Spring Cleaning 2010 - down under style

TheLoveBandit

Indefinite break from BL - contact other admin
Joined
Feb 22, 2000
Messages
38,988
It's that time again, SPRING CLEANING (if you're in the Southern Hemisphere). For reference on how this went down last time, check the old ANNOUNCEMENT.

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Staff,

We appreciate all that the mods and members did with the last PRUNE we ran in mid-2009. However, we are due to go through it again. Luckily that last one was more painful due to several forums having not been reviewed in years and years....this time, we're looking at only trimming back threads without replies before 2010, which is only about 8 months of last years threads.

Stated more clearly - on the chopping block is any thread not replied to in 2010, but still floating in your forum.

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Based on our server stats, you'll notice the forums are ranked based on how much server space they take up:

Code:
[u]Forum					Posts		% of database[/u]
The Lounge				441831		9.9882
Psychedelic Drugs			357909		8.091
Archive - The Lounge			248500		5.6177
Other Drugs				210065		4.7488
Archive - EADD				184515		4.1712
Archive - OD				171141		3.8689
European &amp, African Drug Discussion	152946		3.4576
Archive - Australian Drug Discussion	140427		3.1746
Archive - Australian Social		114252		2.5828
Basic Drug Discussion			113940		2.5758
Ecstasy Discussion			104233		2.3563
Archive - SLR				90863		2.0541
Sex, Love and Relationships		77063		1.7421
Archive - DC				76698		1.7339
Film &amp, Television			75305		1.7024
The Dark Side				74223		1.6779
Cannabis Discussion			73586		1.6635
Drug Culture				71415		1.6144
Archive - CEP				71393		1.6139
Archive - Words				70550		1.5949
Archive - TDS				69495		1.571
Archive - ED				67703		1.5305
Australian Drug Discussion		67171		1.5185
Advanced Drug Discussion		65968		1.4913
Australian Social &amp, Events		61499		1.3903
Archive - SO				56302		1.2728
Archive - CD				54062		1.2221
Current Events and Politics		51744		1.1697
Archive - TR				51247		1.1585
Archive - NEMD				49440		1.1177
Second Opinion				5454		1.0276

You'll notice half of our top 10 'fatty' areas are archives - fair enough, they were set up with the intention of holding key reference information good for years. However, of those fat archives, several are social in nature....which begs several questions, such as
  • Isn't 'social' content primarily transient and relative, such that it is important to those at the time, but not so much a reference needed forever?

  • If it *is* such an awesome social content thread that it ought be referenced forever....should it not be in BoBL?

  • How much of those social archive threads are ones that got filled to 1000 posts and archived? Are they really that valuable? Do the images and links in them still work? Is it feasible to either remove them wholesale or perhaps save the 50-200 good posts from each one and get rid of the rest?

I'm sure you can come up with some more questions of your own, including the counter question of - "so, why keep social archives at all?" There is still some merit on keeping local archives in social forums (ie, SLR or SO would have some threads good for reference within their archives, which are best kept in a sub-forum for UTFSE moments). But yeah, we're going to ask for a review of the archives as well.

Why? Why are we being so cruel and heartless to not only have you prune your forums, but actually review the archives as well? Because we're bored, and there hasn't been enough whinging from staff lately aside from a few isolated issues. This one can piss everyone off ;) No, seriously, you guys have probably seen the threads in SUPPORT regarding errors and slow loads, and you have probably experienced these yourself to some degree. We need to trim back the database to improve things, as we seem to be up against the limits of our hardware :\ But to go one further, we've discussed our pending upgrade(s) and these are much, much easier to do with a smaller database.

To improve our bang-for-the-buck, we'll attack forums according to that listing above on database size (this lets you know when your forum is due to be pruned), but in fairness ALL forums will be reviewed.

Per the process last year, we'd like to follow what worked well by posting notice in ANNOUNCEMENTS as well as forum specific headers when a forum is being pruned. We'll create a temporary 'PENDING DELETION' folder for each forum as it is under review, allowing for the members to pitch in and bump things or ask that they be saved (mods shouldn't have to do all the work).

