Rune 1,099 Share Posted October 28, 2017 This can range from activity checks to moving and deleting threads. Do you clean your board up at all? How? When? Do you have an established timeline and routine? 1 Heart of the Community 2018 Cry Wolf - 18+ AU Mercy Thompson (Urban Fantasy) RP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Morrigan 1,826 Admin Share Posted October 28, 2017 Hell no!. I loathe archive forums almost more than anything else when it comes to roleplay. I know this sounds petty but if you archive things, you don't know where they originally started. I really don't understand why they are needed either. 2 1 Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duchess 4 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I live to clean. My undiagnosed OCD will literally make me anxious if i don't clean the board. Activity checks are done every Friday for monthly activity. Inactive accounts get deleted every 2 weeks. Inactive apps get moved to old characters on ac day. inactive threads get archived after a week of characters not being reactivated. old threads get moved to archived, because it just makes the board look nice and clean. DUCHESS CODES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Morrigan 1,826 Admin Share Posted October 28, 2017 1 minute ago, duchess said: old threads get moved to archived, because it just makes the board look nice and clean. To me, this makes a site look inactive. I hate archive boards because of this and many other reasons. 2 2 1 Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duchess 4 Share Posted October 28, 2017 @Morrigan We have members who ask for their old threads to be archived. I personally hate seeing threads that haven't been replied to in months/years/decades sitting around collecting virtual dust. 2 DUCHESS CODES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Morrigan 1,826 Admin Share Posted October 28, 2017 If there is an archive people will ask that things be archived. Archives do the following for me: They make sites feel inactive/barren. They make it to where I don't know the location of the original thread. They are difficult to find after the fact if you're like me and don't keep up with your "thread trackers". And more but those are my primary gripes. 2 1 Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deep Sea 326 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I like to clean up a little, mostly just locking old threads. I leave it up to the players to delete their own old character sheets. Glub glub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Operations Mod Dragon 673 Operations Mod Share Posted October 28, 2017 I used to, but have since abandoned the practice for a number of reasons. It makes the site look inactive like @Morrigan said. I like to reread threads, and archives make them a pain in the ass to find again. Members have complained of the above two issues It makes extra work for the staff that neither of us want to do anyway. I do go through every few months and get rid of inactive accounts so that our site stats reflect activity, but that's about it. 2 1 Icon & Profile set by The Inquisitor of Dragon Age: Absolution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Achera 22 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I'm still trying to establish some kind of cleaning routine, but we clean for a few reasons. Unarchived threads can look inactive to me. If I'm looking at a site, I'll check to see when there was last a post. It doesn't matter if there are 20 threads, or 2. If out of those 20, maybe 3 are active in the last month vs. those 2 threads that have been active in the last 2 days, I'd probably look at the site that shows there is a form of life. Archives are fine if you organize them. I am really big on organization, so I'll often have nest even the archives into folders so you can see where things were supposed to go. At the moment it's driving me crazy that I haven't had a chance to organize them and they do look confusing and cluttered, which would make sense why some people do not like that. When it's actually organized, it can do wonders. On the point someone made about not knowing where the setting is, on my forum we have a template that includes who are the active role-players, the characters involved, the location, and time, and even weather so people understand when they visit the thread no matter where it's located. My site relies on one account per person for all their characters, so the number of accounts on the site reflects how many people there are on the site. Due to this, it can be a huge deterrence for some people if they see the number is let's say 61 and they prefer a small site of only 10 or vice versa. If accounts aren't cleaned every so often for inactive ones, then it appears like a lie that the site is 'active' when out of those 61, maybe 5 people are actually active. It's a fine line sometimes the we're still trying to figure out because it is a newer site. I'm personally a big clean freak when it comes to files and spaces online (you should see how my computer folders are nested), but I just prefer it. 3 Antarsia || Guidebook Not all things last... Some thrive in the fire while others die Original High Medieval Fantasy || 3-3-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Morrigan 1,826 Admin Share Posted October 28, 2017 I'm the exact opposite @Achera seeing the site has history proves to me that it's got salt. If there are 0 threads in any of the forums I feel like they don't have any activity and that it's not worth my time. 1 1 1 Profile set made by myself and original Artwork by Fae Merriman, my daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaithne 543 Share Posted October 28, 2017 I follow @Morrigan's thought process. Archiving threads so quickly defeats the purpose of having people post in location-specific forums. That said, I archive occasionally, but it's normally at the end of a "chapter" or some turning point. I will go all-out and organize the archive so that threads still go into somewhat relevant subforums for easy locating. And I do it in one swoop. It gives the board a fresh start feeling, and allows us to clear out minds and reevaluate our opportunities. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cypher 4 Share Posted October 28, 2017 4 hours ago, Morrigan said: If there is an archive people will ask that things be archived. Archives do the following for me: They make sites feel inactive/barren. They make it to where I don't know the location of the original thread. They are difficult to find after the fact if you're like me and don't keep up with your "thread trackers". And more but those are my primary gripes. I have my archive set up by location, so that if the thread took place in Bills House, there's a subforum in the archives for Bills House. But I only archive dead and dropped threads; things that were completed remain in place because they're still relevant. I don't do activity checks though because I think they're a waste of time based on the way they're most commonly done. If I haven't seen a person in a number of weeks without any sort of notice, I'll move their stuff to the archives, but I'm not doing weekly or monthly checks for everyone. I don't care if someone only posts three times a week instead of 45; if they're posting, they're active, and that's all that matters to me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena 546 Share Posted October 29, 2017 11 hours ago, Morrigan said: Hell no!. I loathe archive forums almost more than anything else when it comes to roleplay. I know this sounds petty but if you archive things, you don't know where they originally started. I really don't understand why they are needed either. I do archive, but I know where they originally started, because the archive is a subboard in the same place. But yes, I do like in the main board only the active topics. Once a topic is completed, it goes to the completed ones. They are easy to find, and we have also a sitewide calendar (thread tracker), so anyone can find any thread they are looking for. I have also archives for inactive and deceased characters, and for ooc topics. I do classical activity checks once a year or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seneca 16 Share Posted October 29, 2017 I'm pretty dead set against most archiving, especially of character accounts. I've seen people make the argument that leaving inactive accounts just lying around is deceptive and boots a site's stats without actually adding value, but I have to disagree. Those accounts, for better or worse, are part of a site's history. I want to be able to look at my stats and see the site's lifetime reflected in them, not what it's been since my last cleanup. Apart from that, my biggest reason for wanting to keep those accounts around is to make their owners feel comfortable enough to come back and reclaim them after an absence. That's obviously not possible if it's been deleted. Placing the account in an inactive group and archiving the threads means, yeah, they can be reactivated upon request, but this is enough of a deterrent for some people to simply not bother. I know I'm guilty of it. 2 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedKilamari 46 Share Posted October 29, 2017 I mean, an archive is just that: an archive. It's a log of the site's history. If it's kept visible to the public, and has proper organization, it's not a detriment to anything, in my opinion. Plus the archive isn't an end all be all thing, people can always ask for threads to be made active again if they so choose. The same with archived character files. If someone comes back, their stuff is in the archive waiting for them. I tend to think of archives as a library, or a big filing cabinet. Everything's there for safe keeping, not deleted and removed. Plus, when I have one of my threads closed, or close it myself, I always link to either the sequel thread or to the previous thread when a start a new one. It takes all of two minutes, if even that. 3 1 Antarsia | Guidebook When the Gods turn on their people, the tables turn. Where will you stand? Original High Medieval Fantasy || 3-3-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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