Is there really any point to keeping threads from 2005 or 2006? The person asking for advice has long ago completed his/her trip, and no longer cares. I've often started writing a response to a thread, only to glance at the date, and see it's from 4 years ago! Please delete the old threads (say, over a year old).
Old threads may still contain information which is useful and relevant to other travellers though.
The reply page to any really old thread contains a prominent warning "This thread hasn't been active for over 30 days. Are you sure you want to respond?" above the reply textarea, and any old thread lacks a quick reply box to discourage accidental replies. Are you not noticing either measure?
And I agree with bex that old threads frequently are still useful. I know that I regularly link to old threads with example itineraries I wrote many years ago.
I've noticed the '30 days' notification- sometimes after I've started typing a reply.
It's too bad there isn't a way to sort out the few useful threads from the thousands of completely obsolete ones. Maybe let travellers, when they start a thread, set an "expiry date" (usually the beginning of their trip) when they no longer need/want replies. Then the thread would automatically delete (or just block replies- that way you could still reference it).
It's too bad there isn't a way to sort out the few useful threads from the thousands of completely obsolete ones. Maybe let travellers, when they start a thread, set an "expiry date" (usually the beginning of their trip) when they no longer need/want replies. Then the thread would automatically delete (or just block replies- that way you could still reference it).
That makes sense for the traveller asking the specific question. But even after it's no longer of any use to them, it can still be of use to other people. In fact, a lot of threads are useful to other people without being any use to the person who originally asked the question. So no, I don't think it makes sense to let the original poster decide when a thread is removed. The exception might be in the Travel Companions forum.
Maybe we should just hide the reply form entirely and make it much harder to actually get to that point. Could help the problem.
Ok, so here's my solution to this. For threads over 30 days old, I've removed the prominent reply link at the top and bottom of the thread. Instead, there is a message right at the bottom saying the following:
This thread is over a month old and though we don't recommend replying any more, it is still possible if you have something particularly awesome to add. Reply
Considering how buried that reply link now is, I think it will really slow down people replying. Hopefully it doesn't cause too much confusion amongst people wondering where the Reply option disappeared to!
You'll want to remove that link again from Moved threads.
Ok, I guess that'll work. Thanks.
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