I think you're still asking for threads that should be archived? No one wants to be bothered by posting the links to 2/3 of the threads in this section. There's an easier way to do it. I'll post the links to some threads that should be removed/deleted (hello? am I [are we] clear yet?) on late Saturday or Sunday.
Um....well, first, sorry - I'd asked phrozen to help me prune a few more heavily populated forums, so he hasn't been able to come back here and follow up with this initial push. I expect he'll be back on this shortly, and ask me to return the favor of helping clean out a forum.
To answer your question...yes, he is asking for threads to SAVE. I can fully appreciate the effort you went thru to look at a few pages and pick which things to remove-delete, but let me put it to you this way: If a thread hasn't been replied to in a long time does it make sense to fall into one of three categories? Either it's valuable as a reference, but nobody is responding anymore, so it ought to be ARCHIVED for future reading; or it is a valuable reference with some life left in it for continued discussion, and therefore we ought to bump it back into active discussions; or it isn't responded to and isn't read anymore and ought to be simply removed and deleted?
We've set up the ARCHIVE so threads of value that aren't active, can be tucked away for reference. Any member can give a link for a thread to be archived. Any member can bump a thread if it's got some life for extended discussion left in it. The stuff that can be deleted ... well, is easy enough for mods or admin to delete, but we want to ensure we don't delete valuable information. Which probably brings the discussion back around to your question another way: Isn't it easier to simply delete the few discardable threads, since SO MUCH of the ADD content is worth keeping?
Let's try a simple example. Concern over weed interactions....run a search for 'can*' in thread titles and get 36 hits. Of those 36 threads, I will bet you anything ~3 can be deleted without even blinking. A few more aren't related to what we're looking for (cocaine and root CANal?). But of the rest, if someone needs this info, do they benefit from having to sift past those ~5 threads to the ADD quality discussions? And how many of those remaining ~30 threads are duplicates, or overlapping? Wouldn't a reader be better served by merging those threads of value, and any off topic responses possibly removed?
The act of pruning isn't done solely for the server load improvement, it's also to help remove unhelpful threads, give a review of useful content to see if it is easily accessible (and not buried in 10 different threads, with another handful of red herrings in the search results). Quite honestly, I personally don't expect a lot of the ADD content may get removed (I haven't read it, but knowing the nature of the material, I'm comfortable making this assumption). What I really expect is that the information that remains afterward is in an easy to use form and has been condensed from a smattering of thoughts to a focused well-rounded supply of information on a given topic.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to achieve that? As phrozen noted, we're willing to work with the mods (and members) in whatever fashion best suits the forum and it's content - we have several ways of doing this that have worked elsewhere already. But ultimately, you guys (members and mods) know the content, know it's value, and how best to get it organized for lurkers and others that come later. Please, help us do this, otherwise you're left with people who don't know the content nearly as well, making assumptions that can cripple the forum....none of us want that.
A listing of what to delete, yeah that's a help. But it is one person's view on what to delete, whereas another member (or mod) may think some of that is worth saving. We're not trying to go by one person's view (or we simply would have done it ourselves), we want to save what has value in the minds of the collective forum regulars - some will save some things, others will save different material, but if we save what is needed, we can eliminate all the rest knowing that those who know best, have the information they feel is most critical and can help us provide it to future members in the best way possible.
). Consider this your 2 week notice to let the mods know which older threads you think ought to be saved. Come the end of that time frame *poof* all those older threads will be deleted without a trace.
Not to mention many of the other posters who've made great posts but aren't around anymore. We only have their contributions now.
