Duplicate Thread Annihilation: Project 'Search Results Refinement'

[NavelColt 22,882]

For the longest time, I personally was curious as to why ancient topics in the back of forums were locked and hidden, whereas that only seemed to occur for the last five or so pages, before topics tended to only be locked from then, forwards. As it so turned out, this wasn't some shift in policy that occurred a long time ago or anything; previous staff simply hadn't gone through and cleansed these topics out.

 

When threads are locked for being duplicates, they're ideally supposed to be treated differently from all other kinds of locked threads (for example the common 'this should be a status or blog' response). Duplication threads, after a week or so, should be hidden on top of being locked. As Feld0 explained to me late at night in the Super Secret Special Staff Skype Chat, by hiding all these duplications, it weeds out and shortens search results not only in our own forum's search feature, but also Google's search results as well.

 

Ergo by weeding out and effectively 'removing' all these duplicate threads from public view, it improves search results in general. Something that was all the more important since season three was finally here, and knocking all those duplicates off of Google's search results could only help us.

 

Long story short, I weeded out and hid all locked duplication threads since the forum's beginning, in the following forums:

• Show Discussion
• Sugarcube Corner (and it's Pony Merchandise subforum)
• General Discussion
• Media Discussion
• Forum Lounge
• Forum Games
• Creative Resources

These are more or less seven of the focal points for discussion on our board. I did this a couple weeks ago, and have just today gone through some of these forums and weeded out new locked duplicate threads that have gotten to be a week old or so. I plan to continue being proactive on this, and of course, all staff are encouraged to help out if they want, in their own sections (sectional) or in general (global).

 

Also, as a side note: We do get a fair amount of duplicate threads on this board, because though we would hope people would naturally refer to the search feature before making new threads, many people don't, especially our loveable newbies. But even though we end up with quite a bit, none of them will last very long as long as this system we have remains in place :3 So remember, don't feel discouraged about seeing duplicates here and there for any reason; report it, and know that the staff are just as interested in keeping the board tidy as many of the members are.

 

Pony up, and pony on, everybody

[Zygen 6,066]

Well thanks for the clearing of those threads.

I'll be honest I have forgot to use search alot more then I probably should have before making topics. Although on the same note If I found a topic in search about something I was going to make a topic for i'd kinda feel strange to just randomly necro it, not saying that I'm refusing to do so. But I just find it weird to drag some really old topic about something out of the forums.

Probably just me. Anyways thanks again ChaoticDiscord!

[NavelColt 22,882]

Well thanks for the clearing of those threads.

I'll be honest I have forgot to use search alot more then I probably should have before making topics. Although on the same note If I found a topic in search about something I was going to make a topic for i'd kinda feel strange to just randomly necro it, not saying that I'm refusing to do so. But I just find it weird to drag some really old topic about something out of the forums.

Probably just me. Anyways thanks again ChaoticDiscord!

 

You certainly shouldn't be, though ^^ The variable that matters is that what you're reviving the thread with should be worthwhile and add something to the discussion. If you do that, it doesn't matter how old the topic is. By having a mindset about 'anything old should be avoided', we're effectively restricting possible activity through discussion. I've seen it happen on past boards, where the owner basically forbids bumping anything that's so many months old. Really a bad idea. Necro all you want, I find it fun sometimes to hunt through the dinosaur-aged topics from 2011 and see if I can find topics that look interesting enough to post in

 

Np~ OCD is good for monotonous, repetitive jobs like this xD

[Zygen 6,066]

You certainly shouldn't be, though ^^ The variable that matters is that what you're reviving the thread with should be worthwhile and add something to the discussion. If you do that, it doesn't matter how old the topic is. By having a mindset about 'anything old should be avoided', we're effectively restricting possible activity through discussion. I've seen it happen on past boards, where the owner basically forbids bumping anything that's so many months old. Really a bad idea. Necro all you want, I find it fun sometimes to hunt through the dinosaur-aged topics from 2011 and see if I can find topics that look interesting enough to post in

 

Np~ OCD is good for monotonous, repetitive jobs like this xD

 

Good point, I suppose it is kinda dumb to restrict that kinda thing anyways, just ends up with tons of topics that revolve around the same thing. I've been on forums where this is the case, and especially on more active ones it is quite annoying

I've looked through old threads before, its quite interesting to see how things are. Especially looking at things like predictions for S2 and stuff .

Maybe I'll be necroing some threads sometime, or maybe not who really knows.

Don't worry, we're all a bit OCD anyways

[Twiliscael 3,960]

Yes, yes, yes.

Duplicates of anything really, really get under my skin and it bothers me when my favorite threads are being duplicated and buried.

 

Chaotic, I thank you alot more than you'd think I am :3

[NavelColt 22,882]

Yes, yes, yes.

