Ask The Character Threads - (suggestion)

[SimbasMate]

Coz all it took was one pm to get me started again. Maybe you should of told the staff to lock my thread first before posting yours because otherwise it is considered a duplicate. Anyhow it's been taken care of.

You should've updated it anyways. >.> It wasn't a duplicate unless your thread was updated everyday.

[WildSimba]

Which is percisely what I reffered to in my post. Someone is always bound to point out that it's a duplicate, even if the post hasn't been posted in for months. =/ Especially now that the threads are in an arcade area now.

[Moka]

WS, we have a rule about duplicate topics:

Members are allowed to create duplicate topics only if the topic they are replicating has not been active in 30 days (posted in within 30 days). If the old topic gets bumped for any reason while the new topic is active (posted in within 30 days), the old topic will be locked.

This would rule would work if you had an archieve area or something to sort out the dead, unused threads.

Sorting out the dead, unused topics is pointless. I've been saying this for years now. Bulletin boards have forums for a reason: to sort topics into their respectable category. The topics in these forums are sorted by last post time descending for a reason and these forums have pages for a reason. The old, dead topics go to the back of the forum where no one visits and the new, active topics stay near the top. This is how nearly every big forum operates. Moving old topics into an archive makes it even harder to find duplicate topics and especially difficult for people that want to find a specific thread. Plus, I've seen some old topics that have been bumped back into activity and the discussions have been quite...pardon my vocabulary...fruitful.

SM: Duplicate topics cannot be made within 30 days. From the look of it, the last post (before you posted yours) in Amanda's topic was made on July 4th, you made yours on July 15th, which is 11 days. Your topic was rightfully locked.

[WildSimba]

WS, we have a rule about duplicate topics:

Members are allowed to create duplicate topics only if the topic they are replicating has not been active in 30 days (posted in within 30 days). If the old topic gets bumped for any reason while the new topic is active (posted in within 30 days), the old topic will be locked.

This would rule would work if you had an archieve area or something to sort out the dead, unused threads.

Sorting out the dead, unused topics is pointless. I've been saying this for years now. Bulletin boards have forums for a reason: to sort topics into their respectable category. The topics in these forums are sorted by last post time descending for a reason and these forums have pages for a reason. The old, dead topics go to the back of the forum where no one visits and the new, active topics stay near the top. This is how nearly every big forum operates. Moving old topics into an archive makes it even harder to find duplicate topics and especially difficult for people that want to find a specific thread. Plus, I've seen some old topics that have been bumped back into activity and the discussions have been quite...pardon my vocabulary...fruitful.

SM: Duplicate topics cannot be made within 30 days. From the look of it, the last post before you posted yours in Amanda's topic was made on July 4th, you made yours on July 15th, which is 11 days. Your topic was rightfully locked.

How would that be a problem, if the topic was moved there, because no one has posted in it for a month? It wouldn't be considered a duplicate anymore, according to your rule, and I was only suggesting it for organization sake, because it can be a pain looking through 40 pages worth of threads, just to see if the topic you want to repost has died or not.

[Moka]

1.) It is unnecessary work
2.) It makes it difficult for people to find old topics. Members look for specific topics quite often. The best spot for them to find it is in the forum where it was posted, not in some huge unorganized archive forum.
3.) Moving topics from all the forums into one forum is not organization...

[WildSimba]

I wasn't suggesting to move all the topics for everywhere into one forum. LOL, I was suggesting moving the character topics that are old enough to make a new thread on it to be moved. Just moving everything from the whole forum would be odd. And how would sorting through a forum with active and dead threads be easier then sorting through 1 forum for active threads, and 1 for dead, I don't understand that. I'd understand if it were the whole forum, but for 1 section, it shouldn't be a problem, especially since a member has already stated it was a problem for them.

[Panda-chan]

How would that be a problem, if the topic was moved there, because no one has posted in it for a month? It wouldn't be considered a duplicate anymore, according to your rule, and I was only suggesting it for organization sake, because it can be a pain looking through 40 pages worth of threads, just to see if the topic you want to repost has died or not.

WS if you're having trouble looking for a specific topic, just use the search feature.
*vanishes*

[WildSimba]

How would that be a problem, if the topic was moved there, because no one has posted in it for a month? It wouldn't be considered a duplicate anymore, according to your rule, and I was only suggesting it for organization sake, because it can be a pain looking through 40 pages worth of threads, just to see if the topic you want to repost has died or not.

WS if you're having trouble looking for a specific topic, just use the search feature.
*vanishes*

That could be hard to, if eigther the search comes up with nothing, or too much. =/

[Moka]

I wasn't suggesting to move all the topics for everywhere into one forum. LOL, I was suggesting moving the character topics that are old enough to make a new thread on it to be moved. Just moving everything from the whole forum would be odd. And how would sorting through a forum with active and dead threads be easier then sorting through 1 forum for active threads, and 1 for dead, I don't understand that. I'd understand if it were the whole forum, but for 1 section, it shouldn't be a problem, especially since a member has already stated it was a problem for them.

I meant the whole forum, not for one section.
So what you're suggesting is to create an archive for just the dead ask character threads?

What we're trying to do with the universal rules is make sure they apply universally. The more rules we have for specific types of topics, the more complex things get. No special treatment, in other words. The rule does work with the ask topics just as it works with every other topic.

That could be hard to, if eigther the search comes up with nothing, or too much. =/

I agree that the search seems to like topic descriptions more than topic titles, but only the phpBB guys can improve the search feature. With Snowy's topic, it should be easier than ever to keep track of the ask topics and see when you are able to create a new one.

[SnowyCheetah]

WS, we already have a way of keeping old threads away from the newer ones. In fact it's built into phpbb it's when they fall to the bottom of the forum.