Someone was commenting that the purpose behind the flounder forum was to make the database of retained posts grow more slowly over time, discarding the “lame” posts after a short period. Considering how few posts go in there, it’s not an effective method, IMHO.
I’d like to suggest adding a small drop-down list on the side of the posting form, allowing the poster to put in a “delete-by” time limit. Default it to a month or two or six, and allow the poster to make a post permanent – or to let it drop in a week. Add one field to the database, and have a process cull the posts every day or two. Maybe even make the default duration different for each forum.
This will allow silliness like my sheep posts to self-delete after the joke has worn thin, while important information (e.g., many posts in the Health forum) could be retained for a longer term.
Can we meet sometime (in Taipei)? I’d like to talk about what it would take to get this done.
However a couple of things need to be completed first before we can move forward:
Move website successfully to new Taipei-based server
Upgrade to phpBB 2.1.x (unless 2.2 is already ready)
I am planning for this to be done this summer. I’m already asking for more help with no. 1. Also, I’m going to be away this month, so that may also put a cramp on things.
Let’s aim to connect towards the end of this month. Cool?
If you do that, I’d like to recommend defaulting to “permanent” - otherwise there’s too much chance that potentially useful stuff will be self-deleted because the poster didn’t think to change the time limit. And the only other thing I’d ask is, would the plan be for individual posts or threads to be affected? 'Cause it could make threads a bit odd if some people have their responses permanent, while the posts they respond to vanish into the mists of cyberspace. If it was just for threads, that could make a bit more sense, then the creator of a nonce thread could set it to poof, and take all responses with it.
Except for the classified forums, I don’t like the idea of a time-lapse fucntion for posts. Often a post will be made whimsically, but generate an interesting, sincere discussion. I wouldn’t want the original poster to decide the thread had no lasting value, when the thread’s content hasn’t even started.
And the purpose of the flounder forum is simple: if it doesn’t belong on the forums, if it doesn’t deserve to stay on the forums, if it’s an off-topic post, if it’s gibberish, if it’s a multiple post or a cross post, then it gets floundered. Some people enjoy starting threads in the flounder section too, knowing that they will disappear after 30 days of non-replies. Flames disappear faster - after 7 days of non-replies.
Why not delete? There are a couple of reasons. In the past, posters would cry “censorship” when a post of theirs was deleted, and others would get curious as to the kind of content that gets deleted. Now people can see with their own eyes. Another reason is that floundering or flaming a post shows a poster very clearly what Forumosa community standards are. A flamed post serves as a head-on-a-stick warning for other posters that might otherwise have been unaware of what constitutes an “unacceptable” post.
The classified forums have a time-lapse feature already. Posts disappear after two years. (Or is it one and a half?)
I’m with Maoman on this one, If you want to make a silly post that you don’t want to last, put it in the flounder forum, if you make a silly post elsewhere that a mod thinks doesn’t belong, they will send it to flounders (like I did with the sheep one). And it keeps silly posts out of the “sensible” forums, and keeps them on topic.
Deleting an individual post after someone has replied to it is a big no-no.
Psychology problem: few people, especially chronic posters with more than 1,000 posts in a year, will opt to make their posts temporary. People like leaving their mark in cyberspace.
Chronic? Sounds like something I’d like to smoke. 1,000 posts? Phshaw! Lightweights.
I neither like nor dislike leaving my mark in cyberspace, but I DO realize the vital importance my posts have for so many people, so I wouldn’t wish to be unfair to them.
I’d like to see a ‘Delete in 5 days’ button for moderators to click.
Posts like ‘yep, I agree’, ‘thanks’, ‘that’s Ok’ and many many more, serve a function and shouldn’t be deleted outright, but it’s worth having them deleted after they’ve served their purpose. This cleans up threads a lot. But it’s just too much hassle for moderators to go through old threads doing this.
If we mods could just click a ‘Delete in 5 days’ button when we read the ‘thanks’ or ’ ’ posts, it would be good.
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’ posts, it would be good.