Archive Manager - 'Manual-Archiving'

The "Archive Manager" automates the normal "Move" functions that are otherwise available through the Page Manager. The 'Manual-Archiving' allows the board administrator to log in and take action against older messages and "dead" threads, based on the posting date of each. Two manual archiving options are given, with a subtle difference between them.

Manual Archiving by Message Date

This option lets you archive messages in a given topic by date. When a page contains messages both older and newer than your threshold, the older messages are archived. You can specify an option for what happens when the conversation is inactive (i.e., when all messages in a conversation are older than the threshold).

For example, consider a thread that has messages posted to it anytime between January and March of the current year. It is now April, and you are doing spring cleaning on your board, and there are now lots of both old and new messages in threads on your board. You do not want to delete the old messages, but you do not want them to be listed in the threads, either. Manual archiving by date offers the answer, allowing you to move old messages somewhere else, while leaving newer messages in place.

Threshold (days): Enter the threshold for what constitutes an "old" message, in days. This means the number of days before today (and today means the day on which you are actually performing this operation).

It would be silly to move every single messages on a page into an archive conversation, leaving nothing but a blank "Add a Message" box and a link to the archive on the page where the messages were originally posted. When this situation would occur, which is when all messages are older than the threshold you give, Discus provides 3 options:

• Do nothing on the page: As the title implies, no archiving of any kind will take place on the page. Version 3.10 users will recognize this as the default, and only, option available in that version.

• Delete the page: As the title implies, the page containing the old messages will be deleted. There is no way to undelete the page later, so use this option with caution!

• Move the entire page to: The entire thread will be moved to a topic and page of your choosing. Enter the topic number and page number here, or click the icon to bring up a window that will allow you to locate the topic and page number from a tree view. (This requires that your browser support JavaScript and that pop-up windows are allowed.)

Topic: Select the topic, or "All Topics," in which you wish to perform the archiving operation.

When your selections are made, click "Archive Now," and wait patiently for the archiving operation to complete.

Manual Archiving by Conversation Activity

This option lets you archive inactive conversations (where all messages are older than the threshold). It does not archive the messages themselves, as the "Manual Archiving by Message Date" option does. If you are looking to move "dead" threads out of the way, but not to move messages around within existing threads, this is the option to use.

Threshold (days): Enter the threshold for what constitutes an "old" thread, in days. This means the number of days before today (and today means the day on which you are actually performing this operation). Any threads that do not have a message posted after your threshold will be deemed "old."

Then, choose what you want to do with so-called "old" threads:

• Move the entire page to: The entire thread will be moved to a topic and page of your choosing. Enter the topic number and page number here, or click the icon to bring up a window that will allow you to locate the topic and page number from a tree view. (This requires that your browser support JavaScript and that pop-up windows are allowed.)

• Delete the page: As the title implies, the old threads will be deleted. There is no way to undelete the page later, so use this option with caution!

Topic: Select the topic, or "All Topics," in which you wish to perform the archiving operation.

When your selections are made, click "Archive Now," and wait patiently for the archiving operation to complete.