Welcome to RCF - WHF

FTM · Nov 01, 2006

Is it necessary to prune posts to keep the forum running smoothly?

Nightrider · Sep 25, 2004

No, the number of posts in a forum don't adversely affect the performance of the page load. The queries only grab the number of records they need to display the page regardless of how many are stored in the tables...

munky2

Karen · Jan 06, 2006

Ahh that's useful to know headbang

Nightrider · Sep 25, 2004

The only time you should really have to worry about pruning the records in your tables is if there is a max limit on your database size or if you want to decrease the size of the database backups. Otherwise, there really is no need to prune the messages in the forums. We have every message ever posted still available here in RCF just in case anyone wants to go back and reminisce...

headbang

FTM · Nov 01, 2006

Thank you Nightrider! I was pretty sure that is what you were going to say but thought I would ask. blob8

Nightrider · Sep 25, 2004

If the applications slowed down due to the amount of data stored in the database, very large corporations with large databases would be slowed to a crawl. The only time the data could cause a problem is if someone writes a complex database query that asks for far more information than is needed. For instance, if I wrote a query that asks for all records in the phpbb_posts_text table, it might take a very long time to retrieve and display. Most good developers write smarter queries than that...

headbang

circleofatlantis · Jun 11, 2007

Pruning I think is more a policy decision than a needed option.

I cant see any need to delete old threads on my forums, because anything is potentially useful to someone at anytime in the future.

If I deem it not to be, its likely I will delete it manually when it was entered anyway. (eg. spam Hi I'm fred from &&&&&, how are you view my homepage) ****immediately delete for inappropriate link**** Smile

However, I do know one site, where the threads get so argumentative, that the entire site is pruned on the basis that all threads are deleted 3 days after the last post. It makes historic searching pointless, and makes people give the same advice all the time, but it also has the benefit of ensuring that the really chronic arguers, cannot dredge up a posting from the past to use against someone in the current argument.

In this case, moderation wasnt working because there were not enough mods, they didnt want more, and the mods kept missing these threads. Classic example was no mod in the office from friday 5pm to monday 9am, and the thread starts at 6pm on friday and by sat morning is already degenerated into a 3 or 4 person hatefest, and by sunday all the people who tried to calm things down have been character asasinated and the original posters are now lobbing text euqivalent of nukes at each other. :You said in this thread that......,*quote*, your a hypocrit ! etc. 9am monday the thread is deleted, but it should ahve been deleted at 6.30 friday.

I mean, moderation is still needed, but the battlegrounds extended a long way and crossposting of old messages were some of the nukes used.

Was a good site, but the arguments were intense. But to scale it all down, they used forum pruning to an almost "why bother with the forum" level. But it does seem to contain things a lot better than when they didnt use it.

Depends a lot on what your forum is about. If your giving advise, then pruning isnt necessary, because good advise lasts forever. But if the forum is chat based with only a basic theme, with noting in it that really needs to be kept, then pruning is probably a good idea to keep the forum size under control.

Nightrider · Sep 25, 2004

You articulated this well circleofatlantis!!!

Applause