TiVo Community Forums Archives - Allowing threads to die a natural death

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Allowing threads to die a natural death
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Posted by: dswallow

Is there any sort of patch available that would automatically disallow posting to threads more than some given period of time after the last post in them?

If there were, would you consider such a patch here?

It's disconcerting how people seem to seek out really old threads and post into them. I know it's a trade-off between keeping a given topic in a single thread, but after some amount of time passes, 4-6 months or heck, even a year, I'd think any further discussion wouldn't really be relevant to the original discourse in the thread and a new thread would be more appropriate.

It would also put a stop to the people who're reviving old threads just to be obnoxious.

Posted by: Tivortex

I have to think about this. I'll get back to you in a year from now.

Posted by: David Bott

Doug...Not a bad idea. I will look into a hack for it.

Posted by: HTH

What a great way to discourage people from searching before posting.

Posted by: dswallow

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
What a great way to discourage people from searching before posting.

I don't see how that has anything to do with it. If you're about to ask a question and you search and find the answer, you don't need to post and wait. If the answer isn't there, you post your question in a new thread. If it is, you don't need to post in the old one.

PS; nice to see you finally got your signature spaced out correctly. ;)

Posted by: HTH

Resulting in more threads on the same topic and others rehashing the same information in the older thread.

We don't need more FSI threads.

(I guess the line drawing characters with thick lines aren't sized uniformly with the others in your font, or don't exist.)

Posted by: Rcrew

Is this really that big an issue? I saw one resurrected thread today, and quite frankly, it was interesting to re-read it.

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
What a great way to discourage people from searching before posting.

I agree. There's a lot of valuable information available in some older threads from people who aren't posting here anymore, like RB for example.

Of course if you want to apply this to Happy Hour only, you'll get no complaint from me. :)

Posted by: HTH

And older threads with valuable information aren't archived; they're removed. Even all the threads that were in the old TiVo Takes forum were summarily removed without archival. It even appears that the original MORON threads have been purged.

If you want a thread to never be resurrected, you can lock it. That guarantees its death and eventual purging from historical record (lifetime plus 70 years prematurely).

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by dswallow
It would also put a stop to the people who're reviving old threads just to be obnoxious.

They're quite inventive. They'll just find another way to be obnoxious. :D

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
And older threads with valuable information aren't archived; they're removed. Even all the threads that were in the old TiVo Takes forum were summarily removed without archival. It even appears that the original MORON threads have been purged.

They're still there as read only in the archives. If you find an old link, replace "www" with "archive:"

http://archive.tivocommunity.com/ti...?threadid=33408

http://archive.tivocommunity.com/ti...?threadid=32011

Posted by: allan

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
We don't need more FSI threads.

True, but I don't think anyone has to go back very far to find one. :D

Posted by: HTH

quote:
Originally posted by allan
True, but I don't think anyone has to go back very far to find one. :D

It would put a limit on the lifetime of the official one.

Posted by: dswallow

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
It would put a limit on the lifetime of the official one.

Only if it died first. If people posted every X months into it, it wouldn't die. And it'd still be searchable in either case, even "dead."

Posted by: jsmeeker

I agree with HTH about his comments regarding searching for threads about that topic. We see this all the time.. Someone starts a thread, only to be directed to an existing thread with a wealth of information. Why not continue or resume the discussion, tapping into and adding to the knowledge already there?

Or what about "update" posts? There are threads that sre started by folks wanting to share some personal information. Sometimes, they come back and give updates by bumping the original thread. Lots of times, it's nice to see that.. Sure, they can start a NEW thread, but it can be good to see the history behind the event/information.

Doug, what kind of timeframe out are you looking for here? A few weeks? A few months?

Posted by: dswallow

quote:
Originally posted by jsmeeker
I agree with HTH about his comments regarding searching for threads about that topic. We see this all the time.. Someone starts a thread, only to be directed to an existing thread with a wealth of information. Why not continue or resume the discussion, tapping into and adding to the knowledge already there?

Or what about "update" posts? There are threads that sre started by folks wanting to share some personal information. Sometimes, they come back and give updates by bumping the original thread. Lots of times, it's nice to see that.. Sure, they can start a NEW thread, but it can be good to see the history behind the event/information.

Doug, what kind of timeframe out are you looking for here? A few weeks? A few months?

Many months. At least half a year, I'd expect.

Posted by: Rcrew

Talk about threads that need to die a natural death... ;)

Although I see the benefit of resurrecting informative threads and adding to them, there does come a time when they are so cluttered as to become ineffective.

I really believe this should be considered a case of "less is more". Meaning, just let it alone, don't try to build a rule set to manage something that just isn't a big deal.

Posted by: phone1

quote:
Originally posted by Rcrew
I really believe this should be considered a case of "less is more". Meaning, just let it alone, don't try to build a rule set to manage something that just isn't a big deal.

Amen. If it ain't broke...