What should we do about old threads?

General Feedback
13

Hang on there. Leave me out of this!

If anyone cares to hear my opinion about that: I, too, enjoy the banter and have sometimes even joined in with it. I would hate to see it all swept out of sight by the mods.

I can sympathise with people who find that thread exasperating though, so was gonna keep mum on that point until you dragged me in.

Is this just because i mildly enquired if the Tasting Notes thread was now defunct? (on account of all the tasting notes now going into that other thread, along with all the banter, and just about everything MF related )

It is, is’nt it? For Pete’s sake *rolls eyes *

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14

It seemed that way. You’ve clarified and I apologize.

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15

For example if you say you order flavors from MF that you haven’t even tried yet, that belongs in the thread Vape Mail (or if you want to start a new pre-vape mail thread with just your orders, that’s fine, but it messes up the recommendations thread).

There are what 350 comments in that thread and how many are real recommendations? If I’m looking for MF recommendations, I’m not getting my chest wet for a day of reading a single thread with a dozen or so recommendations.

And stop taking all these things so personal and get so excited about it, my comment is nothing personal and not directed straight at you (I get dragged in it as well from time to time). Many people can’t stay on topic for simple things. These days, even in giveaways people start chatting away with their opinions about a device… simply open another thread if you want to deviate from the topic or question asked.

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16

Simply put. We are thinking too damn hard here.

When a thread gets old it fades and dies on its own. If all the sudden for someone, something becomes relevant it’s nice to put new life in it.

Take vanillin…i brought back an old discussion from a year or so ago. I got what I needed from the right people and the thread went right back to where it’s needed. Faded into the back ground.

Yes I agree. Contest threads should be closed a day or two later. A complaint thread that has been resolved…sure, close it. But flavor threads and thread that can contain a relevant ongoing conversation, today or a year from now, leave it open.

If we just start closing some of these threads then new ones need to replace them. Then the same damn answers have to be provided in a whole new thread.

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17

I’ve not taken it personally, nor am I particularly excited. In fact, it’s somewhat less than exciting, really.

OK, so you want nothing more than “I recommend this”. Come on, think about that… Joe Vapewater can come on and say that; what value does that add? How long would a thread last if that’s all there was for content? I think KOW’s description of stinky grannies added more to the Acacia Honey discussion than anything else. But it should not have been posted, apparently.

I’m not going to argue this to death. It’s silly. Not only have I nothing else to say here, I also have nothing else to add in the MF thread either, so don’t worry.

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18

Now I am laughing my ass off on how derailed this thread has become. :monkey::poop:

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19

Personally I don’t mind a bit of necromancing :zombie:

Old threads can still contain useful information, and if lets say a new member discovers an old thread and have a question or for other reasons want to reopen the discussion, then why force them to make a new thread instead of reviving the old?

There might be obvious threads that can be deleted or archived, like old giveaways, but unless there are good reasons for deleting or archiving a thread, then it is my opinion that it is better they stay open.

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20

Ephemeral stuff can go, and threads that get blatantly derailed and become antagonistic can obviously go (cough, Gearbest thread) but as for the rest, sure, why not keep them available.

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21

Maybe a “Gargabe in Garbage out” approach for say “Things I Hate” A fav thread of mine, but maybe put a post limit of say 200 after which the top comments start to auto delete?

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22

Well, you already know the obvious issue with that… automatically aging out posts without discretion will eliminate much of the good along with what may or may not be perceived as bad. And some will argue that the good stuff typically happens early, then the thread gains weight as it ages (sounds familiar, eh?), so useful content would be lost. I’ve seen posts from you on various threads that were not early on in the thread, not 100% true to the topic, but still highly entertaining and useful on some level, anyway. I personally think it is difficult, if not impossible, for virtually any thread to remain 100% on topic during its’ lifespan, partly because topics can naturally evolve and still be relevant, even if they drift a little off-center from the original intention. And is that a bad thing? That also seems to be a central argument in play.

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23

I come here quite often to reference the older threads. Sometimes I get better flavor information there than in the flavor list. I would rather see you delete reviews there that are blatantly parroting another review. I don’t need to see the same review verbatim 5 times.

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24

Nobody’s talking about deleting stuff. Closing a topic is putting a lock on it. Nobody can bring it back to life and bump it back to the top of the list. The info is still available. See Ken’s update note.

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25

I think probably people are copying reviews for their own reference, in case the original review gets deleted , (as frequently occurs when flavour is deleted from stash) … i also suspect that some people fail to realise that their own flavour notes are also on public display…

Rather than deleting the copies we really need to put some thought into how to protect the originals from deletion! That would probably go a long way towards fixing your problem.

EDIT: NB It might also be worth noting that the "Preferred single flavor mix: " text is inserted automatically into the notes by the software , whenever you fill in the appropriate number. I sometimes wonder if this looks like loads of people parroting each other!

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26

I realize that but I am not in favor of locking threads either. If I have just one question that requires a simple answer why should I clog things up with a new thread I have no intention of supporting when I get my answer?