This thread is here for any questions or feedback as we head into this. Your help and support is essential, so we thank you.


PRUNE COMING NOW

EXPECT AN ANNOUNCEMENT

NOBODY IS EXEMPT





Cheers =D
 
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A few key pointers to have in mind as we approach this

  1. Ensure your forum guidelines and other key threads of interest are preserved during the prune. Like, make sure you know where they are ahead of time, and that they don't get tossed out with the baby and the bathwater.

  2. Use this to verify-fix your listings of mega-threads of interest for your forum. We've still got a few broken links in some forums due to losing threads in the last prune. Let's try to avoid this by checking every link in your index, then making sure those threads that still exist are preserved during the prune (we'll sort out how in a bit, but my gut is thinking to sticky them in the archive or in your main forum until the prune is done - this keeps them from getting deleted.

  3. I like chocolate.

  4. Don't freak over reviewing every single thread....we'll do it chunks at a time to keep the qty within reason. Also, we'll be doing this in a publicly viewable-accessible manner, so it is not solely on the mods to do the review .... members are asked to help out as well, and they bear the pain if things are lost.



.

EDIT TO ADD THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURE OUTLINE:


This is the procedure we used last go. Please, feel free to question or suggest alternatives. This isn't the law of how to do it, but what we did last time, and how we think it can best be approached with this go'round. I'll use TL as an example, since it's first up.

  1. (The Sr. Staff will) Make an ANNOUNCEMENT and serve notice in SUPPORT, so the members are aware it's happening all over the site and why, and most importantly that we want their help with it.

  2. (The Sr. Staff will) Make a forum NOTICE indicating *this* forum is now being pruned, how we plan to do it, and what the mods and members are being asked to do:

  3. (The Sr. Staff will) Add a new sub-forum called "PENDING DELETION"
    THE LOUNGE
    - PENDING DELETION
    - THE LOUNGE ARCHIVE

  4. (The forum mods and members will) Give a run thru the forum guidelines, key thread index of links, etc and make sure ALL important threads are saved prior to moving stuff into the PENDING DELETION. I'll point out that if threads are stickied, it makes it a lot easier to ensure they don't accidentally get swept out for deletion. Yeah, it'll make a fugly large list of stickies atop your forum proper and-or your archive, but you can unstick them when we're done if you need. Just an FYI.

  5. (The Sr. Staff will) Move about 400-500 threads into "PENDING DELETION" for a 4-7 day review. Members can bump threads for consideration of saving, mods can then make a decision and move saveworthy threads to BoBL or the THE LOUNGE ARCHIVE as appropriate.

  6. (The Sr. Staff will) End of the review period, remaining threads are hard deleted by admin, and another 400-500 threads are moved in for review.

  7. Rinse-Repeat until done, delete the forum NOTICE and the PENDING DELETION sub-forum, then sr. staff moves on to tackle another forum.

By using the PENDING DELETION area for review, it breaks the job into manageable bite-sized pieces. By having the reviewed threads visible and bumpable by all the members, nobody can come back later crying about losing something due to the whim of an admin with a fat finger on the keyboard and no appreciation for the content - this is their chance to speak up on such threads.

We will tackle the local archive (THE LOUNGE ARCHIVE) first, then the forum proper.- allowing you (the staff and public) a chance to save your recent faves first. Then in doing the ARCHIVE content, you'll come to have a better appreciation on what really does belong in BoBL, what belongs in local, and what shouldn't have been saved after all.

I should also point out that we will not be doing this ONE FORUM at a time, but will probably tackle 2-5 forums at any given time. This keeps it from stretching out forever, and there really is no reason not to tackle several at once, given the number of sr. staff available to assist the local forum mods and members with their pruning. This way, we should be able to wrap up in perhaps 4-8 weeks total? Then we can feed our server monkey and get him to do some upgrade work!
 
