Should I Have An Archive Board?

[zachwad22]

My currently running board has a single "Archive" board, viewable by anybody, that I move old, worn out threads, "Moved Thread Messages", and other useless stuff to. We have a seperate Moderation board (viewable by staff only) for questionable threads.

[Kami]

The site I help administrate (is that a word? ) has two archive boards -- one for the general forum (viewable to everyone), and the other for staff (viewable to staff only).

We've kept these threads as a testimony of how much our site has grown in the past two years. (In terms of the quality of RP our members and ourselves put out, as well as how members have matured). It's wonderful to keep the site tidy, as well -- dead threads are placed in the archives for those who enjoy reading them, but have no more to contribute, or, as in the case of our RP threads, our old RP threads are archived so that storylines can still be followed, even if we are on thread XIIX (exaggeration)

EDIT: As to the staff archives -- old members discussion threads are kept there; there are some posts we lament over (such as the goodbye post of one of our old staff members), but mostly, posts we now laugh over (such as PMs from dissatisfied members from '05 claiming that our board would be inactive in a matter of weeks... Two years later, we're going strong and have at least one new member daily, if not more.)

[Gia_Sesshoumaru]

Basically, we keep everything, except for stupid spam posts. (By we, I mean the site that Kamiya Kaoru's talking about, because I'm Head Admin on there.) Anyway, for new sites, there's really no point in having an Archive board, because as a new site, you really don't nomrally have dead threads, but once you do, then I think that an Archive board, or boards, should be created. We have an Archive Category, with two boards, as Kamiya Kaoru has already stated. Our main Archive board has many subboards, one for each board, though some boards are grouped together if they're related (like Announcements/Help) is grouped together, boards with subboards are grouped together, but it's organized. We can go back and reminisce or laugh or heads off or both.

[Quaalude]

I Call Mine The Stash & if someone posts in older threads they get moved back to general talk QC

[nancyrowina]

Because of the nature of my board I don't mind threads getting bumped back up some of our old threads are quite good, but when I start to get threads that are full I might make an archive so people can still read them but they aren't in the way. It hasn't happened yet though.

[eh oh]

Personally, what I have found that works is having two Archive Boards.

The first being viewable to Members, and the second only viewable to Staff.

When someone posts a profile, they get 7 days to finish it or I move it to the Archives viewable by Members. That way, if they come back and have a legit reason, they can get it back, or just see it.

We all hate it when we post a profile, leave the board for a few months, and then it's gone. Well it can be found and atleast looked at so that the members atleast get a chance to make the same character again.

In the member board I put 3 sub-boards. Profiles, IC Threads, and New/Updates.

The profiles can stay there for a month before getting moved to the staff archive, the IC threads vary, depending on how many there are. If there are like 50, I may put the 3 oldest into the staff archives, etc. And the News/Updates is for when an announcement has been made, and then taken down fairly quickly.

So basically, threads go to one archive board, stay there for a while, then move on to one where they never return.

Just my thought and experiences ^_^

[skaterfly]

On my old forum (and my upcoming one) I will and had an archive board. I think its good because you can remove very old threads from active boards without interferring with forum post count. Also, a lot of old threads can make your forum look inactive.

[bck]

Hi All
I was a member of a proboard but now im a staff member and would like some info please.
If i have an archive board can i send what i want into it or does it go by the date of the postings.
How do i set an archive board up for members and also a board for for staff viewing.
Thanks for any advice
BCK

[Tyrant Cecelia]

We have one, mostly because I want to keep the post number on Theme World so we just sore those threads away, and some of them are really funny

[Zath]

I've started an archive board for general stuff and if a category has a lot of stuff, that might warrant its own archive too. I wouldn't worry about the order they're in. People can sift through it if its open to members.
As for keeping "moved to" posts, no, dump them.

[>>Phoenix<<]

I have one archive board on my forum. I use it to store old spoilers (for Days of our Lives).

I suppose the reason I keep it is for those who may have missed an episode. It's a great way to get the summaries of weeks past.

[Lucky. C]

I always have old archives board in my forums. It makes your board tidier and also won't reduce the post counts than having to remove posts. People can also see old posts they made.

I would say it's better if you have that in your forum. Well, I always see it in every forums I've visited

[>>Phoenix<<]

Jan 21, 2008 2:26:15 GMT -8 Lucky. C said:

It makes your board tidier and also won't reduce the post counts than having to remove posts. People can also see old posts they made.

Very good reasons, Carissa.

[Enchant]

Jan 21, 2008 11:12:47 GMT -8 >>Phoenix<< said:

Jan 21, 2008 2:26:15 GMT -8 Lucky. C said:

It makes your board tidier and also won't reduce the post counts than having to remove posts. People can also see old posts they made.

Very good reasons, Carissa.

If you are going to post in this thread, please make sure it is something to contribute to the thread. A productive post with a minimum of 4 sentences. Thank you.

[NS]

Yes, I do have an archive board.

I actually have two. The first is for spam threads or threads that are no longer needed (not just threads that aren't being posted in any longer) to get them out of the way, but I wouldn't want to delete it because I would want them for reference.

The second archive board is when we renovated the site, we killed off all of the characters and forced everyone to create new ones, so the second board is where all of the old character profiles are stored.

Both of them are password protected, but viewable by members. There is no need to hide them from members.