Forum is "messy"

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I just wanted to tell my opinion about the forum.

Aarinfantasy is a great forum, but because of the amount of users/posters, lots of the threads gets buried easily. There is lots and lots of sticky-threads, which makes it harder to browse the forum. And look, for example "Community Café" -board. There is lots of locked threads, which could be removed, or moved to a place like thrash can. (So that the post count won't drop, I think people wouldn't like that...)

To put it simply, there is so much useless threads it makes very hard to browse each board and some threads gets buried underneath the most active ones. (Mostly the chat-like threads, can't you just make a new board for it...)

Anyways, I was hoping you could give this a moment of thought. Is the suggestion totally useless, or does some users agree with me?

// Same thing, for example, with World of Yaoicraft -board. It has been closed for a long time, and last message there was in 2010.

Well I would say at least the stickies need to be cleaned up in all sections and only the recent/current relevance ones kept. Many sections have really, really outdated stickies that serve no purpose whatsoever except confusing newer members who read those stickies.


As for WOY, I *think* it was kept open on purpose to allow members who played the game to access that forum and view old posts. WOY was never permanently shut down, only discontinued till its bugs fixes came out.

Hi!

Thx a lot for your feedback.

Just a couple of things though, the posts in the Community Cafe don't increase your post count so those threads are deleted once in a while (or never actually, some of them are important for the record, like the SAS threads).

As for the sticky threads in the Community Café... believe it or not they all need to be there ^^;; as far as I know, some of those threads (or their reincarnations) have been there since the very beginning of the forum in 2005.

And your point about making a chat-like board, well the Community Cafe exists exactly for that purpose: Rules

Also, have you encountered this problem in other subforums? If so, feel free to reply to this thread so we can check them out too.

//The WoY section is currently under revamping (info) so I don't think Dai-kun would move that one.

So "Do you Tweet? We Follow!", "Life Issues/Advice VIII" or "Post ALL Youtube/Google Video links here! II" are absolutely necessary to be put as a sticky? Especially the video links -thread, as the last time someone posted there was in December, and the third person before that (two users posted in December) posted in March?

I think it's good to have sticky thread, especially for rules, guides and such threads, but I hope you dont mind, but the ones I just put as an example makes it harder for (new) users to locate the more important sticky threads.

I just quickly browsed the other sections as well, and I think the biggest, and maybe the only "problem section" is Community Cafe, because it's pretty much the most active one. I think the problem is that due to its activityness lots of threads gets full easily --> has to be locked.

Oh, and sorry, by chat-like threads I meant the umm... family threads? To be honest, I am not totally clear what is their purpose, but it's kind of weird that there's few that kind of threads, where people just talk about random stuff with specific people. But I guess making a whole new board for them is also kinda useless, as there isn't that many family-threads in the end.

And about the WOY-section. In that case, I understand! Hopefully we will see it active some time. 83

Also, sorry if I sound like I am complaining a lot. Honestly speaking, Aarinfantasy is really refreshing and nice place, but like other forums, even this forum can be turned as more refreshing, nicer and more user-friendly for new users. At this point I must admit that for a new user as myself, the "messiness" makes the forum hard to navigate.

As far as the family-type chat threads go... there really isn't a purpose to those, other than to allow people to chat without a specific topic in mind. They're open to anyone, with the "family" theme being nothing much more than a way to label the thread. ^^ This type of thread is nice - it keeps the spam down in other threads, and it gives people a way to communicate outside of VM's and PM's. And yes, you are correct, the Community Cafe is exactly for this type of thread, so there would be no reason to move them elsewhere.

The stickies in the Community Cafe, like AlexiaLee said, are there mainly because they've always been there. Although I think you're right about the video links thread.. that probably doesn't need to be there anymore, but I'm not entirely sure how anyone else feels about that. As far as Life Issues and such stickies go.. well, my view is that the moment we take down those types of threads, people will start making similar new topics.. which might be why they're stickied to begin with? Maybe?

It's ok, actually I'm always happy to read suggestions about how to make the forum more friendly to new users :)

So let me see... yup these two:
"Do you Tweet? We Follow!", "Life Issues/Advice VIII"

are a good example of the millenary sticky threads XDDD, specially the life issues one. That one is like a really warming unique kind of support in AF and has been there since 2005 (the original one). And the other reason, as fataltea already said, is that if it's gone from the sticky section, more similar threads will arise.

And yes, I also agree that just the video one could be unstickied but the rest of them... will remain there ^^;;

Hi there, I can say there is a need to remove some stickies there now and some may need time to re-organize to somewhere else.

I am gonna remove/unsticky:
Post ALL Youtube/Google Video links here! II
Secret Aarin Santa 2013 - this is a closed thread already

Will continue to look around the forum to clean up when I can. ^_^

Some threads you could review I think..some of them are actually useful or discourage individual threads about similar topics, but no one has posted in them since long so they are better being revived or removed in my opinion.