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Stats that are closer to home:

Code:
[U][b]FORUM							OLD:Threads_Posts[/b]
[/U]
Support 						785_13509	

New Member Introductions				4,150_31,205	
- NMI Archive 	 	 	 			359_7,416

Ecstasy Discussion					7,634_168,702
- ED Archive 	 	 	 		 	1,890_67,149
Cannabis Discussion					3,415_123,231
- CD Archive						375_51,282
Steroid Discussion					575_10,182
- SD Archive						59_2,925
Psychedelic Drugs					13,070_313,909
- PD Archive						DNE
Other Drugs						22,265_369,102
- OD Archive						10,107_169,476

Drug Studies						141_1,853
Drugs in the Media					3,929_64,410
-  The Front Page					84_3,686
- DITM Archive						1,266_33,042
Basic Drug Discussion					11,101_133,623
- BDD Archive						545_17,268
Advanced Drug Discussion				4,371_64,670
- ADD Archive						DNE	
The Dark Side						4,172_133,421
- TDS Archive						784_60,599
Trip Reports						6,430_70,697
- TR Archive						4,696_50,497
Drug Culture						1,624_144,825
- DC Archive						449_76,109

Healthy Living						1,729_37,981
- HL Archive						322_10,514
Current Events and Politics				3,447_121,879
- CEP Archive						1,662_70,930
Sex, Love and Relationships				3,957_157,693
- SLR Archive						1,586_87,873
Philosophy and Spirituality				1,126_44,517
- P&S Archive						369_19,179
Education & Careers					650_12,463
- E&C Archive						255_5,102
Legal Discussion					1,942_21,747
- LD Archive						1,034 _13,545
Second Opinion						2,485_101,459
- SO Archive						1,329_56,833
Science & Technology					1,257_17,978
- S&T Archive						171_4,345
The Lounge						4,538_673,897
- TL Archive						769_240,456

Electronic Music Discussion				944_40,331
- EMD Archive						194_22,622
Non-Electronic Music Discussion				1,036_81,078
- NEMD Archive						168_9,227
Words							15,487_77,550
- Words Archive						14,094_70,287
Film & Television					2,786_82,511
- F&TV Archive						27_7,852
Sports & Gaming						666_26,130
- S&G Archive						76_7,158

Australian Drug Discussion				11,200_202,459
- Aus PIR						82_634
- AusDD Archive						9,073_138,840
Australian Social & Events				2,313_199,663
- Aus Soc Archive					1,195_113,163
- Aus Events Archive					367_26,161

European & African Drug Discussion			3,245_316,293
- EADD Archive						525_173,745
European & African Events				166_992
- EAEvents Archive					DNE

North & South American Social & Drug Discussion		893_61,839
- NADD Archive						86_13,248
- NASocial Archive					55_9,446	
North & South American Events				1,439_48,951
- Northeast USA						507_1,817
- Midwest USA						417_8,314
- Other North and South American Regions		266_1,869
- NAE Archive						247_36,948


We'll add another column to indicate when a forum is done, and where it ended up.
 
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JUST a word of warning, you will find the server stalls a bit whenever we mass delete a bunch of threads. This won't be a scheduled thing, more an action when any given forum has reviewed it's content adequately. So the downside is, we should see several of these 'slow downs'; but the plus side is that they typically don't last more than 2-3 minutes and each one brings us that much closer to a healthy (ie, faster!) database :)





EDIT - these 'stalling' moments will delay your page loads, and will also cause frequent double posting (the server takes a submitted post and puts it in the thread twice). We will try not to do these deletions-stalls during peak online time for our members, but if you are thoughtful of others, you can EDIT->Delete when you create a double post ;)
 
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It's nothing for anyone to complain about thats for sure lovebandit! And i agree theres no practical use in archiving social content.
 
anarchogen said:
Whawhat the fuck is going on?!??!?!
Bluelight has to many threads and its slowing us down. To optimize Bluelights functioning threads no one cares about anymore are being deleted. The Sr Staff lets you look over what's being chucked in case you want to argue that a certain thread ought to be kept or in case you want to save it on your own computer or give it one last hug.

