What do you think when the last post on a subforum was years ago?

Beverly Level X³

February 10, 2014, 8:55 am

7

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What do you think when the last post on a subforum was years ago?

On some forums that I visit, I see a lot of subforums where the last post was many years ago. And, this makes the forum look very inactive. Maybe one solution for this situation would be to simply merge the inactive subforum with a busier, related forum so the older threads are not noticable. What are some other ideas to handle this situation?

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LizAnne

LizAnne

That just tells me the forum has gone inactive. And, when I see that no one is actively posting on that forum, I'm not very likely to join.

11 years ago

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Layla

Layla

If you are the forum owner or admin, you could always post content to the older threads to bump them to active status. This will cause the discussion to rise to the top of the thread list where it can be answered by others.

11 years ago

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Hunter

Hunter

Decreasing the number of subforums is the ideal solution as it groups all discussions within one or two subforums so the gap in time between last posting is less noticeable.

11 years ago

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Ethan

Ethan

Decreasing the number of subforums is the ideal solution as it groups all discussions within one or two subforums so the gap in time between last posting is less noticeable.

Sometimes, a forum will start out with only two or three subforums and over time too many subforums are added. This will not be such a bad thing if members are posting to all areas of the forum. But, if not, then it can lead to large gaps in between posts.

11 years ago

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America

America

Another idea would be to lock the very old threads and move to an discussion archive subforum. This subforum would be for discussions that have not received new content in a few months or years.

11 years ago

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Quinton

Quinton

It's just sloppy when the admin lets inactive subforums stay up. These can be merged. There should be no fear of SEO repercussions as inactive subforums are not likely to get fresh content or have content that ranks highly in Google anyway. So a good merge is in order.

11 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

I have no quarrel with an old post although in one discussion, someone mentioned the very long thread. I agree that it is not easy to navigate a very long thread but there is a way to do it because the page number is there for your choice. My take on old threads is that it is content and it has its purpose before. And unless the topic is passe, for me, an old discussion has its worth depending on the your taste.

7 years ago

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