new thread
The moderators decided this week that this long-time practice should be mentioned in the FAQ:
Bill
Tech Crew Chief
I realize that some of these things are necessary but isn't this creating even MORE work for everyone involved?
And though I may not know the reasons behind why there are almost ten days
worth of postings on the frontpage, couldn't the Board function just as well with say five days worth of postings?
How many members go almost all the way to the bottom of this hyperboard to reply to old posts and then again, how many will ever see or read them?
I plead complete ignorance on this matter; perhaps there ARE good reasons...but still I have always wondered why there needs to be so many posts on page one...
The purpose in rewriting the technical information is to reduce work. For example, we get a lot of questions about how to "register". Back when this board was founded, it was rare for any site to require registration. Now a lot of sites do, and it would be helpful to explain to newcomers that we don't have "registration" and that they can post without jumping through any such hoops. Just telling them will save them the work of writing to ask questions and our writing to answer them.
MOST posting is to the most recent three days of material, but some users only have net access on certain days of the week, and sometimes people are gone for a few days. By trimming off threads that have seen no posting activity in ten days, we accommodate those users.
Just a few years ago the board was retaining posts for up to thirty days, so we've cut the retention time back a lot. On the other hand, the board is now twice as active than it was then (no complaints about that!) and the activity level is relevant to the retention period because it affects how long the list of messages will be. Site bandwidth is also relevant and a need to rein it in may in the future affect how long the retention period is. If the board becomes twice as active, for example, the page will be twice as long and be viewed twice as much. Bandwidth thus goes up four times - proportional to the square of the increase in activity.
Bill