Reading Old Threads

[Wood~Ant]

Old threads are often very interesting to read, but over a long period of time they get buried. So the burning question is, how many of us take the time to find and read any of the old threads?
By old threads I mean those which may have been posted back in 2006, 2007 and 2008; not just those which have been made within the last 6 months.
As a forum becomes more mature it gains a lot of good posts and threads from its members. So it is with this one, we do have some really good ones made from the early days which are well worth reading

I have found boards with 7 to 10 pages of threads, but do any of us ever go back past page 2 or 3? I'll bet most of us never go back beyond page 1 if we're honest about it; but this does not mean that all the old stuff should be deleted, as I know that most of the really old threads are still full of good stuff to read.

So why not take the time to check out some of the older threads, and please vote on this poll to give us an indication of just what threads members do read

Thanks everyone

[Kyle]

I have on more than once gone back to look for some info on the older ones, but thats only if I'm trying to find something instead of making a new thread but I would not say I read them fully more like just scan through them.

[formica]

If you want to read old journals its ok but old stuff from a while people rarely reply.

[spike]

I like to read old threads they remind me of some of the old times. I espeically like to read my own writings because I would forget that I ever wrote on a certain topic and when I go back and read it again it's almost like reading a new book... or an old one you read years ago.

[Wood~Ant]

It occurred to me that even with archives many of our older threads get buried after time. If we think about it, we answer new topics and leave the old ones to gather dust so to speak. So if anyone has an idea to make the old topics get viewed more, please share it or contact Jenant directly via a PM or email.

[TenebrousNova]

I go through old threads when I need plenty of information on certain species. When I was getting my Camponotus herculeanus and Pheidole pallidula, I found a wealth of information here.

[batspiderfish]

The ProBoards search engine is a little obtuse, unfortunately.

One of the ways to cut back on repeated questions is to present complete and informative articles for both general care and care of certain species. The ant knowledge library and the species profiles are good approaches to this, but they might be lacking in perspective and volume.

Regarding the ant knowledge library: it should not become an open board.
However, I don't believe the content of this section should be created by members with exclusive access; I elect that the library should be comprised of comprehensive and informative articles, written by any of the forum's membership, but only moved within this board at the discretion of a moderator. Additionally, any member should be able to reply to and discuss articles which are placed here, to ensure that this information is built upon, kept valid, and is up-to-date. Articles with which the creator is unable to update or has no interest in updating should be locked, and will sink to the bottom (or perhaps should be moved from this board,) while updated and discussed articles will float around at the top (with maybe the best and broadest articles being stickied.) Old articles can at least be referenced and built upon by new articles.

I believe similarly in the ant species profile section, but since there are just so many things to write about, here, perhaps it should become an open board. Templates and thorough instruction/standards should be offered to those who wish to create a new species profile. I think these profiles should also be expanded to contain any unique or specific care information which might exist for a given species (which should really help us cut down on care-related question threads.) These profiles will still put as much or more emphasis on wild ants as with captive ants, since what they do in the wild ultimately effects how we find or take care of them.

Lastly, I've noticed that there are many board groups and that they are difficult to distinguish from each other at first glance. If more emphasis could somehow be placed on the reference chamber, then we should get fewer repeating posts. If nothing else, perhaps we could clump more of these related boards together.

[Jenny]

The ant species profiles can be made by any member, and we will always get some questions repeated; but hopefully with different answers. It isn't easy to place some boards under a specific category, so that is why we have sub-boards.
We can consider opening certain boards, but I will think about this as they need to give fairly accurate information.

[batspiderfish]

Well, as it stands, the species profile threads are each the work of one and only one person, while I think that the best kind of information comes from collaboration. Why isn't anybody allowed to reply to these threads? There's a lot of missing information, and I do see some errors in the current profiles.

[Wood~Ant]

Jan 21, 2012 22:28:57 GMT batspiderfish said:

Well, as it stands, the species profile threads are each the work of one and only one person, while I think that the best kind of information comes from collaboration. Why isn't anybody allowed to reply to these threads? There's a lot of missing information, and I do see some errors in the current profiles.

Problem solved, as now the species profiles are open to all. You may also make new topics on the board.
Regarding the use of templates, we don't use them as they do not allow for personal creativity, and from what I've seen can be full of coding mistakes which simply should not be evident if done correctly.

[Antkeeper]

I flick back to the old threads very often...!