Archiving Unanswered Older Topics

KristenGastaldo
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hey Community,

I’d like your feedback on something. The community has been busy the last couple years. We currently have over 20k topics on the site.

And while we work to make sure everyone gets an answer, some topics aren’t replied to. Maybe the query is really complex and requires more time than community members had. Or maybe it was a member looking for an opinion, rather than a how-to, and there wasn’t a similar situation to share. 

In any case, we have just over 1000 topics with no replies. 

We have members who answer regularly and we reach out to occasional contributors to answer specific posts, but when I ask people to help, I want to make the best use of their time.

So my thought is, if you asked a question 6 months ago and didn’t get a reply, you probably aren’t still waiting on an answer. 

How would you feel about me moving any questions that are 6+ months old into an archive? They would be closed - not appearing in the search results and not circulated among staff to find an answer. 

If you have a topic 6+ months old and you’d like a reply still, you could make a comment on your topic, so that it doesn’t fall in the “doesn’t have a reply” category, and it would stay in the main forums for response. 

Appreciate any feedback on this! I’ll make an announcements with any plans we make moving forward about this.

4 replies

S
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +28

I could make an archive that is visible to community members (but hidden from those not logged in, and Google for search) 

@KristenGastaldo 

I like this version, would be my vote.

Asela Munasinghe
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +19

@KristenGastaldo I think ‘visible to community members’ would be a better option. I time to time search for old topics and try to discuss them. I thought some of the Product Specialists from IFS are assigned to do this time to time as well? I know quite a few guys in IFS who could tackle some of the unanswered questions, probably the don’t have time to spend much on the community or have other priorities. Before archiving, would it be better to seek their comments on those 1000+ topics at least productwise? Just an idea from me. :)

Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asela61/
S
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +28

I agree with the approach that if you haven’t bumped the question within a 6 month time frame, it is safe to assume that you’ve found a work around or the question was answered elsewhere or no longer an issue.  I’m sure a percentage of these have duplicate entries when the OP wasn’t able to find their first post and created another that was commented on.

Would the archive be accessible to the community if there was a need to specifically search for one, or will it be hidden altogether?  Just a curiosity because I retain the entries to the followed forums in an email folder and peruse the questions from time to time in my email and decide whether to open them from there.  If I were to go to one that had been archived, would I still have access to it and know it is archived, or would it become a dead link to me?

KristenGastaldo
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +18

@ShawnBerk - I could do it either way. I could make an archive that is visible to community members (but hidden from those not logged in, and Google for search) so that you could bump them later if you changed your mind. Or I could make a fully restricted one where no one could see them. 

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