Let's clean up the forum

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:03 pm

Hi all,

thanks to my appointment to moderator, I was wondering if I should clean up the PR forum and delete old posts and topics in cases of where the questions have been answered million of times (e.g. Palan missions) as well as obsolete mod questions (e.g. concerning PU1.0) - We could have a forum with a better overview.

This would also mean that some people would loose some posts and therefor go down in their rank, so I'll also do it with a majority of two third and if there aren't any objections from other moderators, admins or devs.

I'm also planning to create one, max two stickies/announcements for PU issues - download sources, user+dev discussions, something like that.

The poll runs 30 days.

Draken Stark · Post by **Draken Stark** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:54 pm

If anything it's nice to have archives of posts from way back when. Some things dont need to be up on the top as stickies... but just to unsticky them and let them fall in rank is good enough for me.

Most things just happen naturally in this forum.

Shissui · Post by **Shissui** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:06 pm

It is relatively rare for somebody to go through ancient history & bump up the dead posts. However, it is nice to be able to *search* through ancient history for that post that I know answered this question really well . . . way back, but WHEN ?

I admit -- searching ancient history also is rare, but it cannot be done at all if you delete it. Rather, if you think a topic really is obsolete, then just lock that thread.

Post by **ace123** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:58 pm

On the Vega Strike forums, I believe we have a policy of not deleting posts, except for a few exceptions.

SPAM and Duplicate posts are of course acceptable to delete.

In cases where there is hostility between people (like I heard about with this recent sticky thread), deletion is often not the right answer to resolve them, but it can possibly be done in a flamewar for example. Moving the topic or PM'ing the posters first is sometimes helpful as well.

Posts that have been dead for a long time are not a good idea to delete, as it sometimes becomes necessary to look over historical posts.

As far as finding duplicate questions, one thing you can do rather than delete them is tag them as an old post. The way I would do this is by editing the first message, and label the subject as something like "Duplicate:" or "Old:", as well as either putting a link to the correct thread, or having some message.

You mention PR 1.0. Maybe a more appropriate solution in that case is to create another forum and move messages there. However, people should be smart enough to see the date on the post when doing a search and ignore it.

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:04 am

I would agree that we do NOT want to delete old posts. Unstickying them may be a good idea--in WCU, half of the first page appears to be stickies that are months old.

The reason we don't want to delete old posts is that they are great for figuring out what has been a problem for a long time--for example, by looking at the old posts, I've realized that many players, over several years, have been dissatisfied with the fact that the economy pricing doesn't work. That's a great motivator!

Post by **mkruer** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:48 am

There are much better ways to have a quick overview of a project other then in a forum. In fact I would say that structurally a forum is the worst way to create a project overview. A forum should be used only for discussing items and ideas, and for ongoing action items that need further refining. With that in mind, anything that someone would like to be permanent/prominent documentation should be saved over to the wiki, and I believe that anyone who has an account should be able to edit it. I purpose that there should be a permanent announcement that will appear on the top of every page the announcement that acts as an index of sorts that can be used for linking to the wiki and other topics of interest in the forum. In the past this has been the most successfully ways of dealing with the frequently asked questions, as well as putting linking information into everyoneâ€™s Signature when they post.

Reference Link: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... r_Universe

Melonhead · Post by **Melonhead** » Tue May 01, 2007 3:20 am

I would certainly second the motion that we all should do more work in the Wiki. Many posts discuss items which then never make it into the Wiki, making it difficult for newcomers to find answers. There are also things in the Wiki that are very hard to find, unless you already know they are there.

I'm guessing many folks (me included) aren't quite clear on the etiquette to post large files to the Wiki--an obvious example is that the WCU files aren't available, because Spiritplumber's website is currently down. I have read (in the forum) that Sourceforge limits the total size of a project, so I've been hesitant to repost her files.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Tue May 01, 2007 10:38 am

I never intended to delete the GG Beta Sticky, and I don't want to insist that anybody thought I'd do it. I simply had my focus on things like "How can I solve Palan4". I know that it is not common to del forum entries, I thought maybe this could make a better overview in the PR forum. But with ace's and mkruer's arguments, consider me convinced.

Zool · Post by **Zool** » Tue May 01, 2007 11:22 pm

Dilloh, congratulations on your "promotion"!!!

charlieg · Post by **charlieg** » Wed May 02, 2007 12:48 am

If a question is getting asked a lot, surely you should create a clearly labelled sticky (e.g. ***READ FIRST*** Frequently Asked Questions) to answer the most common problems.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:56 am

@Zool
Thanks!

@charlieg
I found an elder post from ace123 proposing that a forum should have 1, max 2 stickies. We're already above this value. One thing I could think of is creating a "navigation sticky", a sticky containing a lot of link to e.g. palan4, oxford/toth, as well as other things. But I'd rather first want to see how the upcoming website will affect things.

Post by **ace123** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:54 am

I don't remember saying specifically 1-2 stickies... I know a lot of forums have a locked thread labeled "read first" that have a list of answers to common questions.

Some forum sites have an entire forum with posts on each common question... I find this messy and I prefer having a single readme thread.

There already is a sticky readme thread ( http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=6530 ) but it has a sort of obscure title...

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:52 am

I don't remember saying specifically 1-2 stickies...

I read that somewhere, maybe it was not you saying that...

I know a lot of forums have a locked thread labeled "read first" that have a list of answers to common questions.

...but however, I feel the same...

Some forum sites have an entire forum with posts on each common question... I find this messy and I prefer having a single readme thread.

Agreed --

There already is a sticky readme thread ( http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=6530 ) but it has a sort of obscure title...

I'll contact spaceman about that. He hasn't posted for more than 6 months... Is it okay with the forum policies if I'd "use my god-like powers"

and edit / rename the topic, so I can update a Parallel Universe section there? Just in case if spaceman won't reply...

micheal_andreas_stahl · Thu May 03, 2007 12:06 pm

Well we did have one, by Spiffy too (can tell when i joined

) but it was unsticked.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:23 pm

The Remake Library - that's the link ace posted. It is still sticky.

micheal_andreas_stahl · Sun May 06, 2007 12:24 pm

Ooh, when i posted i checked and it was not there but it is there now and that is good!

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Let's clean up the forum

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Let's clean up the forum