We're starting to get things going on the boards prune. As you know, we really havn't pruned the boards since we went to this version.
So, before the prune happens, the WizOs are going to lock down the larger threads. Everyone is free to re-start these threads, but should also save anything they feel is important.
I've had Shadow mention the prune a few times in the game boards areas and the target number for the size cutoff has been 1000 posts. I looked up how big a thread can be before things start to get wonky (according to the board makers) and they claim it's 500. We haven't really had any noticiable problems, but then again, the search uses up a LOT of processing power when searching large threads.
I'll need you guys to give your areas a heads up on this, and I know people are not going to be happy. We have to trim up the boards to make room for new stuff, and hopefully we will get on a regular pruning schedule.
Can someone tell me in plain English? I don't speak Web :D
JesperGood news, it looks like they are planning on returning the Search function; bad news- better start digging through the archives now if there is anything you want to keep, because it may go bye-bye.
Looks like they are going to lockdown big threads (1000+ posts) so that they can't continue to be posted in, and/or eliminate old threads and/or threads that have too many posts in them. Not exactly clear which of the above is true, but something along those lines is going to happen soon.
Good news, it looks like they are planning on returning the Search function; bad news- better start digging through the archives now if there is anything you want to keep, because it may go bye-bye.
from my understanding of what I posted they're going to prune - ie remove old threads. It appears that nothing has been removed from the Message Boards either at all or in quite some time. Therefore they're going to remove old posts and will probably start up a system or periodically removing old posts.
Before they start doing this it appears that they're going to close large threads. The argument here appears to be that such large posts are harder for the system to deal with.
... And please remember to send all important and coherently written stuff for Shawn, in case he hasn't yet saved it in the Vaults.
well exactly yeah, I'm only a 1 person filter, I can get it wrong. And also I have no idea if stuff has been more coherently collected away from these lists.
As always if there are things that you want on the Vaults, whether they are things you believe I missed collecting from these Boards, or the Mailing List or whether they're things progressed from either place, or even whether they're independant creations, or whatever then you are more than welcome to send them along to me for inclusion in the Vaults.
Maybe I am a bit slow, but what exactely does this mean?
Can someone tell me in plain English? I don't speak Web :D
and the topic title is a joke from Invader Zim
Looks like they are going to lockdown big threads (1000+ posts) so that they can't continue to be posted in, and/or eliminate old threads and/or threads that have too many posts in them. Not exactly clear which of the above is true, but something along those lines is going to happen soon.
Good news, it looks like they are planning on returning the Search function; bad news- better start digging through the archives now if there is anything you want to keep, because it may go bye-bye.
Are you positive on the 1000+ post limit. Do we have any threads that are that long?
Its nice that they return the Search fuction after the threads we'll be searching for have been deleted....
Håvard, not too excited about this.
To save threads, click on "Thread tools" and "Download this thread".
It's always good to back stuff up, as unforseen events could be disasterous. Let's say right now, something glitched and all the threads in that area of the boards were gone. Poof. No warning. No way to bring back.
And trust me, that's happened on my own home computer. I turned to my wif one night and said "I've got to burn all this stuff I pulled off the WotC site to disc sometime soon." The next day, the HD crashed.
Now, when we close the threads, that's an indication that if there's anything you want on it, you should save it. You guys (and anyone else) is free to re-start the game threads to keep things going, and stick in a link (at least it will work until the thread gets pruned)
You shouldn't have a problem as long as the games are current and aren't huge. (There's no need to save stuff from - for random example- a year ago if nobody's posting in it.
And, FYI, the games forums will be the last ones pruned. I'm giving you guys this early heads up so you have time to start saving stuff.
As for the search, the only thing that the size of the boards impacted was processing power. Yes, people can search select forums, but does anyone here honestly believe that happens? No. Most folks just search ALL the forums, as that's the easiest. An announcement is posted on the search function at the top of the boards, and right under it is 3-7 threads asking about the search feature. Nobody reads, so I doubt putting up instructions on how to search more effectively would help.
