Why are the old threads closed now and we need to ask for them to be open?
Are the old threads planned to be obsolete, dumped and deleted?
This looks like a new unwanted and unrequested feature to me...I find a lot of very valuable information in 10...17 years old threads.
Are the old threads planned to be obsolete, dumped and deleted?
This looks like a new unwanted and unrequested feature to me...I find a lot of very valuable information in 10...17 years old threads.
Because we had issues with Zombie threads. The extra step makes sure that you want to post in an old thread instead of starting a new thread.
dave
dave
I don't know what zombie threads are...I thought there's an interest in not repeating threads with the same theme...
Threads that last for decades are one of the best things about these forums.
A Zombie thread is one that has not had a post for a long time. ie they dies and were resurrected.
There are some very long threads that have been continuously posted to for a long time. They never died.
We aren’t stopping you from posting to a zomboe thread, just that we would like you to think about it.
dave
There are some very long threads that have been continuously posted to for a long time. They never died.
We aren’t stopping you from posting to a zomboe thread, just that we would like you to think about it.
dave
FYI the current timeouts are:
Threads with no replies in the last 1.5 years - a warning is displayed.
Threads with no replies in the last 3 years - closed, and a prompt shown to instruct members to use the “report post” button to have a moderator re-open the thread.
Any continuously active thread will never show either of these warnings or get closed.
We might review the timeouts but those seemed reasonable.
A better UX way to request re-opening of threads will eventually be developed so it’s better named and more intuitive.
I believe the main issue was members not noticing the people they thought they were conversing with haven’t been on the forum in years, and resurrection of stale topics which have been superseded by newer more active ones.
Constructive feedback is always welcome 🙂
Threads with no replies in the last 1.5 years - a warning is displayed.
Threads with no replies in the last 3 years - closed, and a prompt shown to instruct members to use the “report post” button to have a moderator re-open the thread.
Any continuously active thread will never show either of these warnings or get closed.
We might review the timeouts but those seemed reasonable.
A better UX way to request re-opening of threads will eventually be developed so it’s better named and more intuitive.
I believe the main issue was members not noticing the people they thought they were conversing with haven’t been on the forum in years, and resurrection of stale topics which have been superseded by newer more active ones.
Constructive feedback is always welcome 🙂
I may go sideways with this topic as any other 10 000 + posts topics before me did it lately, so please excuse me if my next post is too long and difuse...
I'm not nostalgic or anything about forums...I only value good information and some of the best information I found here was in very old threads.
My IQ might just be too low cause I don't grasp on what's to be pondered about reopening an old thread if I find it relevant to my curiosity or interests.
Could anyone give me an example where It wouldn't make sense to reopen an old thread if my posts are about the ideeas discussed there already? Why would I even try to do that especially with early threads having less than 3 pages, unlike the ultralong late threads ?
We operate within a ruling frame where we are not allowed to open multiple threads on the same subject yet still there are 3...10 threads open by different people on the same subject during the years meaning they either didn't care to make a search on that subject or just didn't have the time or patience to read everything in some of the very long threads, the threads might have been unreported for repetition by anyone and just accumulated aimlessly.
Is anyone involved in classifying similar topics by their technical value or we'll just let darwinian(zuckenbergian 🙂 ) evolution choose what topics deserve to stay on top ?
Some topics are ridiculously long and unsplit when needed for various reasons.Trying to find a relevant information in a 30 000 post thread is really annoying.That's the kind of threads that from what I understand never get timed out...The shorter 3...10 pages threads from 2010 that contain usable information are left down...For those I need yo make a request for reopening...I know...Zuckenberg is always on top of his Harward chicks profiles...he doesn't have time for Hi5 anonymous profiles.
I usually look on Google first and Google sends me to at least a few similar topics where I follow the discussions I'm interested in for as much as I can before I loose interest.Sometimes I use the forum's search box...If I find what I'm looking for and I want more information I post there first quoting the relevant posts linked to my ideea.
If not...not.
I wonder if anyone thought of an active method of hunting down at least some of the long threads so that they keep essential information grouped together.Is everyone relying on Google now to do it for us? Then Ok!
