Please stop prune on off topic

[DH]

I always thought O/T was the trash, that's why we send so much O/T from the main forums into it

[meynaf]

There might be some valuable information in OT-Technical.
But for others, I don't see the point in keeping them.

[DH]

• OT - General
  pruned after 2 months
• OT - Technical
  pruned after 6 months
• OT - Entertainment
  pruned after 2 months
• OT - Sports
  pruned after 2 months
• OT - Gaming
  not pruned

General - This is a hard one as some information lies at both ends of the spectrum, not worth keeping and worth keeping, so I suppose it's really down to the O/P to stipulate this so we could protect it from the pruning rules. Not sure yet how this can be done successfully other than make them a sticky, which I am opposed to. Like Anubis said, we could auto move them to a different hidden forum, after the 2 months of inactivity, that us mods can view, that gets pruned after 1 year, which should give more than enough time for someone to re-call their thread. A moderator will obviously have to move it back and make a post regarding the re-call, otherwise it'll be re-pruned if someone else doesn't post

Technical - Information here is viable to keep and shouldn't be pruned as the information posted is useful to the masses.

Entertainment & Sports - is only viable for current affairs and to me, after 2 months the information is no longer useful, so their pruning is worthwhile.

Gaming - Worth keeping, as many of us are gamers at heart, some more so than others.

So what do you guys suggest?

[ptyerman]

Agreed. OT-Technical and OT-Gaming are definitely worth keeping around even if they're moved to an archive instead of being pruned after the specified time.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by ptyerman

Agreed. OT-Technical and OT-Gaming are definitely worth keeping around even if they're moved to an archive instead of being pruned after the specified time.

Yep, fully agree.

[Anubis]

I would change technical to the same area like games, not pruned. There is always information there that can be relevant. Good thing I did not start my xbox softmoding topic there, as it would be gone by now, and information there is still relevant.

I just fail to see point in 2 months prune of other topics. IMHO keeping them for year or even longer will not hurt anyone, nor cost more...

[project23]

I personally believe (my own £0.02 worth), that every good forum should have a General Discussion section that is never pruned, just moderated.

This is a community, and having such a section promotes friendship and growth of the forum in general (ie, they won't go somewhere else to have that discussion).

As for the information being useless in so many months - i can understand the initial logic behind this idea, but what if I ask for advice on my car, or selecting a cheap car, or something like that - and I get a useful response.

Maybe I would like to look up that response a year or two later, because I'd forgotten to write it down or something - you know? Is there really any harm in keeping it around? I mean its already been moderated.

Just my two pence

Kind regards,

John

[DamienD]

It's really simple guys; if there is an Off Topic thread that you think is worth keeping then just PM a Global Moderator and we can make it "sticky"; if in agreement that it's worthwhile

[gimbal]

Well I don't agree with that, stickies are a real nuisance due to their nature of sticking to the top and staying there. Okay if there is only one, but that is not what we're talking about here. Just letting threads be pruned is the lesser evil, in my opinion.

[project23]

I always figured stickies were for threads that held important information that either ought to be read by everyone, or are common to everyone - not OT discussions that have information one or two users might need 5 years from now, ya know?

Just my opinion of course!

John

[DH]

I still say the solution lies in post #23

If we stickied every thread that was deemed worthy, we'd simply be defeating the object of their main purpose.

[project23]

Originally Posted by DH

I still say the solution lies in post #23

If we stickied every thread that was deemed worthy, we'd simply be defeating the object of their main purpose.

I agree really, if you're definitely against something like pruning after 2 years for anything OT - which I take it you all are.

The only change I'd recommend that I believe falls in line with your approach is to make the OT General pruning term 6 months rather than 2.

I don't know how often it happens, but if person A asks person B for advice, I can certainly see them wanting go looking for that advice more than 2 months later.

Is OT moderated? If it is then once it's been moderated i don't see the issue with keeping posts for long periods of time, unless there's a genuine space issue.

