Post #684
7/2/01 3:42:58 PM
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Archival approaches
1) Hide archived forums; provide "Show archived forums" functionality
2) Same as above, but move archived forums to bottom in an "Archived" category
3) Move archived forums to a) sub-category called "Archived" or b) to a separate board called "IWETHEY Archives"
Any other permutations?
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #686
7/2/01 3:55:59 PM
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3a
I'm thinking that IWE used to have a good approach to archiving. Just setup a target archive page with the forum link moved from the main page onto the archive page. One thing that would be nice is to have the URL for the individual messages not change based on being archived or active - just keep the same forum id. Just keep 'em semi-categorized and datestamped on the archive access page.
An additional question along these lines is whether the permanent forums (Open, Pun, etc...) should be periodically archived off and a fresh forum started. I'm sure all of our first post advocates will need little encouragement along these lines. :-)
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Post #689
7/2/01 4:26:29 PM
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Do you mean 3b?
Separate page option is 3b.
Another option with "freshening" forums is to archive threads within the forum, with a "show archived" option.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #695
7/2/01 4:53:18 PM
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I was thinking that....
...the archive page looks and acts pretty well like the active page, probably just longer with a list of the archived forums. A forum that was active would appear on the main page, whereas any forum that was inactive would be listed on the archive page. IOW, it's not a single forum like quezyboard, but rather it's just a place to dump a link to the old the forums that we no longer want to see on the main page.
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Post #698
7/2/01 4:59:28 PM
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OK, got it.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #690
7/2/01 4:27:36 PM
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agree
I would also suggest just a minor change in URL for historical purposes. For instance just prepend 'archive' to the URL: [link|http://archive.z.iwethey|http://archive.z.iwethey]...
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Steve
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Post #691
7/2/01 4:28:35 PM
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Maybe in addition to.
But doing so would break any cross-references in posts.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #696
7/2/01 4:53:26 PM
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Re: Maybe in addition to.
hmm
Is it possible to configure Apache to redirect to a URL mask (as opposed to hard-coded URL) when hitting a link that has changed? ie: if original post at z.iwethey.org... , archived post at arch.z.iwethey.org... could the webserver automatically try the second URL and then finally return the error?
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Steve
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Post #699
7/2/01 4:59:48 PM
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I'll have to look into that.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #704
7/2/01 5:24:56 PM
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Make sure links don't break.
As I understand things...
I don't think #1 would be a long-term solution (eventually someone would call up the archives and have eleventy-seventy-zillion posts to look through, strangling the poor machine running ziwethey...).
Similarly for #2.
I think you need to go with some variation of #3 - moving archived forums/posts to another page or something. But it's very important to do this in a way that preserves readers' ability to find them. Do we want ziwethey to be searchable by Google? If so, I'd think that we'd want any archiving technique to be transparent to users using search engines and the like.
Are there any database tricks you can do to automatically translate requested URLs to search archived fora/ums (it's sometimes a shame MM isn't around any more...) if the post isn't current?
How did the original IWE do it? Things weren't really archived there, IIRC, they just scrolled off the bottom of the page view. That's a better solution than something which breaks URLs, IMHO.
Anyway, I'm sure you've carefully considered all these issues and will have a EUREKA! moment and make us all happy. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #729
7/2/01 9:31:52 PM
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Option 4.
Provide for an "Archived" page for each section.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #730
7/2/01 9:43:00 PM
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That's actually 3a :-D
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #731
7/2/01 9:45:33 PM
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Oh. So it is.
Well whatever it's called, it seems to be gaining some popularity.
Wade.
"All around me are nothing but fakes
Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
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Post #753
7/3/01 3:15:06 AM
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How about this...
Keep the URL's where they are and the topics where they are. Nothing ever has to be moved. Just show the topics based on last date something posted to it.
If last_post_date > 10 days, topic is not shown unless user is in archive mode (provide a link or button at the bottom to turn it on/off). Or perhaps just [More...] (since we are unix fans) to see the "archived" topics.
And when you add searching capabilities, you can even add a checkbox to indicate if should search the "archived" topics, or just a field to indicate how far back to search.
You could actually make this thing configurable per user with default of 10 days ("consider topic archived when no activity after __ days"). You could have forum and system level defaults as well do you don't need to hardcode any value. Archiving is off if there is no user, forum, or system setting.
This has the following benefits:
- each user can have their own preference for archiving.
- archiving is dynamic and automatic.
- no extra archiving forums.
- accessing archived topics is easy.
- URL's don't ever change.
- archiving will not affect current discussions (this was a problem at IWE).
What do you think?
-Don
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Post #764
7/3/01 9:24:29 AM
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That's good for topics...
But what about archiving forums, like Wade's Static Page. He adds a new one every few weeks or so, and archives the old ones.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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Post #821
7/3/01 9:56:56 PM
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For forums as well
Well, if there is no post in any topic in a forum for so long, the forum need not show up either, unless you press [More...] (or whatever) at the bottom of the main IWETHEY board page.
The nice thing is, if all of a sudden there is new activity in a post or forum, it shows up again with new posts to read! Ain't that nice??
-Don
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Post #822
7/3/01 10:31:21 PM
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Hmm... I might like that.
Regards,
-scott anderson
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