So, in my recent thread about the Russo/German Alliance, I mentioned that I had already posted it before, but since there was so much fresh blood around here, I wanted to dig it up again.
Anyone else have any threads they’d like to revive?
If we don’t, do you honestly think they won’t be revived anyway?
Well Jen, you DO have a point, but it just came to my attention that sometimes a thread will have a pretty good run, then after awhile it will get buried by more fresh topics. But with new people showing up, the “old” may seem just like the “new” to them, so it can be started anew.
I meant that normally the new people post the same topic ideas and restart the thread or they find a thread that’s been dead for years and revive it because they didn’t check the last posting date, etc.
Or they are really interested in continuing the discussion…
Imagine that, someone interested in a converstion that took place years ago. Isn’t that what history is anyway? Makes me want to go dig up an old topic! :evil:
I have a love for irony so I’m going to bump this thread
uh… sorry
Thus is a large weakness of the “forum” format when it comes to sharing information.
In time, and a short time at that, knowledge is buried and forgotten. That great, informative post you wrote last year is hopelessly impossible to find by anyone that doesn’t know exactly where it is.
This also causes the cyclic nature of forums. A body of people come together to discuss a topic. Over time they cover all the points and nuances. New people are told “we talked about that topic here” or the less friendly “learn to use the search tool”. Eventually, the old guard has run out of things to talk about and leave the board because it is boring. Then in time a core of new people come together to discuss the topic. They re-hash all the old topics, more or less from scratch.
If you want information to endure, I recommend putting it in a Wiki. They are remarkably less fun than a forum, but the information is easily accessible to all. Especially if it is cross-linked well. Take a look at tvtropes.org and how that Wiki is designed. Lots of cross-linking not only limited to things directly discussed as part of the topic definition, but also to things that are similar for comparison and to things that are opposites for contrast.
