Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

arooaroo · 2005-02-08 20:01:06

Hi,

If you click 'view unanswered posts' then you get around 26 pages of posts. With the exception of the obvious annoucement-type boards, those unanswered posts don't really serve any purpose. They are simply taking up space on the server, but more importantly they add potential noise to search results - which means it can be more difficult to find relevants posts to solve old problems, etc.

So, does anyone else think that a cull of unanswered posts which are say, older than 90 days?

cactus · 2005-02-08 22:25:03

I use the "view new posts" link instead. then, after I sift through those, I go back to the main page, and click "mark all posts read".
rinse..repeat

phrakture · 2005-02-08 22:42:31

cactus wrote:

I use the "view new posts" link instead. then, after I sift through those, I go back to the main page, and click "mark all posts read".
rinse..repeat

same here

arooaroo · 2005-02-09 11:50:11

But that's not my point. What I was trying to propose was some sort of "garbage collection" within the forums.

For example, a random pick gives a post from Nov 2003:

Hello Everyone ..
We've set up a server .. it's pretty basic right now .. we have ssh and apache running basicly .. and they're fine .. but when we connect to the box it keeps dropping the connection. If we surf to the page it comes up one min then the next it doesn't then the next it's up again??
Any ideas??

... but obviously, there is no answer. So what is the point of archiving this post? It's old - so that problem is likely not to exist any more. But's let us say that someone has a problem with a dropped connection and searches for "connection dropping", this post would probably be returned but to what use for the searcher? It's just cluttering up the boards, no?

So I reckon that it should be possible to run a sql query on the DB that removes unanswered posts that are 'old', by whatever definition you'd like to give, say 6 months. It could help reduce the amount of storage being used, and it could ease the servers' workload a tad by not having to process such posts during searches.

Maybe I'm obsessive compulsive about keeping things tidy - but that's my only conern: making it easier for users to find relevant information within the forums.

cactus · 2005-02-09 12:16:06

maybe posts that are older than 6 mo, with no replies, and are not labeled as sticky or announcement.

arooaroo · 2005-02-09 13:16:42

Seems fair to me.

The New and Requested packages may also need special consideration too, since may posts are often annouments of new pacakges in TURs, etc, and thus don't often warrant a reply.

Dusty · 2005-02-09 16:17:44

I think its a good idea, lets see what rasat says first though. He always has the neatest insights....

skoal · 2005-02-11 07:08:18

Personally, I don't think it's necessary. Most of the major forums I hit have a feature to hanldle this.

Basically, posts before a certain date are just hidden, not deleted. You have to explicitly extend your search parameters with a date form. If phpBB supports it, I think that would be a lot easier for the Moderators than going back and deleting countless posts.

Just set a timestamp of about 2 months (or whatever) for currently visible threads. You would have to select from an additional "date" (or archive) form in your search if you wanted to extend your results, or better yet, decrease them.

rasat · 2005-02-11 10:40:45

I have few times been tempted to click the unanswered purge buttom at admin panel but there are many singel posts as announcement, system info, and other useful configure information. The purge has to be done manually. Once I am back in Singapore (18th) I will take a closer look at this issue.

arooaroo · 2005-02-11 12:15:34

Ah I see. So I guess you are slightly limited to the functionality of phpbb. I've never maintained phpbb, so I have no idea what it is capible of from an admin perspective.

However, surely it uses a db backend, such as mysql, and so it would be very simple to bypass the phpbb interface and just interact with the DB itself. The SQL queries wouldn't be too difficult. Alternatively, it would be feasible to extend the phpbb to allow more fine-grained purges.

Dusty · 2005-02-11 15:46:28

Rasat is a forum admin, I don't think he has direct access to the MySQL db... that's not to say that he couldn't obtain it, of course.

Dusty

rasat · 2005-02-21 04:12:27

Through a hard lesson I learned that phpBB doesen't have the option to purge unanswered posts.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=10153

sarah31 · 2005-02-21 04:22:45

well they managed to purge alot of my posts on the Libranet forum.

arooaroo · 2005-02-21 09:49:52

Maybe this functionality comes via a mod of somekind. There seem to be thousands of them.

rasat · 2005-02-21 12:41:52

I have searched in Internet for a module but so far didn't find. Maybe we could develop our own?

arooaroo · 2005-02-21 13:02:58

I'll look into it.

arooaroo · 2005-02-21 20:01:23

Ok, just spent the afternoon installing apache, php, mysql and phpbb, and then trying to learn how to mod phpbb.

