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Administration    by:  A. M.
11/8/99    11:42 AM

Okay, I need to make some policy decisions about the direction of this group, and I'd like input from the members.

The thing is that we have 90 postings some of which have a lot of responses attached. That's sort of intimidating to a newcomer. I'm considering establishing an experation date, a point at which if there's no activity around a given posting I'll delete it.

I'm thinking either 3 or 6 months for most things. (I'd like to hear from people who visit 6degrees rarely on this one especially since responses are only available when you actually visit the group.)

Introductions are iffy. I'm not sure that those should be deleted at all. I also don't plan to delete my little explanatory postings at the start of some of the catagories. (I'm not sure they've done much good, but I did put them there for a reason.)

Discussions about upcoming conventions will be deleted 1 month after the convention has taken place. Please put dates in the initial posting so that I'll know. I may also put a shorter lifespan on looking for games/players postings, but, again, that depends on what I hear back from you folks.

I'm also wondering if there are any discussions that we should keep around even if nobody's said anything for a while. The one about rape in rpgs, for example, drew a lot of responses and seemed to be an important topic.

I'll make the final decision, but I'd like to hear from people if there are any old discussions that they do not want deleted. Bear in mind that it's always possible to post something to start the discussion again and that that might actually let some new people have a say.

I don't want to do any of this completely by fiat, but this is not a democracy. I will listen to your opinions, though, and I'll let you know what decisions I make.
 

Untitled    by: G. R. in response to Administration
11/8/99    12:06 PM

Hi A!!
Even when I rarely visit 6D, I do it at least monthly, so a delay of 3 months will be enough to read all postings. If the discussion matter interest me, I enter during the week the original posting was sent, and rarely check it after that, so if there was most responses after that, I never know. As I don't live in the US, only a few of the postings are interesting to me, because I can't help people searching for groups, and can't go to conventions that take place there. About introductions... is your choice (as in the other matters ;-D ) Personally, I believe that people is known in the group because the postings and the responses, not if they sent an introduction and never give signal of life again. If I were you, I'd try to keep the erased postings somewhere else before erasing them, so if anybody need some information can ask for it personally and you would be able to give it, and also may help you to keep a record of all the postings. It's just an idea, I don't know if you can do something like this.
Kisses from the far south

  G. R.
  Buenos Aires, Argentina

Untitled    by: C. B. in response to Administration
11/8/99    2:10 PM

i wonder if perhaps some of the topics could be moved to a free homepage, i expect they could be copy pasted and assembled fairly simply so that topics could be archived seperatly so they are available if someone goes to look for them.

i for one came to the group only a couple months ago and really liked being able to delve into several discussions from the past and parse the wisdom of others for use in my RP.

  c.

Archiving    by: A. M. in response to Untitled by C. B.
11/9/99    2:31 PM

It's good to hear an opinion from a newcomer. Welcome.

I find the idea of archiving old discussions interesting, but I'm not sure that I have the time to devote to doing it. I've never even made a webpage, so it's a bigger challenge than it might be. I suspect that it would also be a lot of work. If someone wants to volunteer to do something of the sort, I'd support it and put in a link to the site, but I'm not prepared to do it. Sorry.


Untitled    by: S. K. in response to Administration
11/8/99    4:01 PM

I think it's a great idea to put a time limit to how long threads are kept - if fact, I'm surprised that you haven't already.
Another thing that I've noticed is that there are a lot of people who have an automatic response system so that whenever they receive an e-mail while they are out of town, a note is send to the original sender, so that they don't expect an immediate reply. This makes sense, but it does tend to clutter up group boards. I haven't seen many of that sort in your group, but I've seen a lot of it in others. As for the time limit thing, I think once a thread lasts 2 months w/o anyone posting a new response, that it should be deleted, and maybe a shorter interval. Good luck.
  S.

Automatic Responses    by: A. M. in response to Untitled by S. K.
11/9/99    2:21 PM

The reason there aren't many automatic responses here is that I delete them as soon as I notice them or someone brings them to my attention.

Unfortunately, when I'm on vacation, my automatic responses end up here because this is the one group that I can't go to no e-mail with. I need the auto response for work, so...

Untitled    by: K. G. in response to Administration
11/8/99    5:23 PM

A.,

I've got no problem with deleting old messages :-) I visit so rarely, if I miss 'em then I miss 'em! :-) (Besides, I get all the new posts by mail, so if I'm interested in responses, I go visit then.)

  As one BBAdmin to another, 3 months sounds reasonable to me, and I'm with you on leaving the Intros available.

Thanks for a great Six Degrees forum!

Untitled    by: C. G. in response to Administration
11/18/99    6:43 PM

I think your basic ideas are good, and I would stick to them, but don't you think six months is a little long to keep some postings around?

Feedback    by: A. M. in response to Administration
11/9/99    3:02 PM

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm going to leave things open for a few more days before I start deleting anything.

If, during that time, anybody offers to do archiving, I may delay on deleting stuff. We'll see what happens.
 

Archiving    by: J. R. in response to Feedback
11/10/99    2:01 AM

I'm no net-guru, but I can do basic web pages. (VERY basic.) I have space on my account, I wouldn't mind doing the archiving. Let me know.
  J.

Archive help    by: C. B. in response to Archiving
11/11/99    4:53 PM

i don;t have a huge amount of time and have a trip taking me offline for dec. but i can help with some basic HTMLand even set up a frame to allow someone to do the data entry(by C&P) if it is possible.

holler with any questions.
  c.

Administration    by: M. K. in response to Administration
11/10/99    2:22 PM

I like the idea of deleting a thread when, say, a month goes by and there's no response. I'd hate to see an ongoing, active discussion get canned because it's reached a time limit.

The rest of your ideas are sound.

Thanks for your time and effort, A. We really do appreciate it!

  -M. K.

Untitled    by: C. B. in response to Adminsitration by A. M.
11/12/99    5:27 PM

while I enjoy getting email from the group, I don't actually visit the site very often, but when I do, I tend not to read through the postings because there are so many; so I think it would be a good idea to delete older ones, and if people wanna talk about it some more, they can start it over again...

  $.02,
  C.

Re: Archiving    by: J. R. in response to Adminsitration by A. M.
11/15/99    5:01 PM

So what have you decided to do?


 
Re: Archiving    by: A. M. in response to Re: Archiving by J. R.
11/16/99    6:13 PM

J., if you're willing to provide the space and time, I'm all for it. You and I may want to set up a time to discuss what should be archived, however, because I'm not convinced that everything should be and because we'll need to figure out a schedule. Send me e-mail as acm @ umich.edu because I respond to that faster. I will be on vacation all of next week (the week of Thanksgiving) and probably won't have net access.

Good idea    by: I. E. in response to Adminsitration by A. M.
11/17/99    11:01 PM

I'm glad you want to keep some of the landmarke discussions, like the one on rape. i think the sex and romance one would be a nice companion piece to that.

If it wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth you could transfer the stuff you think is worthy of keeping longer term into a special category.

Thanks for running this list for us.


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