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27

Well… we’re not talking about topics that are still valid. Hardware reviews, flavor recommendations, etc. We’re talking about stuff that is out of date, not useful to anyone anymore (rants about a company or even people, coupon codes, giveaways, topics that get out of control, … ). I can think of a few from the top of my head where it was very much needed that the mods put a stop to it.

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28

So now you are okay with “busy” not detail oriented threads like the MF thread? I love the threads that encompasses the whole of a flavor or device, atty etc. I want to to know all about why you ordered it and why you were curious enough to spend your money. I want to know your thoughts throughout the process. What I don’t want is to read through 5 threads to quench my curiosity. If all you want are percentages used start a thread requesting that posters only give that info.

I am not missing your point, I’m saying I enjoy the sometimes chaotic tangents. Keeps it entertaining and informative as a whole. The tangents also encourage me to explore new tasty forks I may have otherwise dismissed.

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29

I’m sorry but you are.

I never said I was against that. Every post “on topic” is a valid post, but there are lots of derailments and posts that are empty space/chatter (in this thread but may be very informative -or not- in a different thread).
There are posts about people’s first orders, their (bad) experiences with a new vendor they used, recommendations for alternative brand flavors, beginner questions about how to do SFT and the list goes on. It’s a whole load of useless information if you’re just here for a couple recommendations. And I don’t mind chatter, just do it in the right place and don’t always try to mix 5 or 10 different topics in 1 thread.
Recipes that people use mf flavors in, percentages used, opinions about the flavors, pairings, recommended suppliers,… they’re all valid posts in this thread.

If I’m looking for a new car and I check a forum about the brand to see which models they recommend, what owners think about it, what they like and what not, problems they’ve had or how a model excels in certain tasks… I’m really not interested in reading about people who just ordered one (and can’t tell me anything other than what the sales guy said), or how they had a problem with a sales guy and their car was delivered a week late, questions about an alternative brand or how someone hasn’t ridden it yet but it just got delivered at his door, it’s looking so shiny and all their neighbors are jealous now.

I’m not even saying that you can’t have these discussions but put them in a separate thread so that people who are not interested can have the option of reading it at a different time or even not having to read it at all.

But that aside… the topic of this thread was what to do about old threads (close them, leave as is). All I meant to suggest is that a bit of content cleanup or rearranging would IMO be a much more useful thing to put time in. All posts are dated, so if people dig up an old thread, it’s easy to see how old the information is and IMO it should be obvious to decide whether that info is still relevant or not.

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30

Lol. I blame @Ken_O_Where for starting a new thread about old threads. (Platonically love you)

Funny how within just a couple days you can see someone apologize for being back an old topic. I think there were three apologies I’ve seen so far.

A topic should remain open when it could still be used to further the conversation. Sure, maybe a merge or two may be needed. That’s why we can request a merge. Non relevant topics die all on their own when member don’t completely start tossing poo or causing a derailment by calling someone out on a side issue.

But merge when really needed but without squashing someone who is excited about jumping into diy. Forums die when threads are just closed because we freak out about having a second or third similar topic.

I’ll say it one more time after participating here since 2015. Threads die naturallly all on their own and come back to life when needed (although sometimes not needed when some nuckle head posts a random nonneeded comment like trying to enter a Whiterose Christmas).

For me I’m gonna let this thread die by changing it from tracking to nornal.

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31

the result of people not getting that

means exactly what it says, nothing sinister, The idea that mods or anybody else much might mistake a topic that’s become a bit quiet for an "oudated " topic, just on the basis that nobody’s posting there right now - is just plain silly. The clue is in the subject matter, and would be obvious to anyone who’s read the whole thread, if not obvious from the title.

I do agree that heavy-handed moderation can kill a forum, but I envisaged that “archiving” would be evidently different from the “autocratic mod locking the thread just cos it pisses him off” scenario. If not, then some thought needs to be put into how to make the difference evident .

Old threads do have natural tendency to archive themselves,as you say But then some types are particulary prone to inappropriate resurrection eg complainrs against vendors, that have long since been fulty resolved, This happens because too many people will only read the OP before responding with something like "Thanks for the heads-up, Bro. That’s appalling. I will never order from those scumbags again " which, in turn. brings in a whole new rash of people whom in turn, only read the first post.

I do think that the mods need to anticpate that something like this is all-too-likely to happen with such threads, and to close them soon as everybody’s had their say, maybe add ing a friendly non-judgemental note to the effect of “issue resolved” .

Also, bearing mind that any mumber of folk might have found the OP via Google, had the exact same thought as the eventual repondant, but not troubled to expreess that thought, then a very salient note and/or reditection should be added to the OP . It’s not fair to the vendor, nor even the OP to just let that continue to happen , not if something can be done to make people think twice before judging.

Closing the thread in such cases wouldn’t be enough, because that only makes the respondant thinktwice. And if you look at board stats , it’s obvious that a lot more people read a thread than ever respond So we end up , effectively, brushing the problem out of our own sight without actually fixing it.

Sorry, this is kinda complex , but I do think it’s important

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32

:wink:

This was number one in my “Why change it?”.

To be honest this would have probably amount to a dozen threads being closed and some of them will be, like the essential depot one i mentioned. But i agree with what you said, ill just leave it as is.

Thanks, all, for the input.

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