When a search or other types of function happens the server can have to look through every post even ones that have not held anyone's interest in years. Its like trying to find something in your closets when your saving all your kindergarten keepsakes, every package you have eaten from, every beer can, on and on. It doesn't work. You have to throw some stuff away to make other stuff findable in a reasonable amount of time.
 
All I can say is that this thread better not get deleted.

Seconded. I've been curious to see the results of that thread myself. ;)

Regardless I just wanted to wish all the mods & admin the best of luck in this clean up effort.
A cleaner, more streamlined Bluelight awaits!
Here's hoping that this will be a smooth, streamlined process with no hiccups for everyone involved.
Thanks again to all those involved for there dedication to Bluelight & for your help in making Bluelight better!
 
^ Its all within 2010 and in no danger of getting pruned this cycle. :)
 
All I can say is that this thread better not get deleted.


Let's see....

#1 - anything that has a reply in 2010 will NOT even be considered for deletion = your thread is safe

#2 - any thread that is up for deletion will be given a week in a holding bin where anyone (mod or member) can flag it and ask that it be saved = you have the chance to keep it safe even if #1 wasn't in effect


Regardless I just wanted to wish all the mods & admin the best of luck in this clean up effort.

Your thanks are appreciated, it's not a fun job - and while the staff (primarily mods) have the power to move threads from review into an archive and preserve it if needed, we really need the help of ALL THE MEMBERS to go through the "PENDING DELETION" folders each week to help ensure we don't toss out anything really important :\ So, pre-emptively, we (the staff) thank all of YOU (the members) for your help with this. :D



Keep watch for when a forum you frequent is up for review. Right now, we're focused on our largest sections (LOUNGE, PD, OD, ... etc). You'll see a thread appear in your favorite forums whenever their turn comes up. Your experience is needed!
 
Bluelight has to many threads and its slowing us down. To optimize Bluelights functioning threads no one cares about anymore are being deleted. The Sr Staff lets you look over what's being chucked in case you want to argue that a certain thread ought to be kept or in case you want to save it on your own computer or give it one last hug.

When a search or other types of function happens the server can have to look through every post even ones that have not held anyone's interest in years. Its like trying to find something in your closets when your saving all your kindergarten keepsakes, every package you have eaten from, every beer can, on and on. It doesn't work. You have to throw some stuff away to make other stuff findable in a reasonable amount of time.

well knowledge is power,
the prune thing tripped me out a bit though
 
couldn't all of say OD's socials and CD's socials be put in one big combined thread so that they are still saved but just in one big thread so that there isn't a bunch of threads for the search engine to search through and it would still make the site faster? or is it the fact of the space being taken up other than just too many separate unneeded threads sitting around?
 
Posts are posts are posts - whether merged into a big megathread or scattered to various threads. They all carry the same server weight and search engine sluginess.
 
how about getting the mods of each section to pick 1 or 2 threads to add to the best of bluelight from each archive and deleting the rest? i don't see much need for all these archived threads when most are out of date or are still being asked today
 
The very fact that Psychedelic Drugs takes up so much space proves (in my opinion) that this is a very pressing area of science. :\
 
The very fact that Psychedelic Drugs takes up so much space proves (in my opinion) that this is a very pressing area of science. :\

yes i appreciated this fact.

Regardless good luck mods/admins, this seems like quite the hefty task. Although I have to say the prospect of a faster server is nice. Besides most of the info of drug effects, short term and long are changing almost every semester of the year so no reason not to remove outdated info. Most of all good luck with all the "save my thread!!" messages.
 
Guys, pleeeezzze 8) I love BL, but Bluelight posting habits are not prime indicators of what is a pressing area of science. The lounge posts outweigh PD. What does that say about science? Does ADD's fewer posts indicate they are on the wrong track when it comes to science :) I mean this nicely, just am not in the right set, setting, or dose I'm guessing <3
 
Tl:dr hide yo kids hide yo wife cause they rapin every1 down here O well find you
 
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