Dead Threads Section

[Galen Selanno 351]

Why don't we start a dead threads section in each of the major sections of MLP Forums.

 

I guess a pretty good definition of a dead thread would be a thread that has not been posted on for 4 weeks or more.

 

A pretty good idea to keep the dead threads sections from getting full is to have the threads auto-delete after being there for 2 months.

 

A pretty good name for these sections would, I guess, be "Pony Boneyard" (watch PONY.MOV again if you don't know what I'm talking about).

 

And, as an afterthought, a pretty humorous thing to add would be to make this cue about 3 seconds after the page loads:

 

 

Tell me what you guys think!

[Jeric 46,834]

I'm not usually a fan of deleting or removing discussion topics from the historical record. The rules currently allow (and encourage) necroposting so that new users can contribute to old discussions instead of creating new topics. Better than a never ending stream of the exact same head cannon threads about Starswirl = Discord.

As someone who wasn't here in years past, some of the older threads being brought back have been a spring board for fresh opinions and perspectives.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

I'm not usually a fan of deleting or removing discussion topics from the historical record. The rules currently allow (and encourage) necroposting so that new users can contribute to old discussions instead of creating new topics. Better than a never ending stream of the exact same head cannon threads about Starswirl = Discord.

 

As someone who wasn't here in years past, some of the older threads being brought back have been a spring board for fresh opinions and perspectives.

 

That is extremely helpful!

 

I mean, most boards I've been too extremely discourage reviving old threads, and some boards will warn and even ban you for it. The fact that this board allows it is really heartwarming.

[Jeric 46,834]

That is extremely helpful!

 

I mean, most boards I've been too extremely discourage reviving old threads, and some boards will warn and even ban you for it. The fact that this board allows it is really heartwarming.

 

 

This is the rule regarding Duplicate Topics from the FAQ - No Clones Allowed

 

And it links to this rule - Bumping old threads

 

Like most things here ... it looks like there are common sense rules to follow if you revive a dead discussion. Like, I'm sure that the mods and admins don't want to see 30+ old topics bumped that barely meet the character limit without adding anything to the discussion.

 

Like ... "OMG!!1111 This is the best thing I have ever seen since the last thing I have ever seen. +10 Modifier guys"

 

 

---

 

That only talks about old thread participation. The other aspect is preserving a sense of history within MLPF. In just a few years there were so many friendships forged. In these old topics there are both touching and hilarious stories. Opinions of episodes freshly aired. A sense of discovery. When I first came on this site I loved reading some of the old threads. It gave me perspective on the culture in MLPF, and how it evolved. Now I admit I may be the oddball that likes to read aged opinions, but I found some real gems buried deep down.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

This is the rule regarding Duplicate Topics from the FAQ - No Clones Allowed

 

And it links to this rule - Bumping old threads

 

Like most things here ... it looks like there are common sense rules to follow if you revive a dead discussion. Like, I'm sure that the mods and admins don't want to see 30+ old topics bumped that barely meet the character limit without adding anything to the discussion.

 

Like ... "OMG!!1111 This is the best thing I have ever seen since the last thing I have ever seen. +10 Modifier guys"

 

---

 

That only talks about old thread participation. The other aspect is preserving a sense of history within MLPF. In just a few years there were so many friendships forged. In these old topics there are both touching and hilarious stories. Opinions of episodes freshly aired. A sense of discovery. When I first came on this site I loved reading some of the old threads. It gave me perspective on the culture in MLPF, and how it evolved. Now I admit I may be the oddball that likes to read aged opinions, but I found some real gems buried deep down.

 

Honestly, I think those are some fair points to bring up. It is a bit disconcerting to see an old interesting threah revived with a message that really doesn't contribute. I have no problem with the common sense rules preventing that.

 

Honestly, if a topic is still relevant, it's nice to see it again and be able to contribute to it. I've seena  few topics like that that date from before I joined in late May, and it feels good to offer an opinion on said subject without the resulting posts always saying "NO NECRO-POSTING" or "PLEASE STOP REVIVING DEAD THREADS."

 

Just another reason to love this community.

[Shift 4,269]

The rules do allow necro-posting. Which I have used before for the lulz.

