Should I Have An Archive Board?

[Enchant]

Many times when helping out or rating forums, I have come across a forum that has a archive board. For those of you who are unsure what it is, it is a board that is used for storing threads to get them out of the way of active threads. In some cases, they are hidden from guest and sometimes they are even hidden from members that are not staff. Some admins use them for spam storage and some use them for old and inactive threads. But whatever the reason, many admins feel it is necessary to have one.

Yet, some might argue why bother? Why keep them? Why not just delete them?

Do you have a Archive Board and what do you use it for and why?

[kelendria]

I used to but I don't need it at the moment.
It does tidy up the forum & I don't usually block people from posting in it or hide it.
I normally put old shout outs, birthday wishes or calendar events in mine, things that have past.
I hate deleting topics unless I absolutely have to

[lparker]

Ummm I do think they are needed so if the admin sees a thread that has been deleted and the admin thinks that it is wrong that it should've been deleted he/she can tell the staff member that did it? =]

[Gamoc]

I actually have three. I have an archive for members to view, and an archive for staff to view. They are both very useful. If I have something I no longer want members to see, but did not think bad enough to send to my recycling bin, I will stick it in my staff archive. I also send old staff threads in it.

It is very useful for old and inactive threads. It will prevent n00bs from bumping up a conversation that ended long long ago. Some you probably don't want to talk about anymore because it did get a little annoying, but not necessarily bad enough to send to the recycling bin. So they can provide very useful. Another thing from this is that it prevents certain boards from getting cluttered and a nuisance to post in.

Archive boards are very much useful. Just as much as a recycling bin can be. They can be used to keep talking in old threads that you don't want in certain boards, like Destiny said. It unclutters boards with all the fun of talking in it still. I believe spam and other locked threads should go to a recycling bin, like I said before.

[Enchant]

Oct 14, 2007 14:12:58 GMT -8 lparker said:

Ummm I do think they are needed so if the admin sees a thread that has been deleted and the admin thinks that it is wrong that it should've been deleted he/she can tell the staff member that did it? =]

Please make sure that you post at least four sentences, per board rules....also, please clarify what you mean...if a thread has been deleted, how can the admin know who did it and to what?

[The Packle]

I have an Archive Board. It is useful to have. Mine is hidden to all guests, if I recall. It is a good threads gone bad. I technically have two but the second is for threads that can not be forgiven and are have a lot of rules broken in it (by 'can not be forgiven' I mean that people should never see them again.) It may not count toward the real count, but it is worth it. My archive board is made so you can post, but is out of the way of current threads we have to avoid loading times (since the forum is pretty big as it is). It is useful.

Why I wont delete them? Obvious, I still want meh thread and post count to stay up. Even though guests cant see them, it is still counted toward the real total.

[Kalo]

I have one on my fourm so that I can make sure I have all the active topics up and make sure that members don't need to toggle around one board to look for something 2 months old.. they go to the archive topic and look for them there.

[angelicgirl]

I have an Archive board that has 4 Sub-boards to help organize threads. I have one for the following areas:

- Thread Archives
- Profile Archives
- OOC Archives
- Classroom Archives

I own an RPG board, and sometimes I don't want to get rid of stuff because I have found from experience, that the need for it arises at some point in the future. Also, I move all the old, dead, or finished threads to it to keep the boards clutter-free. I find that members like to go back and re-read their threads, or if a staff member moves a thread that wasn't really inactive, they can request that the thread become 'revived'. They seem to enjoy it, and I make it viewable to registered members.

There have been times when an old member returns to the forum, wanting the same character and has been able to use information from their old application to fill in the new application form. So...that is why I have an Archive. I like it, and my members enjoy it as well. I think its a good idea. There are some threads I delete..the ones that don't really have any significance to the forum in general.

[Quaalude]

Oct 14, 2007 17:16:06 GMT -8 The Packle said:

I have an Archive Board. It is useful to have. Mine is hidden to all guests, if I recall. It is a good threads gone bad. I technically have two but the second is for threads that can not be forgiven and are have a lot of rules broken in it (by 'can not be forgiven' I mean that people should never see them again.) It may not count toward the real count, but it is worth it. My archive board is made so you can post, but is out of the way of current threads we have to avoid loading times (since the forum is pretty big as it is). It is useful.

Why I wont delete them? Obvious, I still want meh thread and post count to stay up. Even though guests cant see them, it is still counted toward the real total.

Very Good idea , i do something Similar , But i Call it the repository if the Members should start posting in those threads i will bring them back out to the General area , Hoping for more posts , i find it hard to post after members sometimes because i,m sick of being the only poster who's name shows up the most , so i leave it for another member before i comment , as for can not be forgiven Threads or Posts i do Delete those sometimes , depends on how bad they are . QC

[Kmylove]

In one way or another I use archive boards.

On most of my forums I just have one archive board, in the staff only category, which I use to store spam threads or threads which are old and should be out of the way (for example old announcements, birthday threads, Christmas threads). I prefer keeping a board like this because I can never when I'm going to need an old thread. For example if someone posts spam, the thread is kept there for future reference about the bad behaviour.

On one of my forums, aside from this staff archive, I also have an archive members can view, but they can't post in it. The reason is because the forum has a news section, and after a certain amount of time the news threads get moved into the archive so new members wouldn't be tempted to reply to them though they've become old and lost their spark. I thought it would be better if this kind of old threads could still be viewed by members. I was thinking that I might add a notice to allow members which are interested in a certain thread to ask that it's moved back to an active board for discussions, so the archive wouldn't be just a "thread cemetery".

[HoudiniDerek]

I tend not to use archive boards nor have any reason to use them. I save some threads, but I lock them and put them in the staff section because they might need to be there for future reference or problems with members.

On the RP site I am on, they have one for old RPs that were designed specifically by the admin. He stores those there, but the rest of the time, we merely lock the unused ones and bump the others up. Sometimes, they will be deleted, especially if some of the members have deleted themselves. However, we always leave it up to the other members. If they are RPing and want to write that person out they are more than welcome too.

In the long run, I know that they can be useful, but I think they are better not being utilized at all. If you don't want something delete it or hide it.

[Kalo]

I don't have a use for mine quite yet but when my board gets bigger than it should be used pritty often.

[Enchant]

Oct 17, 2007 21:25:55 GMT -8 Kalo said:

I don't have a use for mine quite yet but when my board gets bigger than it should be used pritty often.

Please make sure you read the rules of the boards you are posting in. You need to have a minimum of 4 sentences in a post here. This is a discussion board, so give us something to discuss Thank you

[Persephone]

I am co-admin on a forum and we have one that I made just recently. It works wonders for tidying up the categorys. We have gotten many more players telling us that thier happy, we have one so they can reread posts by other players. Its quite handy!

[PEACE.baby]

I usually do use archives, and hide them so only moderators can get to them, purely for the fact of archival, and the fact that I am a pack rat.

But it also has its advantages, like when reviewing a person for a staff position, looking at all their old posts, and such. Or trying to detirmine who is right in a spat.