5,000 Post Apocalypse - What To Do?

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Splitting off as new topics tend to grow more, and the F/A-18C existing one has almost 4,000 posts (!).

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It was so close! Lol

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It’ll reach it I think.

Actually, we’re sort of facing a post apocolypse (heh) scenario for the forum software, in that we’re not really meant to typically pass the 5,000 post number (in a single topic/thread), and for a few we’re getting up there - Mudspike Forums

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Is this like a y2k thing? Planes fall from the sky. Alarm clocks reset. All our memes vanish!

How severe is the problem we are facing


All joking aside what does happen at 5k? Is it a reset or something?

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The forum becomes invite only - they’ll be an interview based on memes skill level. :slight_smile:

Nothing bad happens, in that I can up it to 10,000 or something (I did that for personal message limits already, where people used Mudspike resources to organize stuff) but it’s more a hint that we are sort of ‘using it wrong’. I think the only downside is some of the indexes / search start to struggle in terms of performance, in that when the data structures were originally designed ( Category → Topic → Posts ) the ideal was for less that 5,000 posts, as ‘Topics’ were the key term structure. So it’s not really a disaster.

We basically either need to think about some sub-forums (called Categories here) or split up some big Topics a bit. We (um, I) sort of ignored it for a years now, so it’ll be fine I think, especially as we’re seeing usage trend down now anyway, certainly in the DCS area.

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In a pinch just lock the old thread and open a new one with the same title but a 2 after it.

We have been doing that for ages in the forums I am moderating. Usually after 1000 posts or so in a thread.

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Yep, that’s a good idea and we can do that. For some of the ‘continuous running ones’ that makes sense as well, i.e. maybe even put a year on it and do it annually. For the ones like this specific DCS module one, I do worry a bit that someone just joining the forum would be put off a topic as big as this one. @discobot estimates a 437 minute read time, and that’s just the summary. :slight_smile:

I’ll split this off, as it’s worth a chat on what different ways we can look at this.

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:joy::joy::+1::+1: This made me chuckle.

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We could always lock the Thread and copy paste the last ten posts to a Mk2 thread and so on ad infinitudo.

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We’ve also got an ‘Auto Close’ feature that we never use. I think it can be set up to do something like close a topic if no activity for a few weeks etc. That would help the ones that are long but quieter, in that people sort of how to create new topics when needed a bit more. Dunno.

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Yeah, this puppy below.

image
image847×70 2.44 KB

Seems to do something. :slight_smile:

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Cool.

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I’m going to mission impossible it every 7 days and stop it closing. Cruise will be begging for the script
 :slight_smile:

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I don’t want this thread to close. (I’ll be back next week)

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(Better than MacGyver’ing it)

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For things like the Bug, F-14, etc, what about have a pre-release, EA, and release thread as the module moves along? That should help break up the mega topics, and keep the info in them a little more chronologically relevant.

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Not sure I like that one. I would hate to be reopening new threads on the same subject that don’t get a lot of traffic. My IL-2 1946 thread would be a good example of that type of thread. Everything is related but I don’t post in it daily or even weekly but I am trying to keep it all in one location.

Too bad you can’t have an auto close feature that starts a new topic when the thread reaches a preset number of replies (1000, 2000, whatever) with the same header and an identifier automatically. The first post in the thread would also link back to the last post of the preceding thread.

Wheels

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Yep I can see that. Not keen on it either. For some forums the ‘auto close’ is more a spam protection thing, but we’ve got other things that work pretty well for that.

We do have an ‘auto close at post count’ and I up’d it to 10,000 to put off the decision. :slight_smile: What it doesn’t do is the nice bit of a starting a new topic and linking back to the new one, but that’s not really that much of burden for the lazy staff to do in reality.

I think we have a couple of things going on:

  • Long running topics that have a natural rhythm where adding to the pile is a good thing to do. Sort of like the ‘Where You Are’ picture thread. I can see that just being cut up into annual topics, with nice links put between the years.

  • Some stuff, usually around the flight sim things, goes onto ‘the pile’ topics but probably is worth being its own topic, especially as that helps newer members find stuff and usually encourages more chat around a specific topic. For that I think we’ve got a couple of options to mull over, but it is tweaking things so that stuff like the ‘F/A-18C’ topic isn’t it’s own mini-subforum, i.e. we reorg things a tiny bit to make it more obvious on where to post new stuff about that particular subject. We resisted it a fair bit, but sheer post count means it might be time to look at the options.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas so far gents, keep it coming.

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Due to it’s complexity in systems, I think the Hornet should get its own sub-forums like what was just done for the Tomcat. With such a variety of weapons and so many different systems and modes, those are typically worth their own threads. Example: datalink & IFF discussion.

———

Another idea, that I suggest with hesitation - is a proper image gallery. I have yet to find one in general (most I find aren’t stellar), and so far no results for Discourse that covers what I think would do the job.

The screenshot thread is also a long one, but if such a beast exists, a gallery plug-in that would allow members to post images freely, and then add tags - would be great. Want to see everyone’s MiG-19 shots? Filter by tag “MiG19” for example. If it also has a “newest posts” even better. I think that would also help keep older ones more relevant, instead of lost in a multi-hundred post thread.

If it can’t do all of that, it would definitely be more trouble than it’s worth, hence my hesitation on the matter.

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Totally just came here to say this. I like the idea of the sub forms.

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