Twice today the EAW forum has choked. I suspect that the sheer number of posts in this forum is starting to present challenges beyond the capabilities of the UBB software.

It may not be the software's problem, however. Remember the first time we had a problem with this forum about two months ago? That was due to a corrupted index. We can't find any index corrupting entries in this forum today, but deleting and regenerating the index seems to solve the stalling problem.

We hate even bringing this up, but perhaps it's time we all came to grips with the prospect that we may have to clean out some of the older posts.

I want to know what you all think of this before we do anything.

Would there be certain posts you'd want preserved? If so, we might need some cooperation getting that list together. If not, we could do a mass purge based on a particular cut-off date.

Again, let's get some feedback here before we do anything drastic. In the meantime, I'll be trying to determine if the problem does have anything to do with the number of posts or if we need to look elsewhere.

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Douglas Helmer
Forum Administrator
publisher@combatsim.com

I say if you need to delete old posts, or ones that are mistakes ie: not completed, etc., then go for it. And (this may make me cry)go ahead and delete the old Babe posts!
I am assuming since they are images they take more space and thus would get you some good results.And you have my ok to delete some of the old "This day in WWII" posts.
I doubt anyone goes back two months to check for info from them.Some Flame War topics can go too, as far as I am concerned. As long as it doesn't effect out post totals! Hee hee hee!

Thanks for the progress report. I don't know what options the forum software gives you but, is there another way around deleting stuff?.

I'm sure you have already thought about this, but is there a way to set up archives of past threads? Maybe breaking EAW forum into subforums that act as archives? For instance, Current EAW, EAW Sept 99 to Dec 99, etc?

If necessary, we can always haggle amongst ourselves....

TQM

PS - Thanks again for the EXCELLENT work you and your team do for us here

Anyway, most topics are POST-41 related.

Maybe we could have a "Community forum" and a "technical forum" ?

Using the UBB software to archive posts is a consideration. I've never bothered to use it, but I'll look into that option more thoroughly.

I've been trying to get some answers on the UBB's own forums but their Troubleshooting Forum won't accept new topics for some reason---how's that for irony!

Thanks for the suggestion.

In regards to my daily posts of:

Bill Mauldin Cartoons

Vintage Pin-Up Girls

WWII vehicle of the Day and

What Is It posts,

I only keep the images available for 10 to 12 days, then delete them from auctionwatch where I initially upload them. So feel more than free and without guilt to delete any of these posts older than 10 days ago.

As far as the "Radio Free EAW" post, however, I keep all of the songs I have offered, archived and available going back to the first day I started this thread. I don't know how many people hit on it, but any one they go back to, that song is still available.

Do what you have to do though guy, I understand and will feel no ill will toward you.

As far as any other technical threads that may be eliminated with posts being deleted before a certain date, I am certain with all the pros here and new faces always asking many of the same redundant questions (just like i did at one time), anything missing will soon be replaced and/or renewed.

For my own two cents worth though, and I don't know how any of the others feel about it, but I would like to see the "Test Post" site trimmed down some.

Does anyone really go back and look at old "test" posts?

Sincerest regards,

Mike Sherman

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"A mind is like a parachute; it only functions when it is open."
-Sir Lewis Dewar

"I may not agree with what you say but will fight to the death for your right to say it"
-Voltaire

Current Events Forum could use some cleaning up.

BTW. Does UBB use specific directories for each individual Forum? Are the quantity of messages in the EAW 'directory' causing the periodic slow load times? Forgive me for my technical ignorance. lol

$9.95 for all the funnies, historical trivia and tech support info you can handle! (Interesting the order I mentioned those, right?)

Yeah... get that going and then achieve NASDAQ listing.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

Ich vote zhat you close zhis forum down!

ehehehehehe

Sorry- juzt ein shymptom of forum deprivation!

If you trim the forum, can you also prune the Falcon and Wanker, er I mean Flanker forums as well?

We cannot have them with more posts tha us

I'm going to try to archive it and not delete anything. We have plenty of disk space so preservation of posts (POP) will be our battlecry.

Why this particular forum craps out at all is still a mystery to me.

I created a test European Air War archive (see bottom left corner of forum summary page) but there is no way to do a mass move of topics from this forum to that archive. The only way to archive is one topic at a time and that is simply an impossible task.

I'll go see if I can find a hack that'll let me do a mass archive . . . [slips away for a moment] . . . Ah, yes! There is a bulk archive hack but it'll take me a while to go through, test, and deem safe for use.

Oh, that new European Air War Archive may have only one topic in it for a few days while I work this out. I'd turn that archive off (make it not visible), but guess what? I can't---the program has no OFF button for archives.

Douglas

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Douglas Helmer
Forum Administrator
publisher@combatsim.com

Okay, archives are definitely not the solution. I deleted the European Air War archive I created (so you can stop looking for it now) for several reasons.

• Once a topic is moved to an archive there's no way to move it back out or edit it.
  
• Archives don't display a count of topics.
• Archives are just plain ugly. They use a different message layout that is not pleasing to the eye.
  
• The only way to turn off an archive is to delete it and all the posts it contains.
  
• Archives are only displayed in a drop down box at the bottom of the forum summary page. Also, this drop down box is outside the main table and not in the main list of forums. Most people wouldn't even know an archive was there with this approach.
  

Here's what I'm probably going to do: I'm going to create a new forum category called . . .wait for it . . . Archives. Then I'll create a regular forum like this one called "EAW Archive". Then I'll move about half the topics here into that new topic. Now here's the trick: I'm just going to allow moderators to post replies to this archive topic but let anyone read and search it. Voila! Instant non-muck-about-able archive with all the features and benefits of a regular forum.

Between you, me, and about a dozen other web masters that use UBB, we can't see why the developers continue to include the Archive feature as it's more of a hinderance to board management than a help.

Oh! I'll shut up now.

Reminds me, a couple of weeks ago, my four-year-old son was having a 'problem' with constipation. When he would finally go, you could hear him screaming throughout the house. His little girlfriend told him to drink water and that would help. He carried a little glass of water around with him for the next several days. When a neighbor lady asked him why he was carrying the water around, he said, "Cause it makes your KAKA come out better.". The look on her face was priceless!

Ok, that was a lame joke.

Just a question: why only "forum leaders" can delete posts? I screwed some up and it'd be helpful if we could delete our own screw ups... just a thought.

S!

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Foobar
«I've got one! I've got one!» «Shut up! We all know you've got one!»

Okay, back to bidness.

Foobar,

As a registered member you can delete the entire content of your post if you so wish. I don't allow posts to be deleted by members because it sometimes creates illogical holes in a thread. People will be reading along and suddenly the thread take a weird leap. Guys are referring to issues or comments no longer visible.

If you want to delete your own comments you can do that using the icon. If you do choose to delete your comments a little system message is left behind saying you edited the post. The space the post occupied is left intact, however. This lets people know you erased your comments and so they should expect some jumps in the thread later on.

Check this thread, http://www.combatsim.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/004813.html

It should help.

TQM

That coupled with the time difference of Combatsim being located in ?BC or Alberta? (remember seeing one of those) could create those early times. And these guys are truely deticated to their work. Thanks Doug, you make Canada proud.

Yeah, I'm a bit of a night owl. Only problem is, I HAVE to get up with the robins every morning.

Yes, von_M, Duty above sleep. Perhaps we Canadians are used to it because we spend half of every year in a dark deepfreeze. Circadian rhythm? What the heck is that?