The 1000 post number was a nice round number to work with, and since we had moved to these boards, it could handle the load. (The old ones had the whole board system start to get wonky at 500 post threads. Remember THOSE days? Heh.)
I'm starting to think we should target 500 or so post threads. What do you guys think? Does anyone really read through all those posts from the start? The bigger threads we have, the more processing it takes for the search function to go through.
Side note- when I say 500 or so posts, this includes threads that come just under 500 and stop to avoid pruneage. Same goes for 1000 post threads. "Whee! 998 posts! Stop here guys!"
:-) Jesper
Anybody got it?
There's one in the main page of the Vaults:
http://pandius.com/index.html
There's one in the main page of the Vaults:
http://pandius.com/index.html
And another one if you click on his name in this forum
Håvard
And another one if you click on his name in this forum
Håvard
oo, is that one current ... hmmm. Anyway yeah I don't like posting it everywhere, the one on the homepage is in a good enough format to preclude lots of spam.
I'd say that the text in Thorf's Secret Project is definitely worth saving, as is the thread about Mystaran Immortals. Our thread to track RL/Mystara forum activity might be of historical intrest. I can't think of any other huge threads off the top of my head.
if there's stuff in those threads that you think should be in the Vaults that isn't point it out directly to me, or send it to me. I dun no about the RL/Mystara forum activity thread through.
A long time ago I have written a post-WotI version of the Dreamlands with wood-imps instead of fairies and so on. I think it was on a page called "Fairies after WotI" and it wasn't downloaded to the Vaults.
It might be of interest.
I'd say that the text in Thorf's Secret Project is definitely worth saving, as is the thread about Mystaran Immortals. Our thread to track RL/Mystara forum activity might be of historical intrest. I can't think of any other huge threads off the top of my head.
The text in my thread is not all of lasting interest, though, and I believe Shawn has done a pretty good job of preserving the most important bits in the Vaults.
I'm not really entirely sure what to do about the rest, though. We talked about a wide variety of topics in there, and at least some of it is probably worth keeping.
It's a shame they're doing this at all, really, because we don't have an insane volume of posts in the first place, and yet many of them are things that are definitely worth revisiting at a later date.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait a minute! Does this mean that we will be thrown backwards regarding our number-of-posts? Starting the race against Ravenloft and co. once again???
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can only hope all the boards will suffer about the same...
Who knows? We might actually gain some ground on those blasted Athas-lovers, if they have lots of 500+ post threads...
:-) Jesper
For example
Thorf's Secret Project ->
Thorf's (1) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (2)
Thorf's (2) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (3)
Thorf's (3) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (4)
Thorf's (4) 34 posts (will be locked when it's too large, and a link to the continuation thread will be made.
Stanles,
A long time ago I have written a post-WotI version of the Dreamlands with wood-imps instead of fairies and so on. I think it was on a page called "Fairies after WotI" and it wasn't downloaded to the Vaults.
It might be of interest.
Lost Woodrake, I would ask you to either find the original post and send me the link, or to send me a copy of whatever you might have saved locally. Or pinpoint more exactly when the post was originally sent so I can search around here around particular dates.
OK, I've found the thread now - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=198356. Could I ask you however to compile the thoughts of the thread into a single article, that would help me,
The text in my thread is not all of lasting interest, though, and I believe Shawn has done a pretty good job of preserving the most important bits in the Vaults.
I'm not really entirely sure what to do about the rest, though. We talked about a wide variety of topics in there, and at least some of it is probably worth keeping.
It's a shame they're doing this at all, really, because we don't have an insane volume of posts in the first place, and yet many of them are things that are definitely worth revisiting at a later date.
people are free to save whole threads if they want.
We can only hope all the boards will suffer about the same...
Who knows? We might actually gain some ground on those blasted Athas-lovers, if they have lots of 500+ post threads...
