SoCal long thread closure

[jschen]

The previous SoCal long thread has been removed. There is a place for long threads in this forum. But sometimes, they become unmanagable moderation nightmares, and at that point, they get removed. The SoCal long thread has teetered on that line for a long time now. Foo took several tries at a long thread before the current incarnation, which continues over a year later with minimal or no issues.

There is no one thing that resulted in the consensus by the moderators that the time had come to rein in the thread. Likewise, there is no one person who caused this decision. I will only say that I clearly at times participated in pushing that thread's interpretation of what is acceptable on the forum. Nonetheless, it's time to move on. SoCal can have another long thread if we want. When someone feels like starting it, I'm sure there will be no shortage of participants (myself included).


Jason
Forum Moderator

[cjbruin]

Thanks goodness. I hated the title of that thread.

[Indolent58]

Grump.

[Cyclon]

So not only did the thread get locked, it got deleted too? So sad.

I'm mourning now.

[Tiffanie]

:eek: :mad: :cry: :mad: :eek:

Double-grump. That really sucks. :mad: That thread was going for over a year! :(

[roadfix]

We're gonna hear from Cali.......and from the Lighthouse Century riders.....:p

[Chucklehead]

i'm suing.

[Cyclon]

i'm suing.

That's the American way!

[Crash716]

i quite.....selling the bike tomorrow...


seriously...i won't even be able to find my way in the morning..






i feel lost.

[dddave]

it was deleted because it was long? stupid.

[jschen]

It was not deleted because it was long. There are longer threads on the forum, such as the corresponding thread in Foo. It was deleted because it was a thread that was starting to require an excessive amount of moderation to keep reasonably clean.

[Crash716]

It was not deleted because it was long. There are longer threads on the forum, such as the corresponding thread in Foo. It was deleted because it was a thread that was starting to require an excessive amount of moderation to keep reasonably clean.

it's my fault isn't it...

[dddave]

but that could happen with any thread.

[donnamb]

That's true, it could. We know how much long threads mean to the regulars of certain forums and that's why we do everything we can to keep them going. We always spend more time than is typical on moderating them. We don't mind doing it because we know they are so popular. (We like them, too. :)) That didn't work out for this one, unfortunately.

[DaveSANYYZ]

I think all our employers finally called... :p

[donnamb]

No, just yours. :p ;)

[StrangeWill]

:eek: :mad: :cry: :mad: :eek:

Double-grump. That really sucks. :mad: That thread was going for over a year! :(

Wow

If it's a final decision, could it at least be locked instead of removed? There is a lot of information/links in that thread that I've referenced back to on more than one occasion.

:mad:

vBulletin allows undelete, but that may be admins only. They could undelete it and lock it.

[DaveSANYYZ]

I do have a feeling that the system maintains backups; so restoring it will just be a matter of minutes/hours. If the mods have been getting many recent complaints for most of that thread though, then it's probably much easier to just delete it then to go through the whole thread and clean it up. That's my guess, because I've seen much more locked threads than deleted ones so I think something triggered the mods to just delete it than to lock it.

Pure speculation since the long thread is gone and I have nothing else to do. :p

[cuda2k]

I do have a feeling that the system maintains backups; so restoring it will just be a matter of minutes/hours. If the mods have been getting many recent complaints for most of that thread though, then it's probably much easier to just delete it then to go through the whole thread and clean it up. That's my guess, because I've seen much more locked threads than deleted ones so I think something triggered the mods to just delete it than to lock it.

Pure speculation since the long thread is gone and I have nothing else to do. :p

The forum is backed up, however getting a single thread out of that back up and restore it without losing any threads since the restore point is much more difficult, if not impossible. I've particiapted in other ultra-long threads and know the kick to the pants it is when they are finally trashed and/or deleted. But I've now also seen the other side of the coin as a moderator and can simply say that there comes a point where a thread takes on a life of its own and sometimes it's not a very nice one. As jschen stated it was no one thread, nor person, or anything that caused the thread to be closed. But a wide range of factors that led to the decision after careful consideration. It was simply, 'time'.

[Drew12]

A LONG Thread??
never noticed it...:rolleyes:

[dauphin]

life will go on.

[Mr. Beanz]

EHH! Out with the old and in with the new!:D

[dauphin]

of course...people could daily post random thoughts on this thread and there you have another long thread....

[valleygirl]

I never read the long thread, it was was just too long. Now maybe I can keep up with a really long thread if a new one is started now.

[cjbruin]

Grump.

Yeah, sometimes. It was just such a goofy title..."So call needs a long thread What's up type thread." Lame. If it had just been, "So Cal Long Thread" it would have been better.

[Nachoman]

Shoot. If I had known it was so controversial, I would have checked it out. I tend to ignore any thread over a few pages.

[Drew12]

Shoot. If I had known it was so controversial, I would have checked it out. I tend to ignore any thread over a few pages.

I always skip to the last few posts.
I don't spend more than a few minutes catching up...

[StrangeWill]

I do have a feeling that the system maintains backups; so restoring it will just be a matter of minutes/hours. If the mods have been getting many recent complaints for most of that thread though, then it's probably much easier to just delete it then to go through the whole thread and clean it up. That's my guess, because I've seen much more locked threads than deleted ones so I think something triggered the mods to just delete it than to lock it.

Pure speculation since the long thread is gone and I have nothing else to do. :p

The forum is backed up, however getting a single thread out of that back up and restore it without losing any threads since the restore point is much more difficult, if not impossible. I've particiapted in other ultra-long threads and know the kick to the pants it is when they are finally trashed and/or deleted. But I've now also seen the other side of the coin as a moderator and can simply say that there comes a point where a thread takes on a life of its own and sometimes it's not a very nice one. As jschen stated it was no one thread, nor person, or anything that caused the thread to be closed. But a wide range of factors that led to the decision after careful consideration. It was simply, 'time'.



It's a feature with vBulletin, it doesn't require any MySQL backups (however, restoring the thread takes probably 1-2 well constructed MySQL queries on a restored database to pull the data), I believe it is enabled by default, deleted threads by moderators appear to administrators, which has the ability to undelete them.

But, it comes down to their choice, plus they'd have to go harass an administrator to do it anyway.

[Happytime]

Ooooh. My hubby is flexing his Super Mod Powers. What a turn-on!:love: