vote! Important Poll - Please Participate

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

If you view the system statistics (http://forum.avsim.net/stats/) you will see that we have over 2.2 million posts that are active in the database. Those date back to 2006, when we brought this version of forum software online. Although our systems are fast and powerful, that many messages do put a load on the system, especially when users do searches. This poll is an attempt to obtain an understanding of your view on archiving (which means that for all intents and purposes, archived messages become unavailable to you). It does not necessarily mean that we will do archiving, or that if we do that, we'll do it from a time frame voted on here... Please let us know what you think.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

If you do not think we should archive, please tell us why you think that?

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

I often search for messages and, still, sometimes find answers from 4 (2008-2009) years ago. Avsim is the biggest source of that kind of information on Google. Since FSX is still around, some of the topics remain relevant.

 

Gregg

[shivers9 1,174]

If you view the system statistics (http://forum.avsim.net/stats/) you will see that we have over 2.2 million posts that are active in the database. Those date back to 2006, when we brought this version of forum software online. Although our systems are fast and powerful, that many messages do put a load on the system, especially when users do searches. This poll is an attempt to obtain an understanding of your view on archiving (which means that for all intents and purposes, archived messages become unavailable to you). It does not necessarily mean that we will do archiving, or that if we do that, we'll do it from a time frame voted on here... Please let us know what you think.

I voted for older than 2 years. I think that would leave a bit of recent history for new guys to see and use as well as us old f--ts who have to go back and look at stuff when we buy new equipment or have to do the re-install hokey pokie!!. A few treads should be excepted such as the how to DX10 configs and that sort of thing. The other question would be for you guys....how much do you need to get the system performance up. It is probably the best source of history on the hobby around.

[simmerhead 885]

Lots of important stuff in very old treads here, especially from the days the ACES team participated in these forums.

[LHookins 3,103]

Wait a darn minute. If archiving means "deleting" then don't do it. Reverse my vote.

 

If you want to take messages offline so that they can only be searched or read, that's ok. But just deleting some of the very valuable information borders on criminal.

 

Hook

[Bob Scott 7,721]

Would it be possible to separate out the older stuff to a different (read-only) server? My biggest lament when AVSIM was hacked was the loss of our historical discussions. Plus, there are still lots of users using FS2004--with our corporate memory on that going back close to 10 years...and there are even some still on FS2002--the history is all they really have to go to now.

 

Cheers

[SpiritFlyer 987]

Would it be possible to separate out the older stuff to a different (read-only) server? My biggest lament when AVSIM was hacked was the loss of our historical discussions. Plus, there are still lots of users using FS2004--with our corporate memory on that going back close to 10 years...and there are even some still on FS2002--the history is all they really have to go to now.

 

Cheers

 

I wish I had written that, as it says exactly what I think. Thanks Bob.

 

Kind regards,

[Jim Robinson 122]

There are plenty of threads around here older than two years that contain valuable information, one that immediately comes to mind is a thread in the panel design forum on using the XML modulus operator containing a very good explanation by n4gix Bill. Granted I haven't messed around with that stuff in a while but whenever I have the need I've traditionally hunted down that thread for review.

 

Would it be possible to move the old threads into another database that would only be used when someone is searching for such a thread? The search page could have a "search archives" tick box then and the new archive database could lie there dormant until someone ticked the box and performed a search. That would lighten the load on main system 99% of the time without making those old threads completely unavailable. Just a thought.

 

Jim

[VeryBumpy 272]

As a relative new comer here, there have been dozens on threads well older than 3 years that have solved or answered my questions to knowledge I seek. Too many old threads here with valuable information do deny access to them IMO. I believe Jim is on the right path.

[Cessnaflyer 56]

Like others have posted as well, there is still a lot of valuable information for sims that are still in use that are over 3 years old. FSX even has posts that are great older than that. It would be nice if there was an option under search where you could include archived posts but that would not be default selected. That should help with the server load.

[scoob 18]

i still look for things that are 'old as dirt'.

 

folks still ask me for data that is many many many years old.

 

keep all the data accessible.

 

 

--

[LHookins 3,103]

When I started getting CTDs, I researched the Avsim posts going back several years. It would be a shame if all that was lost.

 

Some time ago I read through every post in the FSX Tips and Tricks forum. I bookmarked several to go back and study later. By the time I got back to it (a couple of weeks later) I read that the forum had been cleaned up, and posts with dead links (for example) had been deleted. My first thought was, "Please tell me they didn't delete every post with a dead link." Actually, it was worse. It looked like every thread that had a dead link anywhere had been deleted, and probably a lot more besides.

 

In one of my first posts on Avsim, I asked if the deleted threads might still be available. They were not, although I was invited to request certain ones to be restored. I did not. It made me physically ill.

 

As a result of this, I decided that the documentation I'd done on massive edits to a default FSX plane would not be published on Avsim, and furthermore it wouldn't be published anywhere.

 

This isn't about a sense of history. It's about useful information that doesn't go out of date, the original authors are no longer around, and other people have forgotten it. It's about documentation for processes that doesn't exist anywhere else.

 

So please, clean up the forums in any way you wish, but keep the old posts around so we can do research when needed.

 

Hook

 

PS. Even if it's only for a sense of history, it's still valuable. I once saw a 1939 World Book encyclopedia, still in perfect condition. I spent a few hours reading various articles in it. There was on one "The World War". Interesting stuff on airplanes and automobiles. Nothing at all about Space. I wish I had that encyclopedia today.

 

H.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

Those date back to 2006, when we brought this version of forum software online.

 

And this is around the same time as MS released FSX, So the FSX forum is a very good source of knowledge but considerable amount of threads to go through.

 

I do support archiving and have no problem with 6 months to 1 year.

[FloG 148]

I think archinving is a good idea, beacause, as others have pointed out already, some of the older threads contain valuable information on solving problems. If all of this information were removed,