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f212/t...-previews.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...r-reviews.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...er-points.html (not sure if this is active?)
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f303/t...ew-member.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f203/t...iend-code.html (?? no post since 2012)
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f141/t...ion-drama.html (this is closed to new replied I think..? is it relevant..last post 2007)

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Originally Posted by aarinfantasy

Hi there, I can say there is a need to remove some stickies there now and some may need time to re-organize to somewhere else.

I am gonna remove/unsticky:
Post ALL Youtube/Google Video links here! II
Secret Aarin Santa 2013 - this is a closed thread already

Will continue to look around the forum to clean up when I can. ^_^

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Thanks for the heads up. I'll go ahead and copy the data from the SAS thread to my computer. We use it for each consecutive year for formatting, and we tend to just delete the old one when we make a new one. I'll go ahead and get that copied now, so that I have it for future reference. Thanks, aarin!

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Originally Posted by Schneider

Some threads you could review I think..some of them are actually useful or discourage individual threads about similar topics, but no one has posted in them since long so they are better being revived or removed in my opinion.

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f212/t...-previews.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...r-reviews.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...er-points.html (not sure if this is active?)
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f303/t...ew-member.html
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f203/t...iend-code.html (?? no post since 2012)
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f141/t...ion-drama.html (this is closed to new replied I think..? is it relevant..last post 2007)

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Thanks Schneider. I took a look at these...

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f212/t...-previews.html should be removed unless updated
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...r-reviews.html still needed? just temporarily closed
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...er-points.html dunno for this one
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f303/t...ew-member.html still active?
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f203/t...iend-code.html removed from sticky
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f141/t...ion-drama.html no idea on this one, probably can be removed from sticky though

@aarinfantasy; Your thoughts?

about these two:

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...r-reviews.html I put a notice on first post that it's just temporarily closed but maybe can be unstickied
http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...er-points.html this one is still active

I am still sticking to what I suggested before that most areas could use a "graveyard". That way an old thread can be found or revived if needed. I already made one for shops since some members could suddenly want to reopen them again.

So to add to this, some areas have been a work in progress recently. Unfortunately though we still have a lot of catching up to do to make it less cluttered.

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Originally Posted by Twinstar

I am still sticking to what I suggested before that most areas could use a "graveyard". That way an old thread can be found or revived if needed. I already made one for shops since some members could suddenly want to reopen them again.

So to add to this, some areas have been a work in progress recently. Unfortunately though we still have a lot of catching up to do to make it less cluttered.

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Isn't it better to have one "graveyard" as a whole rather than one for each section? I've seen this in some forums similar to your concept, except they just have one section in bottom of main forum for all the dead threads. If sorting would be a problem, then maybe this section itself could have sub forums but point being.. is there a way to keep all "dead"/unwanted threads away from the actual active part of forum?

I think having the graveyards within each section would be easier to find related threads. I think having one big graveyard with subforums could get messy in itself and confuse people. Though I am open to discussing it with other staff members.

Also having the dead/inactive threads close to the active ones may help reduce others remaking the older threads since they may not search a whole different section to find it.

Wow, it's really nice that you guys are giving some thought about this matter! I think graveyard sounds okay. There's lots of sections here, so it might get a bit confusing to have a graveyard for each of them, but it would be even MORE confusing there was only one graveyard. How about one graveyard for each board? D:

And I guess there's some stuff which could get removed alltogether? I have noticed there are some about, for exmaple, life issues which was posted few years ago, but no one had answered those threads.

If someone already noticed, I already went back for a swim to 7-10 pages futher and brough back alive some dead threads. Hopefully it will get soon easier to navigate there. :3

Why are mods DELETING threads? They already migrate to the back pages in the course of time if they are not active. They are already marked for deletion after a length of time with no activity. (6 months as I recall.) And owners can always "Report" their own threads to request deletion, as I've been doing at Aarin's suggestion for years.

1: REMOVAL

I appreciate that Twin wants an intermediate step before final deletion since the thread may still have life in it. It may contain material of interest or may be used again by the owner. They are a resource with potential to be reactivated or reworked.

I don't get why they are being removed, unless I've misunderstood and the threads in question were over 6 months old, which seems likely.

The fact that someone already had to retrieve her threads suggest they may have been moved prematurely, counter to the expectations set by forum rules. I would be upset if my inactive threads were removed against expectation; I have plans for them.

2: MESS

NEWS FLASH: Life is messy. Sex, parties and good times with friends are all messy. A clean room is one that isn't being LIVED in. Let's not bury ourselves prematurely.

3: IMAGE

Graveyards are about burying dead stuff *shudders* I don't wanna see them around the forums. Maybe we need another image for these stored files. Resources. Recycling materials. Ideas and inspirations.

Old threads can be excellent resources and models for creating new activities, discussions, contests and giveaways. Maybe something along those lines could identify the old stuff that's been set aside but not deleted.

Thanks, Twin, for opening the discussion!

