Expanding forum auto-cleaning

Currently, System Salamence has the responsibility of auto-deleting threads in the Trades forum that are over 2 weeks old. I'm expanding that scope. The Trades forum is not changing. Threads there are auto-deleted 2 weeks after their creation time. I emphasise this because the new expansion is calculated based on inactivity. A thread is deemed to be inactive if BOTH - Its most recent post is too old, AND - Its first post has not been edited in a long time This means that a thread can be kept "active" either by bumping it (assuming doing so is acceptable under the bump rules), OR by simply editing the first post, even if no substantial change is made to it. "Too old" is defined on a per-forum basis, so here's the numbers for that. All numbers are in weeks: It is important to note that this is not a rule-change, this is more or less how moderators have been operating when they clean the forums. This is just automating the process. As always, if a thread of yours is deleted, you can still find it in your Forum Subscriptions (assuming you're still subbed!) and can PM a staff member to have it undeleted. You will then have until the next auto-deletion scan to either post a bump or edit the first post, otherwise it will be auto-deleted again. This should help keep the forums clean! I will not be putting the change into effect just yet. This is to allow time for users to provide feedback before action is taken. I aim to have it online by the end of the week.

this is definitely a good thing to update, allowing the forums to be automatically cleaned is important, but it can be annoying for your forums to be deleted all of a sudden.

This really helps. Thanks for explaining this! @u@

Re: Journals I reference mine at a minimum a few times a week. Sometimes more than once in a day, depending. I do this because I have reference charts in there that are not anywhere else on site, and/or are personal to My inventory, collections, etc; Have positive posts/messages from others that help my mood, as well as stats tracking, trade thread making templates, etc. My last 'new' post was over 6 months ago. I now consider myself 'lucky' that my first post is one I update monthly (with my stats rankings), but if that was anywhere BUT my 1st post, I would be regularly caught up in this purge. I guesss I am saying that while many of my posts there are journal like, I use mine more as a Guide thread would be used/updated (not on the purge list). I wonder how many others, who have their journals as more of a reference thread, or only use it when they are struggling etc. will get it deleted every few months, even though they 'use' it Much more frequently than that?

Just to clarify, Trebor, this isn't changing anything in the process -- this is just making Sally do it as opposed to, say, me doing it. As a result, my time moderating PFQ can better be spent helping people rather than just taking care of the menial cleanups. That a person bumps or edits their Journal is already an expectation -- it shows us it's in active use.

To add on to what Cele said, forum recovery process is as usual. So, while it can be annoying to have things deleted automatically, you can always message one of us for it to be restored. Journals are no exception to that! c:

i was just curious about journals that contain free to use template codes/art? what if the user is not active anymore, is there like an exception to the auto clean? i feel like trebor stated this already above but for some reason i feel like my brain is dead so i can’t understand the posts above aa sorry ;;

Methinks I'm gonna have to go through my subs and make sure I'm maintaining things or posting in this I use more often ^^; Recently I've been updating posts in the middle of my journal, not making too many new ones, and the first one hardly ever gets updated....but I'm subbed, so worst case I can request un-deletion. Mods, I hope this makes things easier for you guys so you can spend more time on reports & other duties, and less time on clean-up =) aerii makes a good point, there's a journal I follow with templates that the user isn't active anymore...and I'd hate to lose them, but I also know the rule is only the owner of the thread can request undeletion

I'm with you on this one. Mine only has a first post and it’s been months since I had anything meaningful to add. I keep it updated every so often with trivialities, formatting, and links to site rules about forums!

To reiterate, these auto-deletion rules are the same rules that our moderators have been using to quickly determine if a thread is "active" or not. If your thread doesn't meet these requirements for "activity", then either the mods had to manually check if it was indeed active, or they simply missed your thread when cleaning manually. Neither of these should really be relied on!