MNHQ here: removing the 90 day limit on _Chat threads

Also might help if you pinned this thread to the top of "Active", just like the sponsored threads and surveys. Might get a chance of being read then!

Just create a new Chat topic and rename the current Chat as "90 days only". Do you really want eleventy billion more threads to sift through, MNHQ? Especially when they turn into zombie threads and pop up again years later.

Becca I've started a thread about similar and MNHQ have done sweet FA, it's very frustrating. Especially if these time-warped threads are from _Chat anyway!

I seem to have noticed that over the past year MNHQ have stopped caring as much about their customers and more about the ads and that sweet £££ that they're getting. They still haven't rectified an issue that was posted about a year ago! I agree with Bobby, rather than feeling like a community member I'm starting to feel like a customer.

I'm really starting to feel like the product here and not a member of a community. It's like FB manipulating their audience/users for profit.

But I thought you were different, MN.
More fool me.

How about a compromise of making the current 30 days into 60 days as people think 30 is not long enough?

Already seen one poster say they're stepping away from future threads as they don't want to be IDed with posts being connected across threads. I will be self editing more too so people can't put things together.

That is probably not a bad thing though.

Don’t like this idea at all.

Will just mean Ill name change more often!

This is a terrible idea.

Why no consultation with your users, MNHQ?

There's a difference between cached somewhere, and potentially findable if you go hunting across other sites, and easily available on MN itself.

Yes, I post differently (sometimes) if a thread's in chat - perhaps with more RL detail - precisely because it'll vanish.

Oh well. It was good whilst it lasted.

I like to post in chat for the 90 Day reason. Please don’t change it

MNHQ - what are the implications for SN chat?

Will that too no longer disappear after 90 days?

I am not that bothered about this personally, because:

• I usually forget _Chat is only 90 days anyway
• Sometimes threads get moved to Classics or another topic
• I generally post in the assumption that somewhere on the Internet, nearly everything I post is going to be cached somewhere (which obviously is only right and proper, when every post I make is a literary gem worthy of retaining in perpetuity... or not!)

But clearly a lot of people are bothered about it. It would seem to me that creating a 90 day only topic would resolve this, but I assume this won't be acceptable to MNHQ, because it will just shift the problem of Internet search engine finding now-empty threads from _Chat to 90 days only.

Mind you, it could also be that most posters don't care about search engine results, but I suspect that won't hold any sway with those making the decisions.

(Gid, it's true that 20 years in tech has made my really cynical...)

Slight tangent (or possibly major diversion) - if anyone has read Claire Evans Broad Band - the story of the women who made the internet, there's a section which discusses the development of hypertext, and dealing with just this issue of links breaking because the content is no longer available.

Already seen one poster say they're stepping away from future threads as they don't want to be IDed with posts being connected across threads. I will be self editing more too so people can't put things together.

@MNHQ if you're going to do this can we have a 90 day then disappear forum pretty please? Sometimes it needs to be around longer than 30 days (a fair few where people need help in bad situations) but still don't want them about forever.

I prefer to join in _chat threads simply BECAUSE they disappear after 90 days. Less of a footprint to leave behind online that way. I can see even more frequent name changes happening if this goes ahead to stop posters becoming more identifiable by putting their permanent posting history together.

So what? Yes, I frequently google a question and include the word 'Mumsnet' at the end of it to find answers within MN. I find it quicker.

And I was posting on MN for a good while
before I realised that chat was only for 90 days.

No no no

There are far too many topics on mn, which is why interesting stuff ends up getting posted in chat because people can't figure out where to put it. But leave _Chat as it is because for actual chat threads (night owls, barn, sweaty thread etc) 90days auto deletion is perfect. And frankly nobody wants to read them after 90 days anyway!!!

Options:

• leave chat as it is
• create a new 90 days only area

Oh, it's making sense now, it's another way to appeal to new people and increase traffic and joining via internet searches. It's not about improving the site for those of here already.

I have never searched MN using google, I always use Advanced search in MN itself, you don't get this problem then.

I'm in support of this. Sick of using search to get a glimpse of the ideal thread, to them discover it's expired.

I do also agree however, that chat is used too easily for any old thing and that there are more suitable topics that some questions etc should be posted on.

Great idea! I'm always searching on google and mumsnet threads pop up and I can't read them. Also chat threads are usually lighthearted so not sure why they need to disappear.

I think this is a bad move, a huge quantityof info is saved as things are and a lot of people will become a lot more wary of posting if things won't disappear. I have never experienced frustration at doing a search and finding only deleted threads (been here 10 or so years). If anything I think all threads should go after a year.

I'm not bothered - 30 days will just become the new _ chat

I’m not at all keen on this idea either - if I post anything it is usually in Chat because I know it’ll disappear. I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of there being no limits on the lifespan of Chat threads and might not bother posting anything on MN any more as I find this really offputting. I’d much rather you put a similar time limit in other areas, especially AIBU, as I’d be more likely to use the site then.