MNHQ here: removing the 90 day limit on _Chat threads

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

Just a quick heads up that we're going to be removing the 90-day limit on the lifespan of threads started in the _Chat topic on Monday.

There are two reasons for this - firstly, people often don't clock that _Chat threads go pouf at a certain point; once they realise, they ask us to move their thread, and that can take a fair bit of time at our end.

The other is that, Mumsnet being the amazing resource that it is, MN _Chat threads show up in people's search results for anything and everything. When they click through, though, the thread's gone pouf - that's a pretty frustrating user experience and we'd really like to fix it.

Don't worry, though, if you don't want your thread to hang around - just post it in the 30 day's only topic, which does exactly what it says on the tin: posts go pouf after 30 days, and aren't crawled by Google at any point.

While everyone's getting used to it we're very happy to move threads out of _Chat and into 30 days' if you forget - so do give us a shout via contactus@ if that happens.

Cheers all,

MNHQ

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.

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 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.

MNHQ - what are the implications for SN chat?

Will that too no longer disappear after 90 days?

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

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.

This is a terrible idea.

Why no consultation with your users, MNHQ?

Don’t like this idea at all.

Will just mean Ill name change more often!

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

Can you not just move all the Chat threads (and AIBU for that matter) to the appropriate topic? So a thread titled for instance 'Aibu to want a second referendum' would be moved straight to the Brexit board. Create one last board for the leftovers, call it say Random Drivel.

Yeah Trish, 100% true. I heard we’ll have to sprinkle slug pellets on our cornflakes in the morning.

They do appear to have 'stickied' it in Active, yawning, but not in Chat itself, which I'd suggested they did yesterday.

yawning apparently tech have more important things to be doing. I emailed about it again and got told its on their list but they've much more important things to do.

To be honest I'd have thought having years out of date trending threads on getting started would have been very important, especially given this immediate change to chat but there you go.

How odd, it was 'stickied' in Active just now, but now it's not - maybe I was imagining it

It's not stickied for me. But I've noticed things have been changing recently and what is stickied one time may not if I go back, so it may have appeared stickied pan and now gone.

Instead of having some areas which delete after a certain time, is it possible to have a checkbox on every thread that says "Delete after 30 days"? That way we can choose to have a short-lived thread in any area?

Incidentally, when a thread expires, does it actually get deleted, or is it just no longer shown? Eg could MNHQ still look at it? I've wondered this when I've had a thread with good advice and maybe a few useful links, but it's vanished before I've clicked on them... Would MNHQ (in theory at least) be able to look the thread up and get the links? (I realise you may not want to allow that, as it would be a ton of extra work; I just wonder if it's possible)

Horrible idea!

I hate how the majority of threads hang about forever. Puts me right off MN.

Could we not just have one 'Chat' but when someone posts a new thread they get to tick. 30, 90 or indefinite before posting. Could your systems cope with that?

I don't like this idea at all. I often post replies on Chat or 30 days only that I wouldn't post on other topics, because I know they'll disappear eventually.

This is one of those decisions where the interests of current users is not aligned with the forum's business model. Could we compromise and get rid of user names after 90 days?