Thoughts on archiving older general posts

I was wondering if there was a way to archive much older inactive threads (maybe which have not been contributed to for over 2 year for instance) as recently there have been a few 9 or 10 year old posts which new visitors to the site are dragging up from the distant past and even answering the original questions which are no longer valid.     It is muddling up the newer posts as we sift through the out of date threads and would be better if these old posts were archived.     Just a thought although I'm not convinced that anyone in authority to action things are even going to read this  !!        worth a try at least :)     Have changed the title as don't expect the changes can be done without a lot more sifting to eliminate the  2 - 10 year old general posts which don't offer help topics.  

  • Whilst I agree old threads being resurrected can be a bit of a pain, there are also threads useful as references - I'm (selfishly) thinking of the Getting off Auto ones as an example. Though I suppose an annual bump post would keep them alive & available, as long as everyone is aware of any archiving policy change ahead of time
  • From a personal point of view I am constantly using search to investigate the info contained in previous years of Peregrine & Kestrel threads to refresh my mind of sequence of events or to answer any questions which may arise in current year! Invaluable to me as impossible to commit all these events to memory ... also many useful & important pics & vid links contained therein ... if they were archived would they still be available in 'search' or simply lost forever?

  • Thanks for the input, I understand the need for some threads to be kept live (the how to or useful tips threads especially) but there are many older posts (which are not assistance threads) that keep getting resurrected and even getting answered 9 years later as people don't often look at the date of post ! Posts like "Getting off Auto" should ideally be on a sticky as they are extremely helpful topics, along with "how to post photos/videos", etc.
    . My comments were more aimed at the recent general one off posts which are outdated. More relevant topics and help posts, even older ones, we need to bookmark (if they can't be made into a "sticky") so it wouldn't be a problem bringing them straight out of archive if they haven't been added to in two years or so. Realistically I can't see general archiving working and staff don't have time to deep archive the general day to day posts so guess we'll just have to keep sifting lol Thanks again for your constructive comments.
  • The answer is probably not to archive threads, but to switch them to "Read Only" after 2 years. That way the info stays visible (& searchable), but solves the problem of someone picking up and responding to something so out of date. If someone (like me and the GoA threads) wishes to keep something alive, they can bump it annually. You could actually have a process allowing mods to exclude threads from the auto-read-only process if you wanted to add more granular control, but I suspect that would involve more mod time than anyone wishes to commit currently.
  • Sounds a good idea to me WJ although appreciate there are not enough staff to commit to the more efficient "filing system". Thanks again for the valuable input, really appreciate it.
  • Did anybody hear back from Adam Walker who posted this thread back in April

    Help us improve our website

    Or was this just another initiative that disappeared into a black hole. I didn't put my name forward to be contacted but did anyone else?

  • I must have missed that post Tony due to preoccupation with moving house, be interesting to hear if anyone received anything back although I fear it may, like most mentions of promised improvements, it may have fallen into the abyss !
    Hope someone has more news.
  • I had a long & fruitful conversation with Adam at the time, but I imagine there would be little progress in anything due to the lockdown, people being furloughed etc. I've dropped him an email to ask
  • I'm in favour of archiving older threads, many other forums do that with threads around five years plus, or even remove them totally. One thing I find when searching for a thread, the search box seems to pick the older threads long before the later postings, so it would be beneficial there.

    However, a good clear out always has a caveat. We've all done it, had a good clear out, and that one item you've not used for a very long time, and bingo, you suddenly need it!

    Some informative threads, and I'll take WJ's "Getting Off Auto" as an example, perhaps something to identify that type of thread as still active and informative would be an idea.