The slow death of forums *see OP for Admin warning and update 28/02/18*

Benildus

Why aren't old zombie threads automatically locked after a certain period of time?

Usually someone new posts in a very old thread which is then immediately locked by a mod/cmod, Example:

"This thread is from 2013 & hasn’t been posted in since then. Please don’t resurrect ghost threads. Mod"

Why not just lock old threads?

beauf

Or remove them. If the information is not useful to resurrect the thread why keep it.

Beasty

Benildus wrote: »

Why aren't old zombie threads automatically locked after a certain period of time?

Usually someone new posts in a very old thread which is then immediately locked by a mod/cmod, Example:

"This thread is from 2013 & hasn’t been posted in since then. Please don’t resurrect ghost threads. Mod"

Why not just lock old threads?

Because sometimes they have ongoing relevance when new info comes to light. This is one where there is no "one size fits all" solution. Earlier in the thread people were complaining when old threads were locked. It is largely forum/topic dependant

Equally I've no idea whether it's technically feasible to have an automatic cut-off without significant investment into a system that the site is committed to move on from

Beasty

beauf wrote: »

Or remove them. If the information is not useful to resurrect the thread why keep it.

The site's policy is not to delete its "history" and indeed many users want to see how old discussions developed, or even what they may have been saying 10+ years ago. Maybe threads in places like Bargain Alerts have a finite life, and maybe that could apply for forums like AH. However there are many forums where digging up "old" commentary can be useful.

Bottom line though is zombie threads are really not a big issue.

o1s1n

beauf wrote: »

Or remove them. If the information is not useful to resurrect the thread why keep it.

Maybe the info is still useful but doesn't need to be added to?
Maybe it's a historical thread covering a major event which is useful for posterity sake?
Maybe moderators don't want to be going through every single thread to see what's useful and what's not?
Maybe boards.ie is an interesting piece of Irish internet history and deleting threads en masse would impact that?

There are countless reasons why items shouldn't be deleted. If you were to start doing that, you'd lose a massive part of what this website is.

dav3

1.7 million views on one thread in the weather forum over 5 days. Nearly 900k views on another thread in less than two days.

Yeah the forum is dead lads, shut it down /s.

The only feedback I would give, would be to take a more extreme stance against the re-regs. Deleting their accounts also deletes their comments, thanks and any votes in polls. They're usually the same type of person whinging about there being no feedback and constantly bleating on about the forum dying due to the fact that their outdated negative views aren't shared by the rest of the country.

Ken.

dav3 wrote: »

1.7 million views on one thread in the weather forum over 5 days. Nearly 900k views on another thread in less than two days.

Yeah the forum is dead lads, shut it down /s.

The only feedback I would give, would be to take a more extreme stance against the re-regs. Deleting their accounts also deletes their comments, thanks and any votes in polls. They're usually the same type of person whinging about there being no feedback and constantly bleating on about the forum dying due to the fact that their outdated negative views aren't shared by the rest of the country.

In after hours we do most of that already.(admins or office need to do the thanks) If I could show you the amount of threads we delete that most of ye don't even see it would melt your head.

Beasty

Conspectus wrote: »

In after hours we do most of that already.(admins or office need to do the thanks) If I could show you the amount of threads we delete that most of ye don't even see it would melt your head.

And you can almost double that, certainly in my time as Admin, with accounts that don't get time to post. I know there have been days when I've nuked perhaps 30, 40 or more like that

bucketybuck

Beasty wrote: »

The site's policy is not to delete its "history"

Mods on this site have deleted more written words than the nazis ever did. The amount of times we have all seen mods go nuts deleting entire conversations is ridiculous.

Beasty

bucketybuck wrote: »

Mods on this site have deleted more written words than the nazis ever did. The amount of times we have all seen mods go nuts deleting entire conversations is ridiculous.

I have just gone through the last month of threads in AH (getting on for 500 in total). I can say that overwhelmingly (possibly all) deleted threads were started by re-reg trolls. Most of those deletions were done by Admins as we nuked users and their posting history. In other cases local mods got to the threads before we nuked the users. Some accounts had nasty, offensive or abusive usernames. In many cases threads were deleted before a single reply had been made

Do you really want these guys to be given the oxygen they crave?

bucketybuck

Beasty wrote: »

I have just gone through the last month of threads in AH (getting on for 500 in total). I can say that overwhelmingly (possibly all) deleted threads were started by re-reg trolls. Most of those deletions were done by Admins as we nuked users and their posting history. In other cases local mods got to the threads before we nuked the users. Some accounts had nasty, offensive or abusive usernames. In many cases threads were deleted before a single reply had been made

Do you really want these guys to be given the oxygen they crave?

