then thats great. I would say that if it sits for 30 days it's probably now a resolved issue by its originator and its time to close it up.

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Brian Doyle

#21669

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

ok time for a "what if"

What if someone came back a year after a question was posted. The question dealt with a problem that this person had but didn't exactly cover everything. Would it be better for this person to post a new thread (and then might invariably be directed to search the archives) or just try and pick up where that discussion left off?

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#21670

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

A thread os "old" when it drops off the page. So, "age" depends of the 'forum', for example: * 'Production Forum' threads currently drop off the page after about 12 days. * Other forum threads drop off the page after 30 days.

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#21671

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

Neither. It would be better if the person posting thread said, "I searched the fine SMTnet Archives, but couldn't find an answer to my question. Now, here's what I'd like to know ... "

Barring that, it would be better to start a new thread, because otherwise if you allow access to old threads, the 'bad actors' will abuse aged threads. The bandwidth that is wasted ranting about 'bad actors' far exceeds any bandwidth gain from being able to attach to old threads.

We've talked about this many times before. Doing nothing has not changed anything. There is 5% of the people out there that cause problems for everyone else.

We do not differentiate that there has been 99 44/100 postings that to not irritate someone. We talk about the 56/100 that piss us off. We can: * Accept that a few of us will be pissed-off when we see a deviant thread, but acknowlegde that we will spare others by asking Brian to delete that thread. * Block access to all old threads.

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Ken Bliss

#21673

How old is old? | 20 September, 2002

Brian How about setting up two levels of archives, one that is �inactive, accessible for comments� the other �archive� that is no longer changeable. The 12 day rule of inactive would simply roll to �accessible� and after 30 days total of inactivity it would go to archive. I acknowledge that once an �accesible� has an addition it becomes fully active again and thats fine as it will go through the 12 days cycle again and eventually archive.

Ken Bliss

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#21690

How old is old? | 23 September, 2002

Where to end the thread........how about when the originator says thanks for the help, I have all the info I'm really interested in so don't write anymore. The thread, Where do I start?, is a good example. The originator has signaled that it's over but the thread will none the less carry on.

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dragonslayr

#21697

How old is old? | 23 September, 2002

Methusala was very old yet he is still talked about thousands of years later.

In my perspective, age of a thread is not the issue. It is the careless resurrection of a non-active subject that causes waste of time and space that is the issue.

I can think of and would welcome resurrected threads where a person is getting back to the forum and posting newer information after a long study. Or possibly asking for more help in details for their present efforts. It would be nice to have all the history of the subject matter to refer to, it would show where one has been and what is left to identify.

AS SMTnet cannot (and probably should not) endeavor to be all things to all people at all times I believe the prudent course is to:

1. Educate "offenders" on proper site etiquette. 2. Remove postings that are not value added and beneficial to the community when such postings cause general outcry. 3. Manually rearchive a thread from the current list so that we don't have to wait for it to naturally go off the list. This should be done as soon as possible, otherwise unsuspecting users with good intentions may post comments that keeps the dead thread hooked up to life support.

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Brian Doyle

#21703

How old is old? | 23 September, 2002

I'm all for simplcity.

Creating special cases or multiple levels of archival seems too problematic to me. I'd be in favor of a cutoff date that threads just get "locked" after (whatever time that may be).

Otherwise we stick to the current method which basically just handles them as they come up. I don't get that many requests to remove posts. Perhaps more of you should be emailing me? info@smtnet.com and I'll check the thread out.

We do the manual rollbacks when someone bumps an oooold thread. I think I set the thread date to a year prior, it works.

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