Category: Zone BBS Suggestions and Feedback
K. I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm getting pretty sick of trying to check the newest topics to find that some of our dear Zoners have no forum etiquette, and are replying to topics that haven't been replied two in more than a year. Sometimes, more than three years.
I'd like to suggest that something be implemented to lock a board after nobody has replied to it in more than X number of months - maybe six, maybe twelve.
That way, no bright and shining genius can bump a thread that nobody else cares about, and the rest of us can see topics that are current and important to their original posters. Locking old threads will not only cut down on the spam, but the stupid as well. Everyone wins!
Thoughts?
I completely agree. I thought there was something done so that old boards were archived and therefore not able to be posted to?
I too agree with this suggestion.
what's ironic is that, people who have poasted to such board/boards consider themselves to be highly intelligent from the way they go on in public.
lol.
i too agree completely with this. but then, if certain people wont be able to dig out stuff from a century ago, they will create 120 new ones a day yes, someone not making names, already did that... anyone has a solution for that? lol
and, it's usually the less intelligent people who go on all the time about how highly intelligent they are. enough said
I recently read a topic about folks creating new topics that are duplicates of old ones. Perhaps, and especially in light of us newer members to this community, someone should come up with a method to the madness as, in light of this board and the one I previously mentioned, it becomes pretty easy to violate. The one advantage I can see to archiving all the old topics is they are out of the mix. One can go look under old boards if they want, but can't post.
So when is something old and still alive, and something else dead? In light of this topic I could see it might be important to check dates on posts, but then again, if a new question arises relating to an "old" topic, does that make for duplication if a new one gets created?
I wonder how much of this is unintentional, especially by us newer folks.
Totally agree, I can't believe some people who have the time to go through years of these boards.
I think this has been suggested before, but obviously zone staff has not done anything. I think archiving or getting rid of topics a year old or older is a great idea.
I'm pretty sure I remember seing an archive board around here somewhere.
It just never gets used.
This has been suggested numerous times, but every time that I recall seeing it enough people made the argument that bringing an old board up can ocasionally be useful. AT least that's what I vaguely recall. Don't quote me. :) And actually, some of the ones that have been dragged up I've found interesting. A lot of the topics are interesting, and the people that made them aren't even around anymore and have been replaced with an entirely new group of users who provide their own thoughts on the matter. That being said I also do understand why some of the ones that have been dragged up of late have been... More than a bit annoying.
i like the idea, it's great!
The fact is though, if one can go through the archives, they can always start an updated board about the topic. As time goes on, opinions and users change, and thus having threads from more than a year ago pop up is pretty much redundant.
I'd rather see new topics made on a similar subject after one year, than see an old topic get drudged up and push everyone else's more active topics down on the list.
Does anyone else have any input on this?
I hate to bump my own thread, but the fact is, the problem mentioned is still going on, and I think it would help the Zone greatly if we could archive some more old threads.
No way. I agree that useless bringing up of old topics is a little time consuming, but we get so many topics that duplicate topics that have already been discussed (say, this one for example) that I'd rather leave the system as is so those who care to look, could add on to existing topics rather than creating "new" duplicate topics.
Bob
This is an interesting dilemma, because on the one hand, many people don't want inactive discussions to be at the top of the recent posts list or of boards, but on the other, people may feel that they should have the freedom to contribute to something, no matter how inactive it has been.
The Zone boards are very active, and scores of contributions are added to the boards every day.
Forgetting who I am, and imagining that I am a new user, with views I wish to express on numerous subjects, I don't think I would go through the entire board archive to see if what I have already talked about has been discussed. Depending on my experience and confidence with using site-specific search engines, I may type a queery such as Christianity into the search engine, then view topics that are displayed in the search results.
However, it is more likely, that I would go on the boards. I probably wouldn't use the filters in the dropdown menu, and instead I'd click on each board category.
If I couldn't find anything on the first page of any of the boards about what I wanted to discuss, I would create a new topic. In fact, I may not read each page of discussions in its entirety.
If somebody is new, they are not necessarily going to know which users have stopped actively using the site, i.e. contributing to discussions on the boards. They are not necessarily going to look at the dates corresponding to posts in specific topics either.
An improvement that could make clearer to new users whether a thread is active or inactive, is creating an archived discussions folder within each board category, which states clearly that the discussions contained within the archive cannot be updated.
This would also benefit new users, because when they contribute to current discussions or create new discussions, they know they are communicating with active members, and I'm sure that's what they want to do. I don't believe that most new users would intentionally try to communicate with inactive members instead of active members.
One big problem with implementing this solution now, is that some of the old topics have been updated, so we'll have to wait another year until they are inactive, and hope that within that time, they are not updated by a new user. That is unless somebody who works for the website, as a volunteer or employee, is willing to devote their time to moving inactive threads that were updated after a long period of inactivity into an archive with the other inactive threads.
Looking at this from the point of view of those who feel they should be able to post to topics that have been inactive, I can understand why they would be unhappy about the proposal we are discussing. People may not like others determining how old a discussion topic has to be before it can no longer be contributed to. Why one year? Why six months? They may feel that they should be able to contribute something to a discussion topic no matter how old it is. Updating inactive threads can in some cases be justified more than in others.
For example, if somebody many Zone users was close to has died, and over a period of three weeks after the person's death people left tributes to the user on a topic, people may wish to make the topic active again on the anniversary of the person's death.
There is progressive work being done to find cures for some eye conditions. Sometimes there are long gaps between developments, but somebody may prefer to update an old topic with the new developments, making it easier for others to track the progress.
Finally from this perspective, there is the matter of some users imposing their views on others. Who is Miss M to decide what discussions are interesting enough to be updated? Just because Miss M doesn't want to read a discussion, doesn't mean Bob won't want to read it. Why should Miss M not wanting to see it in the updated discussions list mean that Bob can't update it after it has been inactive for four years and seven months?
I am to some extent sympathetic to both points of view. I am more supportive of archiving discussions that have been inactive, because if people want to start new discussions about a topic, they can do. A negative consequence of this is that there will be repetition, and people will express the same views they expressed on previous discussions again. However, as their views will have been expressed in archived discussions, unless somebody is constantly looking in the archives, or has vivid memories of the previous discussion, it won't be so noticeable.
Message to Miss M and Bob: my references to you in the above paragraphs weren't meant to be taken personally. I simply referred to you because Miss M you created this topic, and Bob you expressed the alternative view best.
How about something that tells the user how long that bored has not been posted too
And I can see both sides of this. As post 14 said.
That information is already provided after the link to the discussion. However, less advanced users may not bother to check.
No bad feelings taken Senior, and thanks for summarizing both sides of the discussion very well.
Bob
I have to agree with Bob on this matter because I have found those old topics actually kkind of funny! Also it gives people a chance to hear from people that used to be active members, and plus, this sounds too complicated, and i highly doubt the cl's would want to dedicate their time to emplementing this, as they have enough to be getting on with already. People who dont like a specific board topic have the option to not view it, and this is why there are filters in the drop-down menu. I think people are just getting lazy and dont want to look through the topics. However, if people really want something emplemented into viewing certain topics, I think there should be an option in the my account or something that would be set to show only certain categories or something like that, or maybe even a search box to type in key words if you want to look for a specific board topic. This could help cut down on some duplicate topics, as it would make it easier for people to find a topic, rather than searching through all the topics. So as for the original idea, I'd say no to this.
I agree with the above poster. This is just way too complicated, and everyone here has presented their side of the argument well. While I too am tired of old board topics pushing down the more recent ones, I say leaving this system the way it is will be much more simple, satisfying, and fair in the long run.
I recall Chris N, considering making it that the creator of a topic could lock a topic they created once they felt it was done and dusted, I'd like to see that happen. It wouldn't cut down on the boards from years ago where such users don't visit us any more but could be handy in tidying things up a little.
Oh yeah Kev, I love that idea. I hadn't heard that Chris was considering it, but I think it's a great idea.
We tried bringing up a suggestion to lock old board topics once before, I'll be it this was several years ago. Users yelled, kicked, and complained that it would be a horrible horrible idea at the time, as I vividly remember. Personally, I vote to just leaving it the way it is. Because one way or another, people will complain about it. So let's just have them complain about something that the admins won't have to do any coding on to implament :)
BlackBird has a good suggestion that has come up before and I strongly endorse. Namely, that a topic creator could lock it for further posts. That would not only take care of old topics where the that keep coming up to the top, it would let a person who created a topic out of stupidity, drunkenness, or just plain "bad day blues" put an end to their misery.
Way to go BlackBird.
Bob
I too agree with the most recent suggestion. It would stopp people from bringing back ancient topics. And, it sounds the most fair and less complicated.
Lol! I was just coming on here to post this idea, and BB beat me to it! ! i was going to say that the author of a specific board topic could have the option to close a topic to further discussion. And as mentioned above, it wouldn't put an end to things completely, but it would definitely be nice, and it would help! Also because some topics are created for simple things such as to ask a question, I don't see why this wouldn't be a problem. I like! :)
That wouldn't solve the problem. What if a person has become inactive, and hasn't been on here in three years? What if somebody just stopped reading the topic they created and couldn't be bothered to decide whether it should be locked or unlocked? What if somebody wasn't advanced or confident enough on the website to be able to lock or unlock a topic or understand the purpose and implications of making that choice? People who are against old board topics coming back to the top of the boards would still have the frustration of having to get past the old board topics to find the ones they wish to read.
Here's an idea that might work. I know the date of the last post to a topic is listed under the link for the topic, but why not also include the date that the topic was originally created. this way, people who are scrolling through board topics don't have to click on the topic to see if it is recent or not.