 

So old threads that seem interesting and are still relevant can be necro'd. No thread is really 'dead'.

[GhostPony750 958]

most boards I've been too extremely discourage reviving old threads

Yes... in that forums I used to go, if someone makes a thread about something that have been discussed, it's locked and the mods bash the guy. If someone necro a thread, even if the post is very relevant, they will lock the old post, and bash the guy.

 

It's better to be able to necro old threads really, so it won't become like that terrible forums I used to go. Also, most of the best threads are currently dead. Someone, one day, will dig one up and people are going to post in it.

 

While your idea is not bad (it could be used for locked posts), I think there's too many people in this forums for this kind of section... it would be flooded so quickly. o_O

[Galen Selanno 351]

​Potentially, it could be good though. Maybe if it were called the "Old Threads Section" and it could be a place where the old threads go that can be bumped again. If you group all those threads together, it provides a wider spectrum of old threads that could be re-bumped and placed back in their old sections.

And perhaps remove the auto-delete, too.

[NavelColt 22,875]

​Potentially, it could be good though. Maybe if it were called the "Old Threads Section" and it could be a place where the old threads go that can be bumped again. If you group all those threads together, it provides a wider spectrum of old threads that could be re-bumped and placed back in their old sections.

 

x) The amount of extra work that it'd take to constantly keep up with threads that 'can' be bumped versus ones that wouldn't gain anything by being bumped, makes me cry, and I'm not even on staff anymore. Honestly the idea you're trying to bring across sounds like a whole lot of additional effort for little gain. As has been said several times, the fact we're one of the few forums that actually encourages relevant necro-bumping puts a hole in ideas like this from the get-go, and there's not really any work-arounds that don't require asinine levels of work that the staff do not, will not and should not have time set aside to do.

[Professor Annabella 330]

x) The amount of extra work that it'd take to constantly keep up with threads that 'can' be bumped versus ones that wouldn't gain anything by being bumped, makes me cry, and I'm not even on staff anymore. Honestly the idea you're trying to bring across sounds like a whole lot of additional effort for little gain. As has been said several times, the fact we're one of the few forums that actually encourages relevant necro-bumping puts a hole in ideas like this from the get-go, and there's not really any work-arounds that don't require asinine levels of work that the staff do not, will not and should not have time set aside to do.

Well, I mean there are plenty of admins available for hire, as well as admins already working. You do know that FiMFiction has moderators that reads through EVERY SINGLE story to make sure it's acceptable to be on the site? Most of the time that is a single mod, and that is Meepster. 

 

I honestly don't think this is a good idea either, I was just lurking, waiting for someone to say that we don't have enough admins, or it'd be too much of a effort. Being admin is a job, not a fun hobby. I'm sure if you hired a couple more admins, and you split up the work, something like this can be accomplished. 

[NavelColt 22,875]

Well, I mean there are plenty of admins available for hire, as well as admins already working. You do know that FiMFiction has moderators that reads through EVERY SINGLE story to make sure it's acceptable to be on the site? Most of the time that is a single mod, and that is Meepster. 

 

I honestly don't think this is a good idea either, I was just lurking, waiting for someone to say that we don't have enough admins, or it'd be too much of a effort. Being admin is a job, not a fun hobby. I'm sure if you hired a couple more admins, and you split up the work, something like this can be accomplished. 

 

The amount of people who would work as admin or even moderator material is incredibly small :3 It's not, and has never been as easy as just 'picking some people to hire'; the amount of trust, maturity and time avaliable to do the job is not to ever be taken lightly. I should know, I've been running forums for seven years; up until two months ago, I was an admin on here for quite some time.

 

If you hired enough people it 'could' be possible, but I'm saying it (and by extension superficial ideas like this) wouldn't be worth it. There's just not much to gain. Furthermore, being a staff member is a volunteer job that you're receiving no compensation for. There's no obligation. People staff sites out of personal interest and desire to help a community they enjoy, grow. So by making that job overly complicated and making more effort mandatory for things that aren't going to benefit all that much at the end of the day, you're adopting a bad strategy in general, because stressing out your existing staff, constantly needing to look for replacements for burnt out staff, and constantly needing backup staff for running superficial ideas like what this thread is suggesting, is asking for problems.

