Planetsuzy Problems - Please Panic Here!

[The_CyMeriaN]

I totally agree with what's being said here.
If you're going to have power, you might as well use it for good resolutions.

But yes, it takes an incredible effort to tidy up all this mess.

It's also a very good idea to promote volunteers, while checking their ability to get involved, of course. In short, all this can't be done in a few weeks, but rather over several months.

Originally Posted by BooBootheBear

Well aware of that, and from your keyboard to God's eyes. That's also why I suggested that if keeping all those dead posts (and really they are only of use to people like me who like to trace the origins of scenes, so how many of us would actually miss having day to day access?) moving the dead posts to a separate read only forum might solve many load problems the active forum is suffering through. All those 502 and 504 errors are basically a failure of connection in the coding. Lighten the load and they might resolve themselves.
Also, migrating the dead posts sections gives you the opportunity for a dry run that, if it doesn't work, worse case scenario, you lose all the dead threads and the forum is that much lighter anyway.

...

The only other option would be to close it all scrap it all and start again clean.

[BooBootheBear]

A lot of it is, imo, a matter of thinking things through step by step, and to make some practical changes.

Firstly I don't understand the packrat mentality of saving every single dead post in endless threads of internet landfill.
Why?
I get it for individual performer threads and the desire to preserve the history of scenes, original names, original release dates etc etc etc, but let's get real here.

There are endless comments in discussion threads that are removed and stored. What for? If this stuff is older than 3 month then it will in all likelihood never be considered or referred to again.
So Ditch It!

The explicit materials section is an endless array of multiple threads where post for cash members stack duplicate posts high in an endless succession of reposts of exactly the same scenes so they can hear the kaching of the e-piggybanks filling up. It's so bad mods have simply given up cleaning the trash but if they did it would all go into those endless landfill threads no one even looks at. Why?
It's pointless shite.
So Ditch It!

There are entire sections of this place that look like the home of a lifetime recluse and hoarder. It's high time we woke up asked how the hell we got here and did something about it.

Most moderators seem to have their very own personal repositories of crap they've removed. I'd be willing to bet absolutely no one has clapped eyes on any of that stuff since it was all moved. What purpose is it serving except to clog up the servers, add to the server load & increase massively the energy consumption and overall cost of the forum?
Start by deleting all of that.
Don't look at it. Don't read it. Just "select all" and "delete".
Job jobbed.

Appoint one super moderator to each section to head up a cleaning crew for that section. Give that super moderator at least two moderators to help oversee a new sublayer of temp cleaning crew moderators whose only job will be janitorial. To remove dead posts to a new set of threads for these supervising mods to review and either restore, archive or permanently clear.

That sub layer of janitorial moderators will be selected from volunteers you ask for by placing a help wanted banner at the headof the main page and all the sections. I know that's possible. I've seen it done for announcements.
The forum has stats and wotnot on each member. How often they log in. how much time they spend here. Whether or not they are a pain in the backside shite stirrer -ahem - or not. So on so forth. So you can be selective in how you recruit.

Those recruits will be for a limited time. Say a month at a time rolling. The arrangement can be terminated by either side at any time for whatever reason. These recruits would ONLY have power in their assigned sections and they will ONLY have the power to select posts and move them from point A to Point B. They couldn't penalise members enforce rules or permanently delete anything. They are there to shovel shit. Ask them to give up a minimum of 2 hours a week for this. For that they get a shiny new badge and a shiny new title like Junior J-Man Moderator or something equally inane they can polish and be proud of. maybe give them access to a members only section or give them a free trial on the host of their choice. Something to give em a treat by way of thanks.

Now here is where a mod normally chimes in "but we can't give people those limited powers blahblahblah..."
So change it. Have the techies who normally handle issues here add these parameter to the list of those governing moderators and administrators. It's a bloody web forum for Christ's sake! No one is asking anyone to reprogramme nuclear access codes! It cannot be beyond the wit of man and cybermonkey to do this!

Beyond the fact that navigating this forum often feels like wading through corpses in a mass grave, the one thing that really does hack me off is the moment anyone suggests a practical solution to anything there's any number of people in authority lining up to tell us why it can't happen even though it's abundantly clear what they really should be saying is "no one wants to do that" even though we're facing the inescaable fact that no one can kick the can down the road any longer because the road is clogged with the rubble of the forum.

Not over night but over a period of weeks and months you'd see a real change in the look and feel of the forum and probably a big improvement in its operation.