If you say so. I have many times seen active threads cut to pieces by mods unilaterally deleting dozens of posts that happened to be contrary to certain viewpoints. At least they don't pretend that its all about the re-reg troll bogeyman.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I think youse need to do something about the cliquey nature on boards. Those chat like threads tend to get such a bad rep for creating cliques when in reality they tend to be welcoming and inclusive to anyone who wants to join in.
There tends to be a bit of an old boys club on boards and it’s certainly off putting. I think if you’ve relinquished your mod role and you are trying to pick up where you left off re: modding you should be treated like any other user who tries to backseat moderate

Boom_Bap

bucketybuck wrote: »

If you say so. I have many times seen active threads cut to pieces by mods unilaterally deleting dozens of posts that happened to be contrary to certain viewpoints. At least they don't pretend that its all about the re-reg troll bogeyman.

This never happens.

Posts are deleted if they are by rereg trolls, or if people are quoting/responding to said troll to stifle the hand grenade the troll has thrown into the thread.

Posts are deleted if there are legal issues with the post.....although we try to snip the dodgy stuff and leave the remainder of the post.

Posts are deleted to send a zombie thread back to zombieland.....or as we are doing now, creating a new thread and shifting the posts there.

A post would be deleted if there is something awful in it.

Boom_Bap

Boom_Bap wrote: »

This never happens.

Posts are deleted if they are by rereg trolls, or if people are quoting/responding to said troll to stifle the hand grenade the troll has thrown into the thread.

Posts are deleted if there are legal issues with the post.....although we try to snip the dodgy stuff and leave the remainder of the post.

Posts are deleted to send a zombie thread back to zombieland.....or as we are doing now, creating a new thread and shifting the posts there.

A post would be deleted if there is something awful in it.

is that a general rule, or just in After Hours?

Boom_Bap

Aegir wrote: »

is that a general rule, or just in After Hours?

I can only comment and know for sure on the forums that I moderate.

But knowing the mod/cmod/admin community here, I'm doubtful that it would happen.

bucketybuck

Boom_Bap wrote: »

This never happens.

Sure. Dead on.

Adalynn Quaint Fossil

Adalynn Quaint Fossil wrote: »

There tends to be a bit of an old boys club on boards and it’s certainly off putting. I think if you’ve relinquished your mod role and you are trying to pick up where you left off re: modding you should be treated like any other user who tries to backseat moderate

Absolutely. It exists on a number of forums as well. You may have someone who was, for example, instrumental in setting up that forum and has since "retired" but still has an elevated status and will be treated very differently by the mods. Ultimately though, as hard as they may wish otherwise, the moderating community on boards is a clique and once you join, you never fully leave.

Every single mod on here will tell you that mods are only mods on the forums they moderate and anywhere else they will be treated the same as anyone else, but I am fairly confident in saying that the majority of us would dispute that.

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I can only comment and know for sure on the forums that I moderate.

But knowing the mod/cmod/admin community here, I'm doubtful that it would happen.

I would disagree. Posts are frequently deleted, particularly in politics and it means people have no idea that a poster has responded to a point, or if action was taken against them.

Skylinehead

bucketybuck wrote: »

Sure. Dead on.

I'm really surprised that a guy comparing us to Nazis can't back up his arguments.


Oh wait maybe not.

bucketybuck

Skylinehead wrote: »

I'm really surprised that a guy comparing us to Nazis can't back up his arguments.


Oh wait maybe not.

You seriously expect me to back up an "argument" with an administrator about deleted posts?

Want to think about that for a minute?

Good contribution though, most appreciated.

.......

This post has been deleted.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

A lot of threads these days seems to be ruined by a few posters in every thread trying to say something controversial for the sake of it. The Snowmageddon thread over the past couple of days is good example of this, where there was 3/4 posters posting their 'edgy' opinions over and over again, resulting in the thread being completely derailed. Their agenda was obvious, yet they were let away with it. I'm not even sure if they are banned, because as per the rulebook they did nothing wrong.
Imo it's people like this that are contributing to the 'slow death of forums' more than anything else. I used to frequent After Hours quite a bit, but now only every so often, and those times that I do I rarely read past the first page or two of any thread because I know that a certain number of posters will have it ruined.