 

Keep in mind, the more staff you have the harder it becomes to utilize and organize everyone properly in a timely manner, which is its' own problem; a problem that means 'we'll just hire more people and throw them at the problem' is not a valid solution for any staff-related problem.

[Galen Selanno 351]

You know, if I just wrote out the source code and URLs and things and just copy-paste it to this thread, it could work. Besides, I was thinking of an autonomous system, not one where the actual staff have to move the thread to the section. Too much work. I could guess that even if I've never served on site staff b-4.

You know what? Just from looking at this thread, I can see that making a case for something that 1 staff member objects to makes all the users flock to that side. Making a case for the idea is probably useless.

[NavelColt 22,875]

You know, if I just wrote out the source code and URLs and things and just copy-paste it to this thread, it could work. Besides, I was thinking of an autonomous system, not one where the actual staff have to move the thread to the section. Too much work. I could guess that even if I've never served on site staff b-4.

You know what? Just from looking at this thread, I can see that making a case for something that 1 staff member objects to makes all the users flock to that side. Making a case for the idea is probably useless.

 

Automation is a great replacement for trudging up more man power and work hours. If it can be done and works, that is.

 

Can't speak for everyone else, but all I read was your OP, your reply later in the thread that I replied to, and then Lord's post. And now this post, of course.

[Troblems 5,608]

 

 

You know what? Just from looking at this thread, I can see that making a case for something that 1 staff member objects to makes all the users flock to that side. Making a case for the idea is probably useless.

 

I removed my previous post. I know where it was, but do you? Seriously. Can you pick out where my post should have been in the line of posts? Because honestly my post didn't say anything much different from what was already said.

 

Also, just because something doesn't particularly fit this specific forum doesn't mean that it is a bad idea. It also doesn't make me right for disapproving. Just because my name is in purple doesn't make me any less fallible than any other human. However your response came across extremely petulant here. If you think I'm wrong, tell me inherently why with logic, rather than accusing others of being sheep.

[Galen Selanno 351]

Classic rule of mass reactions: the people with less power will almost always side with the people with more power (I'm a non-conformist, so the rule doesn't apply to me).

 

 

Automation is a great replacement for trudging up more man power and work hours. If it can be done and works, that is.

 

Sure, it can be done. The most basic kind I can think of is one where you set a certain time on each thread (this can be automated by having the code in the new thread page like it does whenever someone makes a new thread) via script elements and variations of the setTimeOut function. Then, when that certain amount of time is reached, the thread moves itself (I'll look back at the DOM tree to see if I can find anything that might pertain to thread positions or thread) to the new section.

[Jeric 46,834]

Of course it can be done. But the method you mentioned isn't how to do it. You would need to write a timer class for php since the script function you mentioned wouldn't work. php isn't event driven. sleep() is the only thing that comes to mind off hand and that won't work for this specific case. It can be done ... but .... it's not worth the effort to muck around with a client side solution.

 

Then there's this. There is a thing called the 80/20 rule that applies, and an opportunity cost that comes with every project undertaken by development.

[King 5,625]

 

 

Classic rule of mass reactions: the people with less power will almost always side with the people with more power

Its not a matter of people flocking to the staffs aid. Its a matter of people agreeing with the people who run the site, who know how it works, who know the resources and time we have available...essentially the people who know more about the possibility of a suggestion being put down on a to-do list then the masses who don't know what goes on in the back end of the site.

The idea is more then plausible, frankly though we don't have the time nor manpower to implement this any time soon. By "any time soon" I mean any time in the next year at minimum.

Whether the idea is practical and would serve us well, is another question entirely.

Personally I don't feel this is needed at all. Threads already fade out of the public eye as time goes on and simply shrink down in the sub forum its located in. That being said, we encourage people to necropost (so long as its more then just "bump") since we don't allow duplicate threads. What this means is that a thread is never "completely" dead. It always has the possibility of popping back into public eye as it becomes more relevant or if someone simply wants to discuss it.

Its for these reasons that Id say no to the suggestion in general.

[Troblems 5,608]

This topic seems to be at the end of its discussion. While not a bad idea, it's not particularly applicable to this forum. Therefore, locking.