Deleting old posts

[WillJ]

When a forum becomes particularly unuseful and old (such as the original PTW bug report forum after the patch was released, or the original Civ3 or Civ2 Demo game forum after Demo game 2 started), it is archived, and a while after that (maybe when it becomes even less useful), it is deleted. AFAIK, that, along with posts being deleted because of breaking the rules (although they usually go to the staff forum, instead of being truly deleted), is the only time posts and threads are deleted. For example, really old threads in the OT forum aren't deleted.

But we all know that this server (and TF's own server when he gets one) cannot hold an infinite amount of stuff, and eventually old threads in active forums will have to be automatically deleted. That is, unless there's a better way of removing stuff.

So when will this time come? Or is it already happening? And what will happen to people's postcount? I usually don't think PC is all that important, but, silly as this may seem, I think it shows a user's commitment to this site. For example, if Killer left for a long while, and came back with a postcount of 100, I don't think that would be very accurate. Not a HUGE deal, but one that I hope there is a way around.

So can someone (probably TF) give me some info on this subject?

 

[hbdragon88]

I doubt that he will lose 6900 posts for leaving a while. Or whatever his pc is. I haven't looked in a while.

Whenever TF deletes an archive, he announces it. But since registering, there's only...one archive that's been erased?

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

We will deleate posts in inverse order of their joining, the last poster will join will be deleated first and so on.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by hbdragon88
I doubt that he will lose 6900 posts for leaving a while. Or whatever his pc is. I haven't looked in a while.

Yeah, but you get what I mean. If this forum keeps on going strong for another few years or so, old threads will probably have to be automatically deleted, to conserve space. The older posters (our generation) may eventually reach 0 posts, unless we continually post. IMO old threads and posts having to be deleted is bad enough (but inevitable, AFAIK), and I'd like it if there were a way that PC would not go down when such happens. Either that, or a system where everyone could tell whether someone with few or 0 posts has posted before, and his/her posts have been deleted, or if he/she simply hasn't contributed/posted much or at all. Again, this isn't a big deal, just something I started thinking about.

And again, this is just for "automatic old thread deletion" (which CFC/TF has not been required to do yet), not the system of outdated forums being archived and deleted, and those users' postcounts going down; I don't really mind that.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Alcibiaties of Athenae
We will deleate posts in inverse order of their joining, the last poster will join will be deleated first and so on.

I don't quite get what you're saying. I'm assuming you meant "posters" when you typed "posts," and "who" for the second "will." In that case, I have two questions:

1. Is it really necessary to delete posters? (Especially ones who have posted before?)
2. Why would you delete the people who recently joined (last)? If you did that, once you get to the point where you have to start deleting stuff to save space, no one would be able to register, since they would automatically be deleted.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

I suppose I should explain that I wasn't serioud in that post.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Alcibiaties of Athenae
I suppose I should explain that I wasn't serioud in that post.

Oh, I see... Silly me.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

It has already happened. Some poster fr way back suddenly returned to find they'd a PC in the tens, when they shld be having like a few hundreds IIRC.

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
It has already happened. Some poster fr way back suddenly returned to find they'd a PC in the tens, when they shld be having like a few hundreds IIRC.

I read that somewhere too....

 

[Dell19]

Yeah my post count does seem to be pretty constant at the moment even though I am still posting...

 

[cgannon64]

I think this happens already. I've noticed that the last page of OT is full of threads from way after I became a regular there. But my postcount hasn't been dropping...

Unless I'm spaming more then I know.

 

[smalltalk]

I don't think postcount is calculated on database level for each post via something like

get count(threads) where poster = smalltalk

I guess postcount will rather be stored in user-table after posting:

update user.db
set smalltalk.postcount = smalltalk.postcount + 1


I don't think that simple text postings eat up lots of hard disk space. Compared to images, music, video it is no issue. For example, the whole text version of Encyclopedia Britannica only needs about 300 MB.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by smalltalk
I don't think postcount is calculated on database level for each post via something like

get count(threads) where poster = smalltalk

I guess postcount will rather be stored in user-table after posting:

update user.db
set smalltalk.postcount = smalltalk.postcount + 1

I'm not a very technical person, so am I right in saying that this is what you said:

There is a form of postcount of a user that is never decreased, only increased by one after each of his/her posts (even after those posts are deleted)?

This is definitely not true with the PC displayed below a user's avatar, location, etc., so are you saying it is possible to access a different form of PC?

Originally posted by cgannon64
I think this happens already. I've noticed that the last page of OT is full of threads from way after I became a regular there. But my postcount hasn't been dropping...

Unless I'm spaming more then I know.

Are you sure it's already happening? Be sure to select the sorting option "from the beginning" before going to the last page. In doing so, I see threads from December 2000. Is the OT forum older than that?

Edit:

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
It has already happened. Some poster fr way back suddenly returned to find they'd a PC in the tens, when they shld be having like a few hundreds IIRC.

Hmm... Are you sure it wasn't from posting in a forum that was archived, then deleted, and also not from posting in the Demogame RPG? Do you know the name of the poster?

 

[smalltalk]

There is a form of postcount of a user that is never decreased, only increased by one after each of his/her posts (even after those posts are deleted)?

Yep, thats what I was trying to say. If you saw somebody's postcount decreasing, then I am wrong.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by smalltalk
Yep, thats what I was trying to say. If you saw somebody's postcount decreasing, then I am wrong.

Yeah, because when a post is deleted (usually due to a moderator action, or an archived forum being deleted) that user's postcount goes down.