Skylinehead

bucketybuck wrote: »

You seriously expect me to back up an "argument" with an administrator about deleted posts?

Want to think about that for a minute?

So it's all conjecture, and you can pretty much say what you want?

It doesn't happen. I don't delete posts because they're "un-PC" or whatever else you think it is, and neither does anyone else in AH. Rereg posts get deleted, posts that contain personal identifying information get deleted, and anything illegal gets deleted. That's it.

Can you even remember any threads where this happened? Because I can still see deleted posts, lets see if you have anything whatsoever. Other than Nazi insults, of course.

Donnielighto

Skylinehead wrote: »

I'm really surprised that a guy comparing us to Nazis can't back up his arguments.


Oh wait maybe not.

It is difficult unless you preemptively save the evidence though isn't it.


I've seen some fairly nondescript but pertinent points being deleted, just so happened that mods were on the other side of the argument.


Bucketybuck is being honest.

Donnielighto

There was a self confessed troll who bragged about it let loose on the soccer forums for about two years or maybe longer. Mods doing nothing but carding people who challenged him since they mods wouldn't.

<snip>

bucketybuck

Skylinehead wrote: »

So it's all conjecture, and you can pretty much say what you want?

It doesn't happen. I don't delete posts because they're "un-PC" or whatever else you think it is, and neither does anyone else in AH. Rereg posts get deleted, posts that contain personal identifying information get deleted, and anything illegal gets deleted. That's it.

Can you even remember any threads where this happened? Because I can still see deleted posts, lets see if you have anything whatsoever. Other than Nazi insults, of course.

Give me five minutes, I shall now go and collate all the threads I have read over the last few years that had multiple posts summarily deleted. I do of course keep those records close to hand just for feedback threads, because you never know when a user may be asked to provide proof of deleted posts.

:rolleyes:

No harm to you mate, but if you want to join the other guy in pretending posts aren't deleted left right and centre on these forums then you go for it, I certainly didn't post here expecting any mods to listen to me. I simply responded to the comment about Boards.ie not deleting its "history", a comment rather at odds with reality.

I'd better screenshot this now I guess, in case its deleted and I get asked in a few months to prove it existed.

Beasty

Donnielighto wrote: »

There was a self confessed troll who bragged about it let loose on the soccer forums for about two years or maybe longer. Mods doing nothing but carding people who challenged him since they mods wouldn't.

<snip>

Do not throw about allegations specifying other users - you will see I have deleted that reference

The "self confession" to which you refer was made elsewhere and, I think, deleted/made private. Either way we are rarely in the position to confirm who a user may be on other sites. I personally worked with local mods over an extended period to build up a case against the user based on their posts here rather than allegations of activity elsewhere. That poster no longer has access to the forum

Skylinehead

bucketybuck wrote: »

Give me five minutes, I shall now go and collate all the threads I have read over the last few years that had multiple posts summarily deleted. I do of course keep those records close to hand just for feedback threads, because you never know when a user may be asked to provide proof of deleted posts.

:rolleyes:

No harm to you mate, but if you want to join the other guy in pretending posts aren't deleted left right and centre on these forums then you go for it, I certainly didn't post here expecting any mods to listen to me. I simply responded to the comment about Boards.ie not deleting its "history", a comment rather at odds with reality.

I'd better screenshot this now I guess, in case its deleted and I get asked in a few months to prove it existed.

You can claim reality to be whatever you want in the absence of evidence. I'm telling you, you're talking shit. Do you really think there's policy from up above saying to delete something we don't agree with? The only things the admins have ever told me to delete are rereg threads, illegal content, and open court cases.

The very least you can do is say what subject is being deleted, what viewpoints, but funnily enough you haven't even done that.

Boom_Bap

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

If you give me examples from AH for this, I'll take a look and give the explanation as to why they were deleted.

retro:electro

....... wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Maybe people are deleting their own posts?

the sheriff is HERE

Boom_Bap wrote: »

If you give me examples from AH for this, I'll take a look and give the explanation as to why they were deleted.

If you don't mind I have one.

A part of one of my post was deleted it was left in a quoted post straight after my post, I ask the mod on thread why was I not pm'd and the part deleted left in a quoted post, I never got a response from said mod.