Forum clean-up efforts - Discussion

Das_Phyllis

I wanted to see what the community thought about deleting all posts say, before 2016. I keep coming across 2014 posts in my google hits and they just make finding things a bit harder.

What: Make the Forums a more up-to-date resource via search engines.

How: Delete all posts before 2016 (that's just an example time, honestly I would prefer 2017 or even 2018 as updates have significantly changed content in the game).

Potential Exceptions: Maybe the community has some meme posts that should stick around, or like a time capsule to see where we've been. Thinking max 20 posts to keep so the purpose isn't hindered.

Thoughts on this? I feel as though sure some still relevant posts may be deleted, but the amount of outdated posts that will be out of the system forever will be a much bigger win. As long as it complies with data security and regulation laws (like maybe Zenimax can keep a hidden folder for audit purposes) then I can only see this being a help to the player-base when looking for resources here.

Aesthier

I would agree to some things posted before 2016, however, anything regarding bugs, errors fixes etc should stay to show a history.


Probably keep old quest line answers as well.

S_Ravenlock

When you Google, set a time range. "Past year" will only give you the results of the past year, or you could enter a custom range and make sure it doesn't go back further then the recent patch.
That way you can avoid old content.

Older posts can be useful still for things like getting help with solving quest puzzles for example. No need to remove them.

Das_Phyllis

Aesthier wrote: »

I would agree to some things posted before 2016, however, anything regarding bugs, errors fixes etc should stay to show a history.


Probably keep old quest line answers as well.

Yes good point, so Developer posts will all stay.

Any other thoughts on what other posts should stay? Questline makes total sense as probably little to no change has been made to those.

S_Ravenlock

All posts should stay, they all have their uses at time.
just learn to Google better.

MrSensible

S_Ravenlock wrote: »

All posts should stay, they all have their uses at time.
just learn to Google better.

Hoarder mentality. "But what if I NEED it later?" You won't. Toss em.

yiasemi

I like reading old comments at times for the "Doshia" nostalgia, and besides, I learned to read dates in primary school. I learned to read people on dates in high school, but that's a different story.

Merlin13KAGL

How about an archive option, instead? Couple that with a better search functionality (such as Sort by Date).

Nuking them entirely isn't really necessary, but keeping the more relevant stuff up front makes more sense.

Threads could also be tagged/identified by age or creation/last OP update, to weed out necros.

jokeaccount

MrSensible wrote: »

S_Ravenlock wrote: »

All posts should stay, they all have their uses at time.
just learn to Google better.

Hoarder mentality. "But what if I NEED it later?" You won't. Toss em.

Maybe, but I'd rather have people referring to old threads for answers to their questions (which have likely been asked many times) than cluttering up the forums by making new ones.

Turelus

I would be against it because whilst irrelevant information might get removed there are also old good threads showing fun we used to have or how the game was in the old days (pictures, videos etc.)

Best way I have found is just add 20XX to your search and it should bring up threads with those dates more. There is also the forums search which you can limit to what dates you want.

The_Protagonist

This forum is a time line of the evolution of ESO, it would like deleting history of the game if previous years are removed.

The best way is to make sections of current and past discussions. Be it year wise or some other way. Doing just one or few more searches would not qualify removal of the game's history.

Pheefs

but... but... but
Who will think of the Necromancers??!?

The_Protagonist wrote: »

The best way is to make sections of current and past discussions. Be it year wise or some other way.

yeah, like an "archival" designation... that could work

tunepunk

Das_Phyllis wrote: »

I keep coming across 2014 posts in my google hits and they just make finding things a bit harder.

That's probably the main reason they would not want to delete any posts, as it could probably count towards google search rank?

I think it would be part of their SEO teams interest to have people stumble across ESO with google searches, and the more content they have in the forum the more likely that is i would imagine.

It's kinda funny though. Some people complain when you start a new similar thread of things that has already been discussed, and some complain when you necro an old thread/discussion.

TequilaFire

Then we would miss the forum elites first posts when we were all noobs.

Turelus

I would be fine with a public (read only) archive section for threads not replied to in x months though. It would stop some necromancy and mean we would have less out of date hits on the forums search when looking in specific categories.

WhiteNoiseMaker

I'm against this idea. Use the filters if you don't want old posts. There's a wealth of knowledge and information here, that doesn't need to be discarded.

Guichmeister

Is this only ESO discussion? I was invited to this group with a registration number. I am trying to find out if this forum is specific to a group or for all of ESO. Thanks in advance!

DenMoria

Das_Phyllis wrote: »

I wanted to see what the community thought about deleting all posts say, before 2016. I keep coming across 2014 posts in my google hits and they just make finding things a bit harder.

What: Make the Forums a more up-to-date resource via search engines.

How: Delete all posts before 2016 (that's just an example time, honestly I would prefer 2017 or even 2018 as updates have significantly changed content in the game).

Potential Exceptions: Maybe the community has some meme posts that should stick around, or like a time capsule to see where we've been. Thinking max 20 posts to keep so the purpose isn't hindered.

Thoughts on this? I feel as though sure some still relevant posts may be deleted, but the amount of outdated posts that will be out of the system forever will be a much bigger win. As long as it complies with data security and regulation laws (like maybe Zenimax can keep a hidden folder for audit purposes) then I can only see this being a help to the player-base when looking for resources here.

You realize that that's a Google issue, not a forum issue, yes? Most of the old threads have been closed and/or archived.

You get the same result on most forums.

Ilsabet

Guichmeister wrote: »

Is this only ESO discussion? I was invited to this group with a registration number. I am trying to find out if this forum is specific to a group or for all of ESO. Thanks in advance!

This is the general ESO forum. You probably got a registration invite after purchasing the game.

As for the thread topic: Not a fan of deleting old content. Too much valuable/interesting/fun/harmless stuff would be lost.