(Off Topic) I have to ask...

[newfan09]

Why are so many thread titles missing and or changed?

When time allows, I read a majority of the topics even though I may not have the opportunity to post or develop thoughts on the topic at the time of reading them. Today, when I look at the posts in this section, a number of them no longer have titles and then I see a post with a large number of replies that I was surprised that I missed... only to find out I was familiar with the topic, but strangely it was renamed.

I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind this, but it just makes following up on topics difficult.

I actually feel a little bad about posting this here, but I found it problematic enough that I had to bring it up.

[Tami Seven]

Ask b4utoo. He choose to remove the titles on his threads. They are still active, though. So, if you want to post to them I don't see any reason not to.

[doh573]

The mods are also super picky about avoiding spoilers in thread titles even though this is the spoilers section which might be why some of the thread titles got removed

[Tami Seven]

A mod would never remove a thread title completely. They might remove a sensitive word or phrase, but they would always leave something.

[doh573]

A mod would never remove a thread title completely. They might remove a sensitive word or phrase, but they would always leave something.

No but considering a lot of the threads are by the same person I figured the mods might have told him a few times. If he got fed up he might have deleted all this thread names? It was the only thing I could come up with for what might have happened?

[Second Aristh]

No but considering a lot of the threads are by the same person I figured the mods might have told him a few times. If he got fed up he might have deleted all this thread names? It was the only thing I could come up with for what might have happened?

From what I understand the person posting the threads is getting rid of the thread names when the thread is beginning to stop getting new comments, sometimes replacing them with a period and sometimes with a new topic line to begin another topic.  It's frustrating to try to follow them.

[Blaze]

Sometimes we Mods redact spoilers in Subject lines, because even though it is the spoilers section, you see those titles in "Show unread posts since last visit"  and many people don't want even clues, so it is only polite. 

I think I will move this thread to Site Suggestions and Support!  It will get better attention there.

[Dina]

You may be interested in this:

I have been curious about it myself. Especially since Harry died, wait, no he didn't. Rashid was supposed to help him.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,40031.msg1968699.html#msg1968699

Apparently, b4utoo was trying to help the forum to stay tidy 

[lovejoy69]

Yes, the member had been simply trying to tidy away some of his/her own older threads for neatness and staying current. Now the member will just let older threads age off on their own, onto the second page and afterward.

It turned out to be also a good opportunity to give a little info on why spoilery stuff is best avoided in thread titles, too. That's something which many members who are relatively new to this forum can err on because their thread will be in the spoilers section.
Unless that member uses "Show unread posts since last visit," a member might well not immediately realize that ALL the titles show up in that listing, thus exposing info to people who may not wish to see any potentially spoilery info.

[Serack]

Sometimes we Mods redact spoilers in Subject lines, because even though it is the spoilers section, you see those titles in "Show unread posts since last visit"  and many people don't want even clues, so it is only polite. 

I think I will move this thread to Site Suggestions and Support!  It will get better attention there.

The move certainly got it on my radar   Thanks Blaze

Here's something I posted in response to the link Dina gave.  It probably belongs here too:

Do you what you feel.

I didn't know posts disappear on there own, so I tried to get rid of some of the posts I made that weren't active. Only after I tried to clean them up people started to say something. If I see a post with them I will bring them back. I won't be changing future posts. Since someone was kind enough to let me know that it wasn't necessary.

Hi b4utoo, leme provide some history.  (someone else might have done similar, but I haven't combed through possible responses for such info.

Way back in 2010 (heh) the forums were getting really bloated and the server running them was getting incredibly bogged down.  Iago, the site owner (he created the Jim Butcher forums before Jim was even published!!! can you believe it?!?) did several things to address this problem, one of which was to autolock pretty much every topic after at the most about 3 months, and after a full year, these topics would be autodeleted. 

I call this function the autodelete monster which nomnom's on old posts.  More recently (2012ish I believe), it was brought to the administrations attention that lots of old posts that were of considerable value to many of the posters here for discussion purposes were being eaten by the autodelete monster and lost for all eternity.  To combat this travesty, the DFRC (Dresden Files Resource Center) was created, and a few notable members were promoted to "curators" to preserve notable posts within it's archives.  The DFRC is not susceptible to the autodelete monsters appetites. 

We curators are bookish types who cherish impressive and novel theories and put a lot of effort into keeping track of these things in an effort to preserve the awesomeness that blossoms within these halls. 

Your contributions to the theorizing here are valued, and there is no need to minimalize anything you post