@kinsugi; We're not deleting threads - we're removing stickies from threads that don't need to be stickied anymore. Twinstar and others are working on moving threads to graveyards, but as far as I'm seeing, threads are not being deleted. If any thread is being deleted at this time, it's for the usual reason of the original poster/thread owner requesting deletion.

@Twinstar; I do like the idea of a collective graveyard.. @Schneider; made a good suggestion with perhaps making sub-forums within the mass graveyard. I mean, just something to consider. ^^

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Originally Posted by fataltea

@kinsugi; We're not deleting threads - we're removing stickies from threads that don't need to be stickied anymore. Twinstar and others are working on moving threads to graveyards, but as far as I'm seeing, threads are not being deleted. If any thread is being deleted at this time, it's for the usual reason of the original poster/thread owner requesting deletion.

@Twinstar; I do like the idea of a collective graveyard.. @Schneider; made a good suggestion with perhaps making sub-forums within the mass graveyard. I mean, just something to consider. ^^

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Thanks for clarification! I'd noticed that we've not been deleting things, but I misinterpreted Twin's comment as including potential deletion. And yes, the "collective" graveyard sounds good.

Really Twin has been so diligent working to keep the forum running smoothly -- I have nothing but kudos! I am lazy in my spare time and simply wander the forum looking for new things to read or watch. :relax: Thanks for your hard work!

I have checked Schneider's posted links, so here are the actions I did:

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f212/t...-previews.html - Since no more updates, I will move it to the staff's graveyard kinda place (is not accessible by anyone besides staff)

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...views-p28.html - Is not needed anymore, will send to staff graveyard

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f30/t1...er-points.html - I will try to give out points still for this

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f303/t...ew-member.html - No longer active, will be moved to staff graveyard

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f203/t...iend-code.html - Deleting this.

http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f141/t...ion-drama.html - Removing this and will be moved to staff graveyard

Thanks everyone for suggesting!

As for Graveyard suggestion, it will be a good idea for a collective one if there are many sections needing it. But I think for now, it doesn't need a forum of its own yet... just do under their own subforum first.

Actually it is not true that things are not being deleted. I had one of my own threads deleted by someone not long ago (and I still needed it though no one knew that). Not sure who deleted it but it shows that there is some pruning going on. My thread was in the card giveaway area.

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Originally Posted by Twinstar

Actually it is not true that things are not being deleted. I had one of my own threads deleted by someone not long ago (and I still needed it though no one knew that). Not sure who deleted it but it shows that there is some pruning going on. My thread was in the card giveaway area.

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Hi Twinstar, what's the thread name? Trying to see if it's a soft delete or moved, and who deleted it.
I have to admit, sometimes I do hard delete things but I am not sure if it's your thread, but I don't think so since I haven't been in that section for quite a while until this thread exist to led me move one sticky thread away (and it's not started by you). So sorry about your thread gone :(

It was hard deleted. I already checked. I had my window open to the thread when I was using it and then I refreshed it and it said the thread didn't exist. I don't need it anymore thanks to @lynixe; but I thought it was weird since there are lots of other ones sitting there closed too still. It was the only card giveaway under my old Twinstar1 account.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Twinstar

Actually it is not true that things are not being deleted. I had one of my own threads deleted by someone not long ago (and I still needed it though no one knew that). Not sure who deleted it but it shows that there is some pruning going on. My thread was in the card giveaway area.

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Okay don't mind me but that's hella creepy. 8-[ If even an admin had their thread pruned without knowledge then..then.. *clinging to my giveaway threads* :sob:

And I completely agree with the sentiment moving is better than deleting altogether. Unless the site is facing some serious server space issue, I'm not in favor of deleting entire threads, at least the non-chat focused threads outside of community cafe.

@Schneider; I wouldn't really panic. For all I know it could have something to do with my old account. Mistakes do sometimes happen though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Twinstar

It was hard deleted. I already checked. I had my window open to the thread when I was using it and then I refreshed it and it said the thread didn't exist. I don't need it anymore thanks to @lynixe; but I thought it was weird since there are lots of other ones sitting there closed too still. It was the only card giveaway under my old Twinstar1 account.

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Could it be because it was under your old account? And that account got deleted. But I do know some deleted account still have their threads remain O_o So that's very strange...

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Originally Posted by aarinfantasy

Could it be because it was under your old account? And that account got deleted. But I do know some deleted account still have their threads remain O_o So that's very strange...

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The account hasn't been deleted so not sure...I think it was more like someone cleaned out some threads possibly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Twinstar

The account hasn't been deleted so not sure...I think it was more like someone cleaned out some threads possibly.

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Ahh I thought I deleted that account myself (hmm could be another mod's request then) >.<;;
So yeah, must be a deletion by staff... sorry about that.

Mistakes do happen, so it is better to back up really important threads if you must keep records of things.

Yeah, I just looked at the Community Cafe now, and that really is a lot of stickies for a forum section to have. Most of them not being really important things like rules/FAQs/guides, either. D: