Deleting posts from old DiS

Hi All,

I have a fairly big decision to make.

A user of the old forums, who under a username (not easily associated with their real name), is demanding all of their posts be removed but this is

a) costly to do (likely at least £300 but can easily be double that for Ruby on Rails developer time, and if any issues arise can easily cost over £1000 - given the amount of money lost in recent years and how we’re barely covering running costs, I don’t have this kind of money)

b) also a lot of work to do and ensure the entire site doesn’t break in the process.

This is not the first time a request like this has happened (and it’s not totally unjustified and I totally sympathise - however the forums weren’t built with the ability to delete all your posts) and I’m starting to think that I may have to delete the entire old forums, which would mean a big bit of our history being removed and a huge amount of traffic we rely on for advertising income would be gone. This would make it incredibly hard to keep the rest of the site online (1000s of reviews and features), with donations just about keeping these forums active.

I feel like deleting the entire forums and potentially the entire site because of a few (like 1 or 2 per year) is overkill but I just wanted to see how people felt about this in principle as perhaps I have far more attachment to the site due to spending my entire adult life doing it and deleting it all feeling pretty unbearable.

I haven’t had much time to look into or think about alternatives (been working 9 day weeks a lot recently and doing far too many 12 hour days so totally exhausted) but should the old forums stay or burn them down?

1 Like

Burn them down

31 Likes

Don’t think there is anything to be gained by keeping them tbh. Even moreso if there is a financial burden.

Give people enough notice so that they can archive stuff they want to keep if they want and then get rid IMO.

5 Likes

if they weren’t bringing in revenue, then I’d say destroy them.

3 Likes

do they bring in more money in ad revenue than they cost in server fees? a good chunk of old threads are unreadable these days anyway

  • take off and nuke the site from orbit, its the only way to be sure
  • tory option

0 voters

Yeah I have plenty of attachment to them due to the time in my life and all the enjoyment I got from them, but not worth it for all the other issues them seem to bring with them.

The financial side is tricker but I guess you know what the most sustainable or practical choice is in that way.

Do what’s best for yourself Sean

66 Likes

If they go though I feel we should ahve some sort of goodbye party or celebration, full on reminiscing and sharing of favourite stories and threads (with suitable caveats and redactions for any crappy behaviour or language involved)

2 Likes

wouldn’t work, there’s too many bastards that posted back then, would inevitably dredge up some bad feelings.

7 Likes

If it’s still bringing in money and you still feel that keeping it is better for you then screw 'em frankly. If it’s under an alias and can’t be connected to them and ruin their career prospects or whatever then they’ll just have to own the shit they said imo.

1 Like

yeah do this.

Can’t even read any of the old threads now, so buggered is the old site.

Not even of limited historical interest.

Throw out the memory box.

2 Likes

Yeah was thinking my qualfier at the end covered that but you’re probably right.

Could just share the stories without including the thread links then, to try to avoid that issue.

1 Like

I’ll archive sticky man how the year works, don’t worry

Don’t mean this in a harsh way, obviously. I’ve got so much out of your site, and met loads of wonderful people as a result.

But time to get this albatross off your neck.

Take care man. x

4 Likes

Are they somebody we might want to one day cancel?

1 Like

Balonz having a run at South West Surrey next election I see.

8 Likes

This one seems completely fine to keep, discuss, and remind each other of at any opportunity

1 Like

weird looking at the old forums and realising it wasn’t actually that long ago

Is it not possible just to ban their account any more?

That always used to remove all the posts anyway (and is why so many threads are now broken and unreadable?)

1 Like
  • You don’t have to pay for someone to delete their posts. If they want to pay £300 for the privilege, fine.

  • I never consult the old forums. They were a mess and impossible to search.

  • If fish puns are still bringing in more revenue than they cost, keep them up. If it’s costing you money, for the love of God, nuke them.

7 Likes