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Idea/suggestion for site

What does everyone think of the forum automatically deleting all posts over a certain age? For example, anything over two years old. It would free up resources. Many posts are repeats anyway. People don't research past posts. When I tried researching past posts I found it unsuccessful. Just a thought.
 
What does everyone think of the forum automatically deleting all posts over a certain age? For example, anything over two years old. It would free up resources. Many posts are repeats anyway. People don't research past posts. When I tried researching past posts I found it unsuccessful. Just a thought.
I think if it were your forum you could implement this sort of thing. But you're just a guest here. Not a paying guest either, which is your prerogative, but perhaps less entitled to critique the status quo.
 
Need a barrister on this question. Are there privacy or other laws that require data posted on a forum to be stored basically forever? I tried to get a software company to drop an account and was told California privacy laws prevented it.
 
We are planning to delete old classifieds, in stages. There is some small risk of corruption of the database.

Some people want to look at older ads to see comparative prices but I think 3-4 years back would be good enough.

Re past general content posts -- NO. There are many, many good older threads that are still valid.

If you are having trouble searching, use the Advanced search function and you can be more specific and also set time limits.
 
Glad to see @Forum Boss say no. I quite frequently look back at old past, lots and lots of good knowledge there.

The one thing I wouldn't be apposed to, however, is disabling commenting on some of those older posts. I quite routinely see people commenting on posts that are decades old, without realizing how old the thread is.

Maybe disable commenting on a post that is older than 10 years old? Idk, probably would be a programming nightmare. I'm all for leaving it exactly how it is.

If it aint broke...
 
What does everyone think of the forum automatically deleting all posts over a certain age? For example, anything over two years old. It would free up resources. Many posts are repeats anyway. People don't research past posts. When I tried researching past posts I found it unsuccessful. Just a thought.
I don't know how many people research or don't research past posts, but before I joined I found past posts very valuable and didn't really have any trouble researching what I was looking for. Having a vast library of post in a forum that has so many very knowledgeable people is a valuable resource for which I am more than happy to contribute as a Gold Contributor for maintaining the arguably best shooter's forum on the internet.

And the fact that there may be several (even many) posts on a subject over time I find even more helpful in the same manner as many well written comments in the ratings of a product helps to judge and validate or invalidate the accuracy of any information being presented. Like in science, lots of peer review helps determine validity of conclusions we might make.

Also, it seems to me that deleting old posts is kinda like burning old books just because they're old. Old books can still be quite useful, even if what's in them is antiquated. ;)
 

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