Duplicates of anything really, really get under my skin and it bothers me when my favorite threads are being duplicated and buried.

 

Chaotic, I thank you alot more than you'd think I am :3

 

I knew you might enjoy this announcement, seeing your thoughts in that blog earlier :3 You were one of the people in mind for my note at the end of the OP, actually.

 

So far, these are the ballpark tallies that I remember of duplicate locked threads I've removed from the sections, overall, that had stretched back since the beginning of the forum. These are from the couple weeks ago when I started back from the start, and don't include the ones I'm doing tonight:

 

Show Discussion: 18-23 topics

Sugarcube Corner: 30-38 topics (Biggest of them all. I had been expecting this. This forum is the madhouse of the board, after Forum Lounge in terms of variety of topics)

General Discussion: 7-9 (Surprisingly, not many)

Media Discussion: 15-18 (Not so surprisingly, an average amount)

Forum Lounge: 10-12 (Eh, so and so)

Forum Games: 4-6 (Not as many as expected)

Creative Resources: 2-3 (For some reason I thought this would have a lot, but I guess I should have figured that the art forums probably didn't have many duplicate threads xP)

 

Altogether, that's anywhere from sixty to seventy topics taken off the board's grid :3 Not to mention new ones from now on. Only staff can view them, and they don't show up in search results anymore. Fairly worthwhile if I do say so myself.

Edited November 19, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Marcato 2,143]

Haha! This is excellent! No more searching for a thread you want to make, and finding ten already like it and not knowing what to do! You've contributed so much ~CD~, especially with all the tedious jobs that wouldn't really get done others and that no one else really wants to do!

 

Either way I look forward to using the search and not finding many topics of the same thing while searching for something completely different. It will most definitely make things a lot neater.

[NavelColt 22,882]

Haha! This is excellent! No more searching for a thread you want to make, and finding ten already like it and not knowing what to do! You've contributed so much ~CD~, especially with all the tedious jobs that wouldn't really get done others and that no one else really wants to do!

 

Either way I look forward to using the search and not finding many topics of the same thing while searching for something completely different. It will most definitely make things a lot neater.

 

Thanks

 

Well, the process will more or less go

 

>Topic that is a duplicate of some other thread is found by a staff or is reported by a member, for the staff to deal with

>Staff locks it for being a duplicate

>Five to seven days later, maybe a bit after, myself or another staff will hide the topic so that it's taken out of public view entirely

 

So, you -might- find duplicate threads, but they'll either be not locked yet (in which you're encouraged to report them), or they're locked, and are on death's row for being hidden within a week or less <3

 

But yeah, the mountain of duplicate topics that you'd run into in Sugarcube especially has been taken care of, for sure.

[Jokuc 8,174]

As the search function still is bad in my opinion, this is a good step forward. I don't see why we needed to save those topics. I hope this will improve search results..

[FedoraMemes 582]

Finally.

 

It get's really annoying seeing duplicate threads when having to search for a topic. Having a list of topics that all have the same title and locked when searching can be really annoying for me and I'm sure everyone else finds it annoying too.

[Something Interesting 103]

The first thought that popped into my mind was: "That poor pony, I would sincerely loathe such a task myself... how noble."

 

For such an extremely large forum, that sounds like a worthy task that you should rightfully be commended for. Most excellent!

[NavelColt 22,882]

The first thought that popped into my mind was: "That poor pony, I would sincerely loathe such a task myself... how noble."

 

For such an extremely large forum, that sounds like a worthy task that you should rightfully be commended for. Most excellent!

 

Hah, thanks :3 Yeah, tasks like this one are often long, tedious and repetitive work, but strangely enough I enjoy it. It's essentially maintenance, and just like my real job, I enjoy maintenance more than other positions like cashier. It's important for the forum that these things be done, so I might as well jump on the idea if no one else really wants to.

 

Besides, now I can have that first line in my signature :'D

[AegisReflector 886]

Hah, thanks :3 Yeah, tasks like this one are often long, tedious and repetitive work, but strangely enough I enjoy it. It's essentially maintenance, and just like my real job, I enjoy maintenance more than other positions like cashier. It's important for the forum that these things be done, so I might as well jump on the idea if no one else really wants to.

 

Oh, come on now, I think we all know what's going on here....

 

Feld0 is holding your grandmother captive and has her hanging above a huge vat of boiling acid and the only way to set her free is to do slave drive maintenance work that makes you completely insane to the point where it actually becomes part of you and you just LOOOOVVEEE it. It's all for your dear sweet grandmother, after all.

 

It's okay, CD, you can pour your heart out to us. :/

Edited November 21, 2012 by AegisReflector

[3005 332]

Excellent. I love how dedicated the forum staff is to maintaining such a high quality of posts and topics; it's admirable, I haven't come across a staff that's quite as passionate. My hat off to you (particularly Chaotic).