:-) Jesper
I haven't done the maths for all the boards but compared to Ravenloft board this board has about 500 more posts, but over 150 less threads. Therefore compared to Ravenloft our threads are much larger. But it's not only the large threads that are being pruned, it's the old threads. And for the Mystara board at least my impression is that it has been more active recently.
What's the possibility of changing the large threads into multiple (locked) threads?
For example
Thorf's Secret Project ->
Thorf's (1) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (2)
Thorf's (2) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (3)
Thorf's (3) (locked) 200 posts at bottom, link to Thorf's (4)
Thorf's (4) 34 posts (will be locked when it's too large, and a link to the continuation thread will be made.
I wouldn't have thought that merely locking threads would be helpful. If that would work why not just lock existing threads?
I would remind people again that you can save existing threads onto your computers.
Lost Woodrake, I would ask you to either find the original post and send me the link, or to send me a copy of whatever you might have saved locally. Or pinpoint more exactly when the post was originally sent so I can search around here around particular dates.
OK, I've found the thread now - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=198356. Could I ask you however to compile the thoughts of the thread into a single article, that would help me,
I'll try to do it ASAP. Thanks.
It's coming! We're going to start the prune soon, so be sure to save your favorite threads.
Regards,
Gary
and the topic title is a joke from Invader Zim
Which episode? I own all the DVDs, so I'm bummed I've missed a joke.
Regards
Gary
No and with the fact that we're (sort of) recording the amount of posts with the 'Will We Ever Catch Up With...' threads you would think we'd be one of the first boards to notice.
Regards
Gary
indeed, although I couldn't say whether the prune-ening would necessarily affect that even.
Was there any mention on how old a thread would have to be before getting removed?
Was there any mention on how old a thread would have to be before getting removed?
If I'm not mistaken, I think it had more to do with size (i.e. # of posts) of the thread, not the age. I seem to remember both 500 and 1000 as being the number of replies in a thread required before being pruned. Can anyone confirm this?
I guess I better get started with downloads since I never downloading any threads, or not very many at least.
Was there any mention on how old a thread would have to be before getting removed?
not exactly I don't think no. Everything I know is contained within this thread.
This news from the WizO rep when I asked them about the status of things
Yes- the boards pruning is going very, very slowly due to the size of the boards themselves. But it IS happening.
Regards
Gary
If so, perhaps discussions should be moved somewhere where they will be preserved for the future?
Håvard
As I've just posted on the catching up to Planescape thread, the DnD OOP board has been pruned from 11,400+ posts to 9700+.
Regards
Gary
the oldest updated thread on the DnD OOP board is 24 August 2003. The number of older threads currently on the MMB numbers about 54.
I don't know anything about the dates and stuff here that they're using for the pruning, I'm just making an observation.
The number of older threads currently on the MMB numbers about 54.
Now if we were to post to those 54 threads... ;)
Sorry only joking :D
Regards
Gary
Now if we were to post to those 54 threads... ;)
Sorry only joking :D
Regards
Gary
well I don't know how many threads we have above 500 or 1000 posts, or whatever they're going to choose as the large thread cut-off. But somehow I suspect we'll have none of those.
Remember also that this process is not only going to be a one-off thing it'll happen periodically after this.
Remember also that this process is not only going to be a one-off thing it'll happen periodically after this.
Right. I think this is annoying. I'd feel more comfortable if I knew there was some kind of logic to it so we would know which threads we were at a risk of losing at any time, but the arbitrariness of it I dont like.
Håvard
Right. I think this is annoying. I'd feel more comfortable if I knew there was some kind of logic to it so we would know which threads we were at a risk of losing at any time, but the arbitrariness of it I dont like.
Håvard
well there is some sort of logic to it, threads over a certain size and threads older than a certain age will be pruned. Presumably then every six months or whatever the same logic will be applied. We have a rough idea of the thread size limit 500-1000, we don't know the date (although we might be able to make a guess from the DnD OOP board) and we don't know the recurrence. Just because we don't know doesn't make it arbitrary.
well there is some sort of logic to it, threads over a certain size and threads older than a certain age will be pruned. Presumably then every six months or whatever the same logic will be applied. We have a rough idea of the thread size limit 500-1000, we don't know the date (although we might be able to make a guess from the DnD OOP board) and we don't know the recurrence. Just because we don't know doesn't make it arbitrary.
