www.BoundAnna.com

Hi everyone!

A forum like this is running on a database. This database contain all text in the forum and a list of all registered members. These two things are really sacred and can not be optimized.

But it also contains all the PM that exists in the mailboxes of our members as well as a list of what posts each and every member has read and not read. These two things takes considerable space in the database and causes the forum to run slower and slower. They can however be optimized with the help of you, our members. This is how you can help.

First. Please delete any PM that you no longer need. Remember also to NEVER keep personally identifiable information in PM. PM is not a safe way to correspond as anyone who manages to gain access to the database also will have access to the PM.

Second. If you are sure that you have read all posts you want to read, please click on the Mark forums read button. This will mark all the forum threads as having been read and decrease the size of the database greatly. No posts will disappear, they will just no longer be unread. You can then do this every time you feel that you have read what you want to read.

Thanks!


Note to phpbb3 and database experts, I know that I am simplifying and I know that this is not exactly how it works but the end result will be a faster and more stable database without any loss for any member.

Come on members, please help me.

since only 40 peeps have seen this thread i doubt there efforts are noticible.

as an open board about 80-90% of views are generated by non-members and these don't
have the read-topic-option nor do they generate "stress" on the DB this way.

maybe sent out a pm/email to all registered members ?

I do my part, (But I bet you can tell that much... )
besides, it makes it easer to see that is new...

Idea: Could you, with an app that runs, say once a week, that auto 'flags as read' any post unread older that 30 days???
or 14 days???

Also, could you make an unused account (180 days without login) inactive???
and send them an e-male (or e-mail) telling them, if still interested how to re-activate their account...
and any inactive account over 1.5 or 2 years is deleted...
After all, been gone for a year, they may not be coming back...
They may have signed up just to check it out, and then forgot about us...

ponylady wrote:since only 40 peeps have seen this thread i doubt there efforts are noticible.

It has had a very small but measurable effect. Thanks to all who helped so far.

ponylady wrote:maybe sent out a pm/email to all registered members ?

I do not like sending out mass correspondence. I would not like it if a site I was a member of did it to me. And sending it as PM would cause more problem than the PM would solve.

Dark_Lizerd wrote:I do my part, (But I bet you can tell that much... )

Thanks, a gold star for you.

Dark_Lizerd wrote:Idea: Could you, with an app that runs, say once a week, that auto 'flags as read' any post unread older that 30 days???
or 14 days???

As far as I know this is not supported by the forum software, at least not without modification. But it would be nice.

Dark_Lizerd wrote:Also, could you make an unused account (180 days without login) inactive???
and send them an e-male (or e-mail) telling them, if still interested how to re-activate their account...
and any inactive account over 1.5 or 2 years is deleted...

This is something that is constantly being evaluated and considered. Anyone with a post count of zero is always at risk of losing the account.

I pressed all the buttons.

Do I get a gold star ?

lj wrote:Do I get a gold star ?

I will send Bound Jenny right over, she will make you see stars for sure.

anna wrote:

lj wrote:Do I get a gold star ?

I will send Bound Jenny right over, she will make you see stars for sure.

* rubbing hands together gleefully *

Oh! Goody! Goody! Goody!

Jenny.

To really make a difference, I think that a pruning of inactive user would be much more efficient.

They will have a lot (anything since last visit) of unread posts, and they are not likely to do anything about it.

Sort the member list by "last active" and bring out the machete.
(I know, it is a harsh way to do it. But "not active for two years and no posts" is dead weight)

Sir Cumference wrote:But "not active for two years and no posts" is dead weight)

That's a good way to put it. Member for two years plus and zero posts... candidate for removal.

Sir Cumference wrote:bring out the machete.

What??? No whips??? Why you little... I oughtta...

Jenny.

bound_jenny wrote:
That's a good way to put it. Member for two years plus and zero posts... candidate for removal.


Jenny.

There is an important difference.

"Not logged in for two years" and "zero posts" should be the criteria.
"last active" sorts after log in.

It is OK to lurk IMHO

Sir Cumference wrote:"Not logged in for two years" and "zero posts" should be the criteria.

Yes, it is really quite simple to carry out and it will be done eventually.

First of all: Ack. Done. A lot less dead weight now, I guess.

I had an idea while doing so, though it may cause more problems than it solves. I'm not at all familiar with php, so this might just be nonsense... anyways, here it comes:

There are a bunch of categories I rarely to never read. I do however get hinted at unread posts there. Thus I assume that the routine checking for new posts simply compares the time-stamp of all posts to my last time reading the specific threads?
If there's a routine within the forum-software that does so, could it be "redesigned" to ONLY compare the time stamps of "bookmarked" topics/categories to the login time-stamps? With a default setting like
"nothing is bookmarked" for standard users and "bookmark all" for admin/moderators?
That would (in my imagination) lead to a set of variables for every user like e.g. "bookmarked_selfbondage_safety == 0/1;" etc. The routine designed to only "alert" if the thread/category is both bookmarked AND there's new posts inside.

As stated above, this might cause more problems than solve them. Just wanted to share the idea with people able to judge it either sensemaking or nonsense.

Edit: Removed typo

On the main forum page, you just press the "Mark forums read"-button.

Then you have magically read everything!
(I really needed that button in school)

Sir Cumference wrote:On the main forum page, you just press the "Mark forums read"-button.

Then you have magically read everything!
(I really needed that button in school)

That helps to save time marking topics read after the notification of unread posts.
My idea was to automatically avoid the notification if it's not needed.