One thing I do disagree with (and i know you don't do it here at EAB) is unmoderated 'flame pit' like forums. I used to admin a forum myself and after I left they allowed this and my god the crap that got posted. That kind of forum i'd prune every week, let alone month. But if its moderated, I don't see the problem really.

Again just my opinion.

Cheers as always!

John

[DH]

Post #23 explains how often each sub-forum is pruned and explanes how we could eliminate pruning for some of the sub-forums, keep it for others and do something slightly different for General, as with this sub-forum, not everything is worth keeping, but some is.

6 month pruning rule is OK, however, there'll always be something that'll require a little more, like I said, General is one of those sub-forums that's going to be difficult to please everyone. Reasons for pruning, this is an Amiga forum and I doubt RCK wants the servers filling up with so much unrelated topics outside the Amiga.

Yes OT is moderated, all GM's keep an eye on it and have done since time began, however, our main focus is the main forums. Previously, many years ago, there were issues with O/T so there were some major changes made to it, as GM's were spending far too much time moderating it rather than moderating the main forum + it was becoming a real pain in the arse and making the GM's lives completely miserable.

[project23]

Originally Posted by DH

Post #23 explains how often each sub-forum is pruned and explanes how we could eliminate pruning for some of the sub-forums, keep it for others and do something slightly different for General, as with this sub-forum, not everything is worth keeping, but some is.

6 month pruning rule is OK, however, there'll always be something that'll require a little more, like I said, General is one of those sub-forums that's going to be difficult to please everyone. Reasons for pruning, this is an Amiga forum and I doubt RCK wants the servers filling up with so much unrelated topics outside the Amiga.

Yes OT is moderated, all GM's keep an eye on it and have done since time began, however, our main focus is the main forums. Previously, many years ago, there were issues with O/T so there were some major changes made to it, as GM's were spending far too much time moderating it rather than moderating the main forum + it was becoming a real pain in the arse and making the GM's lives completely miserable.

If people can't have nice things, you take them away. So I understand that.

I agree with all of this by the way. My one disagreement being 6 months instead of 2 for 'General'.

I don't (so far) use O/T anyway - and my 'test case' of person A asking advice from person B etc would probably be posted in OT Technical anyway, so maybe 2 months really is appropriate for OT General?

John

[DH]

I'm sure when RCK reads this, he'll have a discussion with the GM's about it and maybe discuss how to come up with an amicable solution using the info from the thread and us GM's

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by DH

Previously, many years ago, there were issues with O/T so there were some major changes made to it, as GM's were spending far too much time moderating it rather than moderating the main forum + it was becoming a real pain in the arse and making the GM's lives completely miserable.

Exactly; this is why these rules came into place to begin with... but you'd only know that if you've been on EAB for more 5 years.

OT is a lot tamer these days than it was in the past; it used to be anything goes and there was some pretty full-on stuff being posted

[project23]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Exactly; this is why these rules came into place to begin with... but you'd only know that if you've been on EAB for more 5 years.

OT is a lot tamer these days than it was in the past; it used to be anything goes and there was some pretty full-on stuff being posted

Oh I can imagine, that's why i'm supportive of DH's idea.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by DamienD

OT is a lot tamer these days than it was in the past; it used to be anything goes and there was some pretty full-on stuff being posted

Also by people who went on to be GM's Twas good times, but the family friendly EAB was never the proper venue for it. If only we could turn back the clock and do better, eh.

[DH]

I was an innocent new member when I was drafted into the old O/T mayhem, I thought it was normal n just went along for the ride n boy was that a ride

Still, it's a much nicer, calmer and pleasant place for everyone to visit now, is less obtrusive for the GM's + the GM's can now concentrate on what really matters instead of trawling through countless posts of pictures and jokes etc, some of which were very risky too.

[RCK]

I read and made some adjustements

OT - General : pruned after one year
OT - Entertainment : pruned after 4 months
OT - Sports : pruned after 4 months
OT - Technical : not pruned
OT - Gaming : not pruned