It may be useless...but I see this thing with some very old threads having like 10...30 posts of which 2 or 3 of them are litterally unique posing a problem you can't find anywhere on the internet.Answering one of those old questions can litterally wipe out the necessity for some of the 10 000+ posts threads entirely, but surprise, surprise! I entered some of those threads, quoted something, posted my question and got no answer...none at all...so it seems that prople preffer to flock together in long diffuse threads only to enjoy conversations with a wider audience...Encouraging this behavior is acting like Facebook or other media based on bias confirmation.Then the technical value of a thread goes down because 100 people writing 30 000 posts can't really follow the same subject and eventually we get threads with no real subject, impossible to be moderated in a pertinent way and phenomenons like JC black hole 3...11 series will continue, transforming the technical forums in a big giant Lounge section...
I asked about 5 questions on this forum that I never got an answered.Google couldn't point out to anything answering those questions anywhere on www either.Are the people here only repeating widely available information on Google? Are they encouraged only to mirror Google in a human way? Then it's pointless...
I'm not nostalgic or anything about forums...I only value good information and some of the best information I found here was in very old threads.
My IQ might just be too low cause I don't grasp on what's to be pondered about reopening an old thread if I find it relevant to my curiosity or interests.
Could anyone give me an example where It wouldn't make sense to reopen an old thread if my posts are about the ideeas discussed there already? Why would I even try to do that especially with early threads having less than 3 pages, unlike the ultralong late threads ?
We operate within a ruling frame where we are not allowed to open multiple threads on the same subject yet still there are 3...10 threads open by different people on the same subject during the years meaning they either didn't care to make a search on that subject or just didn't have the time or patience to read everything in some of the very long threads, the threads might have been unreported for repetition by anyone and just accumulated aimlessly.
Is anyone involved in classifying similar topics by their technical value or we'll just let darwinian(zuckenbergian 🙂 ) evolution choose what topics deserve to stay on top ?
Some topics are ridiculously long and unsplit when needed for various reasons.Trying to find a relevant information in a 30 000 post thread is really annoying.That's the kind of threads that from what I understand never get timed out...The shorter 3...10 pages threads from 2010 that contain usable information are left down...For those I need yo make a request for reopening...I know...Zuckenberg is always on top of his Harward chicks profiles...he doesn't have time for Hi5 anonymous profiles.
I usually look on Google first and Google sends me to at least a few similar topics where I follow the discussions I'm interested in for as much as I can before I loose interest.Sometimes I use the forum's search box...If I find what I'm looking for and I want more information I post there first quoting the relevant posts linked to my ideea.
If not...not.
I wonder if anyone thought of an active method of hunting down at least some of the long threads so that they keep essential information grouped together.Is everyone relying on Google now to do it for us? Then Ok!
It may be useless...but I see this thing with some very old threads having like 10...30 posts of which 2 or 3 of them are litterally unique posing a problem you can't find anywhere on the internet.Answering one of those old questions can litterally wipe out the necessity for some of the 10 000+ posts threads entirely, but surprise, surprise! I entered some of those threads, quoted something, posted my question and got no answer...none at all...so it seems that prople preffer to flock together in long diffuse threads only to enjoy conversations with a wider audience...Encouraging this behavior is acting like Facebook or other media based on bias confirmation.Then the technical value of a thread goes down because 100 people writing 30 000 posts can't really follow the same subject and eventually we get threads with no real subject, impossible to be moderated in a pertinent way and phenomenons like JC black hole 3...11 series will continue, transforming the technical forums in a big giant Lounge section...
I asked about 5 questions on this forum that I never got an answered.Google couldn't point out to anything answering those questions anywhere on www either.Are the people here only repeating widely available information on Google? Are they encouraged only to mirror Google in a human way? Then it's pointless...
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Jason,
Clearly you are emulating Detective Miller with your "switches things on and off..." Love it.
I find this site well worth the time.. Thank you.
John
Clearly you are emulating Detective Miller with your "switches things on and off..." Love it.
I find this site well worth the time.. Thank you.
John
It depends what one wants to do, is it very urgent to add some very pertinent information to an old zombie thread, or do one want to ask something, maybe consider opening a new thread and link to that suspended thread and say something along.. "I did also read this thread but didn't find exactly what I was looking for..." or whatever it may pertain to.
Other than that, we also have some truly zombie-like members too who jump into a very old thread and reply to a member who have been banned/RIP/not been active for years etc.. probably will not get a reply, in such case putting old threads into suspended mode would prevent such superfluous noise.
With regards to searching there is no oversight on how to index everything logically as the information added to the forum is done by thousands of individual members all with their own style, a forum is by it's very nature very random and cacophonous, we can only do so much with our search skills and search engines. And again, just to name one out of many member behavioral dependent problems, some are outright lazy or inept formulating a comprehensive thread title, who is going to enforce that?
Other than that, we also have some truly zombie-like members too who jump into a very old thread and reply to a member who have been banned/RIP/not been active for years etc.. probably will not get a reply, in such case putting old threads into suspended mode would prevent such superfluous noise.
With regards to searching there is no oversight on how to index everything logically as the information added to the forum is done by thousands of individual members all with their own style, a forum is by it's very nature very random and cacophonous, we can only do so much with our search skills and search engines. And again, just to name one out of many member behavioral dependent problems, some are outright lazy or inept formulating a comprehensive thread title, who is going to enforce that?
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Yes. And those threads don’t go to sleep for years, they remain active. So no worries.
They will be right where they always have been, available to read at any time.
What really burns my britches are replies to Swap Meet ads that dried up two years ago. Putting aside the slim chance that the seller still has the item, why not start a conversation instead of replying to the thread? Come on, man.
Yes, this was another issue. A message will be sent to all 10, 20, 200 participants in an old thread alerting them to the new post. If it is a "dead" thread, this is unwanted.
That was my only worry that it might have been a plan for the old posts to be deleted.
I have no problem with having a clear resolution for opening an old thread as long it's not refused for different grounds than that zombi thing and once it's in the hands of a moderator that's something I am not allowed to challenge by this forum rules...Besides it made me laugh a bit cause a retired mod did it himself recently in a topic where he adressed me and a guy's post from 2012 or so and then got pissed off when I told him to check the date of the post to get a clear picture of the case cause it was important there ...Thank God he wasn't an active mod cause it looked like my next sinbin time reason....So i know now what you reffer as zombi posts, but everytime i quoted a very old post I also chequed if the guy is still active.I don't think it is necessarily a zombi thing to quote a 2005 post if the guy is still alive and kicking.
Now...do you really want the mods judging every case of reopening an old thread?
Is it lucrative? In the end there's a natural selection that keeps the best threads on top although some of them are just full of random socializing discussions and they don't get phased out apparently .Not a bad thing socializing 🙂 , but...I'm not sure this is the scope of a technical forum, making friends...and ennemies...cause your friends ennemies become your ennemies...and getting pissed off by unnecessary actions later... Facebook and others look more ok for that.Just my opinions...
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It's really not that big a deal. In the rare occasions you might want to comment on a thread nobody has replied to in 3 years, just press the report post button.
In another implementation of this solution that might exist, the mods might not even have to do anything or be involved at all. We'd just force a member to tick off a few helpful checklist items to make sure they were making the right decision. That would solve 95% of the issues we're trying to proactively solve with this solution.
This is far less about the mods being involved, and more about making people think twice.
In another implementation of this solution that might exist, the mods might not even have to do anything or be involved at all. We'd just force a member to tick off a few helpful checklist items to make sure they were making the right decision. That would solve 95% of the issues we're trying to proactively solve with this solution.
This is far less about the mods being involved, and more about making people think twice.
I don't like Elon Musk much as a person, but his remarks on automating any task and process that works fine should be the bible of any bussinessman.The less human intervention in things that can work by themselves, the better.I was amazed to find that Tesla is the only company in the world that has a bot able to extract my cv in its perfect copy without useless intervention asking me to basically to rewrite every line as any other 100 recruiting sites I used to apply on.Since then I have a huge respect for him cause it seems he really knows what automation is.
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Even if it's still possible to post to them, putting a barrier in the way will stop some people from posting who would otherwise have posted something constructive. I don't know how many, or if it's a worthwhile tradeoff, but something will be lost.
And just to provide an example that I happen to remember because it was a thread I started, https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/finished-capacitance-multiplier.53359/ was resurrected after 8 years, and went on to have another 33 pages of discussion. Maybe that would have happened anyway with the new system, or maybe not.