MNHQ here: removing the 90 day limit on _Chat threads

The problem is that there isn’t really a place for harmless fun or random discussion/information that isn’t ephemeral. Loads of useful or entertaining stuff has been lost over the years because it was started in chat and nobody bothered to request a move to a specific topic or AIBU.

So although I think the notification and warning needs to be carefully handled I’m broadly in favour of having Chat made permanent and promoting 30 Days Only more widely for self-destructing threads. Presumably if MN are proposing it then they’re happy to have the extra data cluttering up their servers, so I don’t see why anybody else would care.

Here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/thirty_days_only

Where is the 30 day only? I've never managed to find it.

What about threads that have already been started with the OP believing they’d expire after 90 days?

It’s very unfair if you don’t delete those as they were started in good faith.

Ah bollocks. We're on the sweary thread. it's just chat, foul language and personal stuff. 30 days is no way long enough, but neither do we want it around forever.

I realise you haven't actually asked our opinion. But it's a no from me.

Bizarre idea. Why not just subsume 30 days into Chat, make Chat threads auto delete after 30 days, and encourage people to use topics.

AIBU threads should auto delete too.

Another who’s not keen on this idea.

Sorry, I think this is a stupid idea.

At the risk of being the thread police imo it would be a much better idea to encourage a culture of posting in the correct topics so that chat can be used only for stuff that no one needs to preserve for ever

Completely agree

Well, as long as all threads started before the deadline still expire (because people will have posted on them in expectation that they will)

And they need to make it bloody clear during the transition (different colour, perhaps?) whether the thread is going to be ephemeral or permanent.

I think they've got this wrong though.

Ephermeral chat is a good thing. And I'd make AIBU ephemeral too. There are plenty of topics for those who are looking for worthwhile advice.

At the risk of being the thread police imo it would be a much better idea to encourage a culture of posting in the correct topics so that chat can be used only for stuff that no one needs to preserve for ever, your storage devices must be groaning under the weight of drivel and perennial threads to which no one can ever add anything new (P & C parking/how often you wash your sheets/why don't people reply to part invites to name a few).

As a user I'd log on more often if I know that topics I have choosen to hide won't then end up cluttering up my active convos because nobody cares about posting in the right place.

So the underscore moves it to the bottom!

Yes, when it was introduced there were many complaints about how frivolous and common it will be to have a chat topic so they put th underscore in to sort it to the bottom where it was less noticeable.

Ridiculous really.

Oops. The general principle is correct though - it’s to make it easy to find.

Part of the reason people choose to use Chat over both AIBU and 30 days is because they want support for longer than 30 days but they also want it to expire and not appear in their AS result

Perhaps fix the search issue rather than taking away a valuable aspect of Chat?

As a PP said, how wonderful that we'll retain all the ALDI and Netflix threads and all the ongoing select group witterings 🤔

So the underscore moves it to the bottom!

I also don't think it's a good idea.
Probably not relevant to your decision, but I often tailor a more detailed response as to whether it's in chat or not, on the basis that if its in chat it will disappear!

Actually _Chat appears at the very bottom of the A-Z topics!

Thanks, MrsMao.

I think this is a really bad idea.

@KateMumsnet

I really do think it's a good idea to 'sticky' this in Chat now - before you all go home for the weekend.

a) it's pertinent to the Chat topic and (b) some people tend to have more time over the weekends to MN, so will see this soonish.

I'm sure loads of people hardly look at Site Stuff - and some might not even know about Site Stuff!

I may be in the minority but I'm thankful for this — so often I've clicked search results only for them to be Chat threads from two years ago.

I do agree that 30 days only needs to be put in a more prominent position after this though, for people who still want disappearing threads.

Tbf most deleted threads are available somewhere on internet caches so it’s probably not a good idea to encourage people to think that things they say on Chat will disappear completely in the future.

So it appears top of the alphabetical list of topics.

Why is it _Chat and not plain Chat?