You are right. Thanks for reminding me of these factors. The not knowing part makes it feel arbitrary, but at least we know these parts. Have you considered setting up a forum at pandius though?
Håvard
You are right. Thanks for reminding me of these factors. The not knowing part makes it feel arbitrary, but at least we know these parts. Have you considered setting up a forum at pandius though?
Håvard
I'm not allowed to. I had to agree to certian things when being chosen as the official website and that was one of them - not to replicate services provided by Wizards namely things like forums.
I'm not allowed to. I had to agree to certian things when being chosen as the official website and that was one of them - not to replicate services provided by Wizards namely things like forums.
Makes sense when you think about it.
I'm not allowed to. I had to agree to certian things when being chosen as the official website and that was one of them - not to replicate services provided by Wizards namely things like forums.
That's weird, though- the Kargatane had their own message board, and Dragonlance has its own board. I guess I could see the difference for Dragonlance- given its sort of near-independent status, but the Kargatane was official and had its own MB before being licensed out to Arthaus, IIRC. Wonder why they would allow that?
(Of course, I may be wrong, and they may not have had a MB until after the licensing, I just don't seem to recall that being the case...)
That's weird, though- the Kargatane had their own message board, and Dragonlance has its own board. I guess I could see the difference for Dragonlance- given its sort of near-independent status, but the Kargatane was official and had its own MB before being licensed out to Arthaus, IIRC. Wonder why they would allow that?
(Of course, I may be wrong, and they may not have had a MB until after the licensing, I just don't seem to recall that being the case...)
And if I remember correctly the Birthright one has it's own boards too. I don't think this sort of thing is necessarily monitored by Wizards but I like to keep my nose clean, especially after I signed something.
Or maybe the sort special dispensation for whatever reason, but as tjedge1's response above suggests I am a strong proponent of not spreding our activitiy too thin and having a lot of activity on boards hosted by Wizards can only be a good or thing (or at least can't work against us I would imagine).
And if I remember correctly the Birthright one has it's own boards too. I don't think this sort of thing is necessarily monitored by Wizards but I like to keep my nose clean, especially after I signed something.
Or maybe the sort special dispensation for whatever reason, but as tjedge1's response above suggests I am a strong proponent of not spreding our activitiy too thin and having a lot of activity on boards hosted by Wizards can only be a good or thing (or at least can't work against us I would imagine).
You are right Stan, no reason getting oneself into trouble about this. I am no longer very optimistic about WotC ever doing anything with Mystara again, but I suppose a larger traffic here can affect things like our chance to appear in Dragon every now and then.
Håvard
Lost Woodrake, I would ask you to either find the original post and send me the link, or to send me a copy of whatever you might have saved locally. Or pinpoint more exactly when the post was originally sent so I can search around here around particular dates.
OK, I've found the thread now - http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=198356. Could I ask you however to compile the thoughts of the thread into a single article, that would help me,
It took me a LONG while - but I did it!
I sent it to you via email, Stanles - so I hope it arrived safely...
Thanks,
LW
It took me a LONG while - but I did it!
I sent it to you via email, Stanles - so I hope it arrived safely...
Thanks,
LW
cheers LW, yep I got that
Did anything ever come of this? I haven't noticed any of our threads disappearing, or being pruned...
When the OOP was pruned Shawn posted this:
the oldest updated thread on the DnD OOP board is 24 August 2003. The number of older threads currently on the MMB numbers about 54.
There are now only 4 threads that are older than the 24 August 2003. So obviously we have been affected but what disappeared I can't help with.
Regards
Gary
There are now only 4 threads that are older than the 24 August 2003. So obviously we have been affected but what disappeared I can't help with.
So it seems that whatever happened, it was relatively minor. That's good to know.