I'm hoping to create a mod which will give a new page in the admin panel that'll give more fine grained control of the pruning process. Admittedly, it may take me a little while, as getting info about to mod phpbb has been surprisingly hard. Plus, it's been a long time since I did any php programming.

Hopefully I'll get something going soon. I'll be able to test on my own system of course.

Do you think this would be useful, Rasat?

rasat · 2005-02-22 04:58:45

arooaroo wrote:

Do you think this would be useful, Rasat?

Yes, I do. When number of posts increases (currently we have about 150 posts per day and increasing every month) some posts with difficult question or "too newbie" for some users liking will be easily unanswered. I would like our active forum users to find these posts.

Currently "view unanswered posts" cannot be used when showing 26 pages of posts. To clean manually, what I am trying to do, is too much work. After six months there will be again pages of posts.

The module needs three options: select forum, remove post with 0 reply, and specify number of days. Same as the pruning function but for unanswered posts:
http://www.doreo.com/tutorials/phpbb/pruning-forums.php

Cactus also have an interest in developing this module and familar with php/mysql. I suugest we discuss this developmet on user-contribution.org. I will setup a forum for this project.
http://user-contributions.org/forums/userproject/

EDIT:
PhpBB modules for Arch Forum
To improve phpBB forum management, post your ideas here.
http://user-contributions.org/forums/us … m.php?f=18

i3839 · 2005-02-22 17:21:45

rasat wrote:

Currently "view unanswered posts" cannot be used when showing 26 pages of posts. To clean manually, what I am trying to do, is too much work. After six months there will be again pages of posts.

I don't understand why "view unanswered posts" cannot be used. It returns all unanswered posts, ordened by date. No pruning is needed because it's very easy to ignore too old posts. There may be other reasons to want to prune unanswered posts, but this doesn't seem to be one of them.

rasat · 2005-02-22 17:52:23

i3839 wrote:

I don't understand why "view unanswered posts" cannot be used.

In "view unanswered posts" all posts are important, not just the current. Currently who wants to browse 26 pages of posts (1,300). Myself two years ago took a look at the posts and that was enough though only few pages.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/search.php?sea … unanswered (23 pages.. cleaning is going on).

Another thing, many of the posts don't need a reply but has an important message e.g. in forum: "New and Requested Packages" and "User Contributions". We are thinking about adding a forum selection box for those interested to search unanswered posts in a particular forum.
The point is, number of posts are increasing daily and its easier to browse when using the options:

- View posts since last visit
- View your posts
- View unanswered posts

We can also add more options.

sarah31 · 2005-02-23 02:49:52

In your flurry of activity in trying to mod the forum could you please consider some of the other requested mod that DO exist ... such as quick reply. Just look through this forum and you will see a few of the requests have ben made a couple of times.

rasat · 2005-02-23 06:01:05

sarah31 wrote:

... such as quick reply.

I will check at it.
http://user-contributions.org/forums/us … c.php?t=87

sarah31 · 2005-02-23 06:06:43

Markku,

I there is an existing mod for quick reply and I think quick search. They and other can be found through the phpBB site.

rasat · 2005-02-23 07:09:40

I am aware and not planning to develop from scratch. I am starting with this:
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/viewhack.php?id=540

rasat · 2005-02-23 10:51:25

You can test here using quick reply (no need to register, give any user name):
http://user-contributions.org/forums/us … c.php?t=87

Arch Linux

#1 2005-02-08 20:01:06

Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#2 2005-02-08 22:25:03

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#3 2005-02-08 22:42:31

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#4 2005-02-09 11:50:11

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#5 2005-02-09 12:16:06

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#6 2005-02-09 13:16:42

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#7 2005-02-09 16:17:44

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

#8 2005-02-11 07:08:18

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#9 2005-02-11 10:40:45

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#10 2005-02-11 12:15:34

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#11 2005-02-11 15:46:28

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#12 2005-02-21 04:12:27

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#13 2005-02-21 04:22:45

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#14 2005-02-21 09:49:52

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#15 2005-02-21 12:41:52

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#16 2005-02-21 13:02:58

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#17 2005-02-21 20:01:23

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#18 2005-02-22 04:58:45

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#19 2005-02-22 17:21:45

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#20 2005-02-22 17:52:23

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#21 2005-02-23 02:49:52

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#22 2005-02-23 06:01:05

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#23 2005-02-23 06:06:43

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#24 2005-02-23 07:09:40

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#25 2005-02-23 10:51:25

Re: Purge unanswered posts / quick reply

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