Automatic thread deletion and saving threads

[Douglas]

One of my threads got deleted a few months ago, I think just for being old, inactive, and in the OOC forum, but I just checked and there are a lot of threads with even older last post dates that are still there. What are the criteria for automatic deletion in the PbP forums? IIRC the thread that got deleted had gone 1 year without any new posts when it disappeared (and no, it wasn't just hidden, even direct links just got an error page and it disappeared from my subscriptions), but there are many threads in the same forum right now that have been inactive for longer than that.

If a thread is approaching automatic deletion (specifically a pair of 50-pagers that got restarted following the standard thread length limit practice), is there any easy way to save the entire (50 page) thread to my local computer without having to individually save each page? The best I've been able to find is changing to 40 posts per page, which merely reduces it to 38 pages. I suppose I could just make a new post in each to reset any inactivity timer, but I think that would be frowned on if not outright rule-breaking.

[Flame of Anor]

Try the AutoPager addon in Firefox.

[Rawhide]

Different forums have different expiry times. All of the forums that have expiry times have the times listed in their description.

Sometimes threads that are older than those times will continue to exist. This is because the purge script is not instant, but cleans the threads in bulk. If the server is often busy, we may set this to run less often.

There is no way to save all of the posts of a thread using the forum software.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Try using the Archive (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php) link at the lower-right of every page and navigating to the thread you want to save. It will be archived in text (no hyperlinks or images), but a fifty-page thread will be available in just 1 or 2 html pages, making it much easier to save.

Getting the "thread number" out of the actual thread and pasting that into your URL bar is probably quicker than going through the whole file list. For example, this thread is http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201486, so its archive can be found by going to http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-201486.html.

I've used this for a few old, old PbP games.

[DavidByron]

Is there any way to stop the automatic purge? I have an on-going campaign which is approaching four years old. The oldest OOC threads were deleted a while back but I wouldn't like to lose the IC threads.

I can't find where the forum folders specify what period of time threads are held for.

[Rawhide]

Is there any way to stop the automatic purge?
No.


I can't find where the forum folders specify what period of time threads are held for.

It's in the description of the particular forum.

[skywalker]

No.



It's in the description of the particular forum.

This doesn't look like taking a vacation in the Caribbean...

[DavidByron]

Your answer is not helpful.

The description is as follows:
"Play-by-post games are going on in this forum as we speak (well, read). All threads on this board are actual games, so please, only post on a thread if you are a player of that game."

If that's not what you mean by the description then could you say what you do mean? Or simply say how long threads can go before being purged if you know?


No.



It's in the description of the particular forum.

[Roland St. Jude]

Your answer is not helpful.

The description is as follows:
"Play-by-post games are going on in this forum as we speak (well, read). All threads on this board are actual games, so please, only post on a thread if you are a player of that game."

If that's not what you mean by the description then could you say what you do mean? Or simply say how long threads can go before being purged if you know?The quoted text covers the Ongoing Games (In-Character) section. Read further. The Finding Players (Recruitment) section, which includes the Out-of-Character and Dice Rolls child forums says:

Look for players for chatroom, play-by-post, or even real-life games here. Threads will expire after 3 months, so be sure to move important information to your OOC thread.

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to see what it says about the expiry of Silly Message Board Games.

Thread locked. If Rawhide has more to say, he can post through the lock.